How to Prepare for an IT Security Disaster (Video)

What should you do if your company's servers are hacked and your customers' credit card info or other data are stolen? Neill Feather, president of SiteLock, says you should have a plan of action tested and ready to go, the same way it's wise to hold fire drills so that everyone knows what to do in case of fire. Neill also recommends checking out the Online Trust Alliance and the many resources it makes available to businesses of all sizes whether or not they are OTA members. One document that would be a good place to start is their Data Protection & Breach Readiness Guide, which covers topics including liability and insurance considerations; basic forensics (to help catch the evildoers -- and prevent them from doing evil to you again); and even what information you should include in a letter to customers after a Target or Home Depot-type data theft. We can sum all of this up with the old saying, 'An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,' but you should also know what to do if a problem happens, whether that problem is data theft, a ransomware attack or anything in between.