Prevention is important, but when one careless click can unleash an attack, it’s impossible to stop all attacks. Detailed planning for a potential event helps you prepare and respond more quickly and effectively if your association does experience a cyberattack. It’s worth the time and effort to think through appropriate actions, necessary resources, and possible barriers you could face should hackers break through your defenses.
Designate an incident response team to develop and maintain a comprehensive response plan. In addition to IT staff, your team should include senior managers, key operational employees, and even board members. Keep a copy of your plan offline—a cyberattack could lock you out of your systems.
Establish relationships with external resources and experts. Know who you’ll call for specialized knowledge and advice if you have a problem. That could include a cyber incident response firm, data forensics experts, data privacy legal counsel, the association’s cyber insurance broker, and communications/public relations professionals.
Assess the plan periodically under various incident scenarios. Conduct cyber-attack drills for team members to practice their response steps, improve familiarity with how the response unfolds, and identify potential problems. This kind of “dry run” can reduce stress levels and improve the speed and performance of implementing your plan during an actual event.
