The Importance of Outsourcing Incident Response Plan for Small Sized Company

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The Importance of Outsourcing Incident Response Plan for Small Sized Company

Introduction

Cybersecurity is a prime factor determining the success of a business in a digital world. As Zhang (2018) commented, replacement of manual work with automated systems and report working has significantly increased the threat to companies' data. Hackers can easily access data companies' stored data or in transit. There are many ways of ensuring cyber security, and implementing an incidence response plan is one of the most effective. Beck (2019) asserts that an incident response plan is a practical data security approach since it allows the security team to identify, eliminate and recover cybersecurity threats. Companies across the globe have embraced IR to sure their data, but small businesses lag in this initiative. According to a report by Shred-it, the information security service provided by Stericycle, 67% of small businesses in the US do not have an incident response plan. Lack of capacity to cater to costs and expertise needed is the prime limiting factor for small businesses interested in implementing incident response plans. An IR plan is essential; if a small company doesn't know how to do it, it should outsource it.

What Cause 67% of Small Companies not to Have Incidence Plan

Due to their Size and Availability of Resources

A small business typically generates small profits from its business transaction. On the flip, developing and implementing an incidence development plan requires enormous sums of initial and operating capital, which is challenging for small businesses to raise. Besides, these businesses lack vital resources needed in adopting and running Incidence response plans like Human resource expertise. The initiative requires personnel with a high level of information, but it is challenging for small businesses to pay such specialists (Villegas-Ch et al., 2021). As a result, small firms lack the team understanding the incidence response plan. Less qualified staff hired in small companies struggle to comprehend the full scale of the issue, make initial diagnoses and assess priorities.

They do not prioritize cybersecurity awareness.

In small businesses, cybersecurity awareness does not occupy a significant position in their planning. Although small organizations earn little profits from their business due to their size and the quantify of investment made, they rarely allocate substantial funds to embracing cybersecurity. Research shows that small business is reluctant to invest in cyber security. According to Karpiuk (2021), on average small firms allocate about  10% of the annual information technology budget on cyber security and spend at most $2,700 per full-time staff annual. The small allocation indicates that cybersecurity is not the priority of small firms. Hence, adopting an incidence response plan is challenging since it requires more than the organizations can pay. The companies' information technology and response team spend most of their time and resources on low-priority alerts that do not involve a significant threat to the business entity.  

They do not have disaster recovery procedures in place.

Small business enterprises focus more on developing their business and growing the profit margins than they forget company data safety, which is a significant asset. Small businesses are at risk of more data loss than large business corporations. Boss (2017) asserts that over 70% of small companies experience significant data loss annually. Data recovery is a procedure, protocol and policy that allows for technology infrastructure, which is crucial for any business organization after a human-induced or natural disaster. Small firms, in particular, have high stakes typically due to a lack of experts and budget to protect the firm from data loss risks. Small business establishments are hackers' sweet spots because they know that a weak information technology infrastructure characterizes small entities. To worsen the matter, cyber criminals engaging in ransomware reap handsomely from most small businesses to give back their files since the firms lack recovery plans.  

They do not have a data backup.

A data backup plan is crucial in adopting an incidence recovery plan, but most small businesses lack it. The Lack of a back data backup plan has seen many small firms oust out of the market after data loss...