After the data breach: Managing the crisis and mitigating the impact

Historically, the unauthorised access and theft of information was a tactic used between countries as part of espionage campaigns, during times of conflict as well as for personal and criminal purposes. The consumers of the information were relatively isolated and specific. As information became stored and digitised in larger quantities in the 1980s the ability to access mass amounts of records at one time became possible. The expertise needed to remotely access and exfiltrate the data was not readily available and the number of markets to monetise the data was limited. Over the past ten years, shadow networks have been used by criminals to collaborate on hacking techniques, exchange hacking advice anonymously and commercialise data on the black market. The intersection of these networks along with the unintentional losses of information have resulted in 5,810 data breaches made public since 2005 (comprising some 847,807,830 records) and the velocity of these events is increasing. Organisations must be prepared for a potential breach event to maintain cyber resiliency. Proper management of a breach response can reduce response costs and can serve to mitigate potential reputational losses.