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The risk of a data breach is an ever-present challenge for businesses across the world. With more transactions between business and customer now carried out digitally than ever before, the currency of data – and its safe-keeping – has never been more critical.
As discussed in my previous Finextra blog, there are a number of things organisations can and should do internally to prepare for a data breach, ensuring it can quickly and efficiently deal with any significant incidents.
Thankfully, companies do not have to face this challenge alone. In addition to internal precautions and practices, there are several external partners which can support and assist rapidly in the event of any breach, minimising the reputational impact to the business and to its customers.
Here, I will explore the roles and relevance of specialist partners, and how to select the right one for your business.
Legal Counsel
Your support network should include legal partners working with in-house counsel, regulatory bodies and other relevant officials. Legal partners provide the link with regulatory entities to support your post-breach activities. They can advise you on information disclosure and ensure everything is properly recorded and documented to avoid unnecessary legal risks.
Your legal counsel is responsible for:
A good legal partner will have ideally managed previous data breach notifications and should also introduce you to other data breach experts to help pre-empt, plan for and respond to data breach incidents.
IT Forensics
These data investigation specialists offer the expertise you need to translate technical analysis of a data breach into the risk implications for your organisation. They provide the data and insights to support the decision makers in your business as they plan and manage your response.
Your IT forensics partner is responsible for:
Crisis Communications
The way you communicate with customers, employees, stakeholders, investors, regulators, and other partners following any data breach is critical to the success of your response.
Crisis communications specialists both externally and internally can help you to get it right. Look for specialists that have experience in managing highly publicised security issues, and who understand the technical, regulatory and legal nuances of managing data breach communications.
Your crisis communications partner is responsible for:
Customer Response
As data management and analysis experts, these partners help you prepare for and manage the practical elements of the data breach or crisis response.
They provide a range of services and resources, including response planning, postal and email fulfilment, multi-lingual call centre support, and credit and identity monitoring solutions.
Look for providers with proven experience in managing mass-notification projects, with high-volume call centre resources, and experience in crisis query handling.
Your response partner is responsible for:
Insurers, influencers and regulators
An experienced insurance broker with specific expertise in cyber insurance is another valuable partner. They can help you demonstrate a strong security posture to insurers and select the right policy and insurer for your business needs.
You should also establish relationships with appropriate regulatory bodies, including the police cybercrime unit, to determine best practice and help streamline response processes in the event of a breach.
This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author.
Nick Jones CEO at Zumo
04 October
Nkiru Uwaje Chief Operating Officer at MANSA
03 October
Dirk Emminger Managing Director at knowing finance
02 October
Sireesh Patnaik Chief Product and Technology Officer (CPTO) at Pennant Technologies
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