Cybersecurity Incident Response: Planning Is Just The Beginning

Executive summary

By now, most senior-level executives have heard that either you have had a data breach or you just don't know that you've had a data breach. Cyberattacks are now as much a part of doing business as taxes and financial statements, and they are getting expensive. According to the 2015 U.S. Cost of a Data Breach Study¹ by the Ponemon Institute, last year there was an 11% increase in the total cost of a data breach, to a $217 average per lost or stolen record. To be sure, those numbers are based on estimated costs of actual data loss incidents, not hypotheticals. In an effort to support senior financial executives in their cybersecurity incident planning and response, Grant Thornton LLP and Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF) have identified several essential areas for their consideration.