New Mandates from Insurers Make Incident Response a Wider Priority
Cybersecurity insurance policies can reduce the financial impact of a security incident; however, with the ever-growing threat of ransomware and other attacks, insurance companies have become less willing to foot the bill for customers that aren’t taking precautions.
This reluctance can lead to one of two outcomes for organizations: Their insurance companies are either not providing coverage if they don't have certain proactive measures in place, or their premiums are going up.
For some organizations, those consequences have drawn the attention of finance departments or other upper-level executives who had previously not had a hand in security. That means IT professionals should be prepared to defend their incident response plans should they come under the spotlight with new stakeholders.
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Evolving Solutions Require Governance and Security Documentation
The pace of change in a hybrid work environment also reinforces the need for formal security policies and procedures. For instance, even before the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated cloud adoption and remote collaboration programs, organizations consistently looked to digital innovations to provide reliable and secure connectivity.
Nearly every technology change that organizations make can affect incident response planning. CDW’s Lea notes that even if an organization is making minor changes that affect data generation or storage, it should have a clear governance framework in place. “Who's going to have the ownership of it? How is it going to be managed? All of this needs to be documented ahead of time,” she says.
Mergers and acquisitions represent another area where documented security policies and procedures become incredibly important.
“We need to test those new environments before we add them,” Lea says. A thoughtfully designed and executed incident response program helps ensure no stone is left unturned.
