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Last Thursday, March 24, the Platform for Information Security organized a Crisis Management Workshop focused on cyberattacks.
A cyber crisis is a major concern for every executive and crisis manager. This is primarily due to its unpredictability, complexity, and impact. This concern was also shared by all participants during the workshop.
During a cyber crisis, the entire organization can be paralyzed. This immediately presents several significant challenges.
As soon as a cyberattack occurs, a (large) part of the IT environment is rendered inoperable. Access to email, VOIP, and other communication applications is lost. In the worst-case scenario, all contacts may be lost, preventing reach to colleagues and partners. This delays the alarming of the crisis team, increases damages, and immediately puts the team at a disadvantage with a backlog to address.
The crisis team convenes, intending to work with their plans. However, this information is no longer accessible. Even access to physical documentation may be blocked if the attack prevents entry to the premises.
The right software can play a crucial role in addressing these challenges. This is illustrated by the following examples.
During a cyber crisis, the affected organization can bring in a CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team). This is a team of experts from an organization with specialized knowledge in the field of cyber incidents. A CERT springs into action quickly to minimize damage as much as possible and facilitate recovery. These teams have access to various tools (including, for example, CrisisSuite) to immediately set up a secure environment from which to work and communicate.
It is even more effective if this has been pre-configured by the organization itself. By setting up crisis management software and having it out-of-band (i.e., outside your own IT environment), you can switch to an alternative communication method from the start of the crisis, centrally manage crisis information, and make this information accessible to all stakeholders.
Merlin has CrisisSuite to always function—especially during a (cyber) crisis. We are a leader in our industry when it comes to business continuity and information security. We demonstrate this, among other things, with our ISO 27001 certification. This shows that we operate according to the strictest standards in the field of information security. We implement everything redundantly and operate outside your own IT environment. This ensures your crisis software cannot go offline during a cyber crisis. This way, you remain able to stay in contact with each other, consult plans, record crisis information, and manage the organization.
