After this devastating malware attack, Fondren Orthopedic Group announced an update to their cybersecurity practices, a move that is too little, too late for the thousands of patients impacted by the breach. There are many steps companies can take to mitigate the risk of a data breach, but those steps need to be taken before an incident occurs. Otherwise, these measures serve as vanity metrics as opposed to a defensive strategy.

Ransomware attacks often come with cascading consequences that impact every part of a business. Not only does this attack vector come with high up-front expenses, but the reputational damage and opportunity cost can be even more damaging. Every company should assess its threat landscape to ensure that it can adequately defend against a devastating ransomware attack.

Most data breaches begin with a successful phishing scam. Every organization has a responsibility to train its employees in defensive best practices, which is a relative bargain compared to the high cost of a data breach. In doing so, organizations transform a known vulnerability into a valuable asset to their defensive posture..

CNNH secured the account by resetting its credentials and is updating company-wide email standards by enabling two-factor authentication and updating employee training initiatives. These simple data security measures should be standard at every company, and they have to be implemented before a breach occurs. With the cost and consequences of a breach continually increasing, companies can’t afford to wait until it’s too late to take steps to protect their data.

After the breach, Health Quest announced that it would implement two-factor authentication to secure employee accounts and is instituting employee awareness training to guard against future phishing attacks. Unfortunately, these efforts won’t recover any compromised data, and it won’t mitigate the damage from this breach. To protect data, these highly effective defense tactics need to be deployed before a breach occurs.