How to manage a cyber crisis? All our advice

What is cyber crisis management?

Cyber crisis management represents actions implemented by an organization to prevent, detect and respond effectively to a digital incident.

Here are the main objectives of cyber crisis management:

• Quickly identify computer incidents and qualify their severity;
• Limit the spread and damage to infrastructure and data;
• Ensure business continuity while protecting critical assets;
• Communicate in a structured and transparent manner, internally and externally;
• Learn from the cyber crisis to build resilience to future threats.

Cyber crisis management: what are the challenges?

The consequences of a cyber attack can be particularly damaging. A survey conducted in 2024 by the ANSSI (National Agency for the Security of Information Systems) indicates that the average cost of a cyberattack is €466,000 for VSEs/SMEs, €13 million for mid-caps and €135 million for large companies (Source: nationale.fr Assembly).

 

Cyber attacks can take different forms (ransomware ; phishing; malware). …). They can lead to business interruption and the leakage, theft, or compromise of sensitive data. Very often, these attacks also come with high costs and heavy legal and financial penalties for non-compliance.

How to ensure cyber crisis management?

Implementing cyber crisis management involves close coordination between technical teams, managers, legal and communications to minimize the impact of the incident and quickly restore activity.

 

Here are the key steps for managing a cyber crisis:

1. Anticipate crisis risks

Even before a crisis occurs, it is essential to anticipate the most likely cyber attack scenarios and prepare the organization to respond to them.

 

This includes the following:

• Mapping critical systems and sensitive data;
• Identification of different crisis scenarios;
• The implementation, for each scenario, of a cyber crisis management plan (CMM);
• The creation of a crisis unit involving the management, the CIO (Chief Information Officer), the CISO (Information Systems Security Manager), the legal department, etc.;
• Conducting regular exercises to test procedures and validate coordination.

2. Setting up crisis governance

 

Faced with a cyber crisis, it is imperative to set up clear and centralised crisis governance, with well-defined roles and responsibilities and a rapid decision-making process. This is essential to allow fluid coordination with the general management and all the business functions.

3. Detect, analyze and qualify the incident

When a computer incident occurs, it is essential to know how to detect, analyze and qualify the cyber attack. This involves confirming the reality of the incident, assessing its scope and level of severity, and understanding the potential impacts on systems, data, and regulatory compliance. This is an important step that should not be overlooked, as it directly influences the decision-making needed to contain the incident.

4. Contain the incident and secure the environment

This step consists of containing and securing the affected environment through various actions, such as:

• Isolation of compromised systems and affected user accounts;
• Malware removal and security patches;
• Restoring services from reliable backups;
• The implementation of additional measures to avoid any recurrence.

5. Communicate effectively, internally and externally

Communication also plays a central role in times of crisis. It is essential to Communicate effectively, transparently and continuously, both internally and externally. Teams must be informed and guided, while customers, partners and authorities must receive clear, transparent information that complies with legal obligations.

6. Restore activity and ensure enhanced surveillance

Once the threat has passed, it is necessary to restore the activity while maintaining enhanced surveillance. This includes gradually bringing critical systems and applications back online, performing functional and security testing, and strengthening monitoring for any residual vulnerabilities or new attack attempts.

7. Learning from the crisis

Finally, each crisis must give rise to in-depth feedback. What was the root cause of the crisis (human error, lack of acculturation, computer flaws, weak passwords, etc.)? What vulnerabilities have been identified? What corrective actions should be deployed? And what measures should be put in place to prevent such a crisis from happening again? This can, for example, involve training and raising awareness among employees in order to prevent future incidents, the implementation of new computer protection software, or the carrying out of a regular audit by a cybersecurity expert to assess the robustness of information systems.

 

Do you want to delegate cyber crisis management to a seasoned expert? Our interim management company WAYDEN mobilizes a highly qualified and experienced interim CIO. An expert in cyber projects and experienced in crisis management, he helps you to put in place immediate measures to limit the impact of the crisis, to structure your Crisis management and secure your critical assets. It also supports you throughout the end of the crisis and during the implementation of preventive actions aimed at anticipating future risks and sustainably strengthening your information systems.

Contact us now