Cyberattacks do not warn. On the other hand, their impact largely depends on the way in which organizations react to it. Late detection, poorly calibrated communication, analysis errors, decisions dictated by panic: mismanagement of an incident can cost more than the attack itself.
Here are the Ten most frequent errors Observed in the responses to cyber attacks – and the lessons to be drawn from it.
1. Minimize the attack in communication
“The data is not sensitive.” “The incident is circumscribed.” “No impact for users.” This type of formulation, often used in the early hours, quickly turns against the transmitter. When the elements published by the attackers contradict the official version, the credibility of the company is permanently started. Lost confidence is rarely regaining.
2. Death to notify the authorities
Some companies are waiting for several days, or even weeks, before declaring the flight to the CNIL or the ANSSI. For media fear, by ignorance or for lack of procedure. This inertia is not only sanctionable, but it prevents authorities from playing their role of support and coordination, when every hour counts.
3. Do not lock internal access
In many cases, the attackers keep active access well after the initial attack. For what ? Because the open sessions, dormant accounts or unclean rights are not immediately deactivated. This negligence offers cybercriminals a second breath, sometimes even a second assault.
4. neglect offline backups
When no robust backup exists outside the compromise network, negotiation becomes the only way out. This dependence strengthens the attacker’s blackmail power. The backups must be tested, isolated and regularly verified. It is not an option, it is a survival guarantee.
5. Confuse transparency and panic
Transparency does not imply revealing everything immediately, but to communicate with rigor and coherence. Too often, companies publish a first hasty, imprecise press release, then correct it as leaks are confirmed. Better a partial, but exact message, that a reassuring declaration contradicted the next day.
6. Do not involve management from the start
In some companies, crisis management is left to technical or legal teams, without strategic coordination. Result: fragmented, sometimes contradictory decisions, and an external message blurred. Management must be fully involved from the first alert: it is a governance crisis, as much as cybersecurity.
7. Substitute the reputational dimension
A cyber attack is also a reputation test. However, many companies react as if it were a purely technical incident. Orchestrated, visible, sometimes mocking, the communication of the attackers is designed to strike the image. An absence of an appropriate response opens a vacuum that others are responsible for filling.
8. Communicate for experts, not for users
Crisis messages are often full of jargon: “partial exfiltration”, “analysis in progress”, “no password has compromised”. These terms do not reassure end users. They disorient. Effective communication must speak to the customer, the user, the citizen – not to the RSSI of the neighboring company.
9. Trust the samples provided by the attackers
Some companies take the samples published by the attackers for cash. Serious error. These samples can be made, handled or incomplete. Only a cross -analysis, based on internal checks and technical overlaps, confirms the reality of the data in circulation.
10. Forget after
Once the fire is mastered, the most frequent error is to move on too quickly. However, the consequences of a cyber attack are measured over months: identity usurpations, fraud attempts, delayed media pressure, regulatory audits. Without returning from formalized experience, without adaptation of the processes, errors are called upon to repeat themselves.
Conclusion: Manage the crisis, then transform it
Good management of a cyber attack is not only played in technique. She initiates the ability of the company to decide quickly, to speak just, to protect herself and to learn. Those who minimize lose confidence. Those who assume can return to it.
The denial is expensive. Silence too. Anticipation remains under-exploited.
