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Data Breach Recovery Strategies for CRM Systems

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Odds are, you’ll be dealing with an attempt at a cyberattack – sooner rather than later. Half of small businesses have been targeted by cyberattacks, and 68% of those affected reported being targeted more than just once. Not even enterprise-level organizations are safe; Microsoft has been targeted multiple times in 2024, with several successful breaches. Experts expect that the steep progression of cybercrime losses will continue as technologies evolve.    

Protecting against cyber threats and data breaches is just standard good practice; common sense for any successful business that wishes to continue remaining so. But if you, say, store all of your sensitive customer data and proprietary organizational assets in a single source of truth – well, the task of protecting your systems from incursion becomes even more vital. The advantage of not having vital data spread across inaccessible silos is incalculable for any organization; and, unfortunately, it’s advantageous for cybercriminals looking to get access to as much of it as they can.     

In this article, we’ll quickly cover cybersecurity awareness and key best practices for preventing successful incursions. We’ll then dive deeply into creating a response and recovery plan in the event your CRM systems are breached.

Cybersecurity Awareness and Incident Preparedness

Insulating your CRM system from attempted cyberattack begins with an understanding of cybersecurity best practices; and no, we aren’t talking about blowing the company budget on an array of supporting cybersecurity tools. We’re talking about matters of process — key practices that will help keep your employees aware of and in line with your company’s cybersecurity guidelines.     

Your organization is only as strong as its weakest link, and its weakest link can easily be your employees. Creating a culture of cybersecurity awareness, vigilance, and threat knowledge is your best bet to ensure your CRM systems stay intact; ongoing training on common threats is a significant piece of that puzzle. But more so are the internally reinforced matters of practice that prevent accidents from occurring. These are:    

•  Device hardening protocols: a password protection measure that requires strong passwords, and frequently requires employees to reset them.  
•  End-to-end encryption: a measure that keeps data encrypted in motion and at rest, shielding sensitive data from would-be network intruders.  
•  Frequent patching: Updating company sites, networks, and operating systems to screen out vulnerabilities.     

Each of these best practices adds an extra layer of protection to system access points. With a CRM solution, everything across your company will be connected, feeding into the single source of truth and drawing from it in equal measure. As such, it’s vitally important that every possible access point (and who has access to those points) is thoroughly and completely controlled.     

Device hardening blocks unauthorized users from accessing systems connected to your CRM, while network patching removes vulnerabilities that might present malefactors with a viable backdoor. End-to-end encryption is vital as a last resort, as its value assumes a cybercriminal manages to break in; still, it’s vital for ensuring that if access is compromised, data is protected until the vulnerability is sealed.

Step-By-Step Guide to Data Recovery

However, you also have to prepare for the eventuality of a cyberattack getting through. If your CRM is compromised, a great deal of valuable data could potentially be at risk. Having a plan that you can action at a moment’s notice to cordon off threats, recover lost data, and communicate with the public will help you rescue your reputation and mitigate the damage.     

When developing a data breach recovery plan, keep these considerations in mind:    

• Establish the conditions under which your plan is actioned. Different kinds of intrusions will merit different responses, and setting definitions for low-risk breaches, response-team breaches, etc will facilitate a rapid, accurate response to the problem.
• Create procedures for assessing and resolving breaches at each organizational level. Teach employees how to cordon off potentially infected systems from your CRM. Or show them which built-in CRM cybersecurity measures they can use immediately to respond to a breach.  
• Assign qualified personnel to response teams. Response teams are special groups of employees that are qualified to deal with active threats, cordoning off affected areas of your CRM, assessing damage, and recommending fixes. Create a company hotline to ensure rapid deployment, and make sure response teams are available around the clock.  
• Plan to communicate with the public, and oversee your HR department’s pre-drafted statement. The statement should be clear, transparent, and action-oriented, allowing you to demonstrate a commitment to efficient resolution and future prevention. 
• Lay out rules for appropriate documentation, as this will help you prove that you’re response is in line with local and federal regulations for data breaches.     

The key to protecting your CRM is to work quickly, and thorough planning is the way to unlock that level of agility. Having employees on deck who are familiar with your data breach recovery plan, know how to cordon off affected systems before the CRM is accessed, and how to regain control of the CRM if it’s compromised will be a massive boon when an attack eventually gets through. The more comprehensive your plan, the greater your chances of mitigating/avoiding harm to your company and your customers; so don’t be afraid to expand your plan beyond what’s represented above.    

Your employees will work rapidly to recover lost data, armed with threat awareness, cybersecurity insight, and a thorough plan for incident recovery. Plan, prepare, and protect your single source of truth, and an attack on your CRM doesn’t have to be catastrophic.