Responding to Disaster in Your Small Business

We hope it never happens to us – floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, and other events that take away our ability to do business and to make our livelihood. However, it is a large probability that we will encounter something that will impede our ability to do so. In cybersecurity, it is the same way. The probability of data-related incidents impacting your business is high. So, how do we respond and what do we do in that response?

A way many large organizations, government agencies, and the military does this are through exercises. These exercises include a simulation of different scenarios that test the organization’s ability to respond to various events that could reduce operational effectiveness. These exercises are not only for big organizations – they are for everyone. In this article, we will lay out three reasons why these exercises are so beneficial to your business and can help you overcome the greatest of incidents when you are prepared.

Building Processes through “Trial by Fire”

One way we instruct our customers is through going through the motions of what they think might be the best response. Through that, we document the steps taken and then we go back and look to see if there are better ways to respond during each step. Through this process, we get to granularly identify the “Who, What, When, Where, and How” the response will happen. Through this process, each team member knows their own responsibility, and these responsibilities are documented in a formal agreement. This is definitely great when you may not have fully documented processes or checklists. This helps get unstuck from the writer’s block that happens when we stare at a blank document.

Training the Business

The second reason these exercises are so important is that they train your employees, partners, and whoever else is helping you make your business happen. Sometimes, there may be a disconnect from the “owner’s plan” to the rest of the team. It happens (just ask me about that). One way to get everyone on the same page is to have these exercises. This puts everyone on an equal playing field. It keeps everyone “in the know” on new procedures, new operational standards, new technologies, you name it. This really does help enable the folks you rely on to help make your business work. Through these exercises, everyone gets to have their input and be a part of making the business respond better in crisis. This creates buy-in, which builds the team up to be a highly functioning operational force.

Creating External Relationships

Exercises are more than just processes and training. They really help everyone involved understand that you can’t do it alone. One of the ways we can truly enable your business to be effective during a crisis is to know who to reach out to for help and assistance. These exercises help build out relationships in the community. From law enforcement to government agencies (local and state to federal) to your insurance providers, these relationships are crucial to responding effectively. A well-kept secret is that these folks would really LOVE to be a part of your exercise, at whatever capacity they can be. The more you interact with your insurance agent, the more willing they might be to lobby in your defense in the event of a crisis. Building relationships with local law enforcement and government agencies will give them a chance to come in and help educate your employees and business about what they can assist with and the process for engaging their support. I recommend you reach out to your local external partners just to have a conversation with them and start the dialogue. You’ll thank us.

These exercises are designed to help move the business forward. When you have a crisis, you know where to look with your documentation, your employees know what to do from the training, and you know how and when to use your external partners. These exercises do not have to be elaborate, and protasec can help you build them. Josh, the founder and Chief Security Officer of protasec, is a seasoned exercise simulation facilitator and expert. His podcast War Gaming discusses the types of exercises your business can utilize with protasec’s simulation offerings. We at protasec are eager to help you build out your crisis response processes.. Start today with a Security Posture Assessment that is affordable and easy to complete. Let us help you in level up your cybersecurity and crisis response and thus secure your world

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