Breach Readiness and Business Continuity Planning – Source: securityboulevard.com

January 9, 2025
Post Author / Publisher: Security Boulevard

CISO2CISO post categories: Breach Readiness, Cyber Security News, microsegmentation, rss-feed-post-generator-echo, Security Bloggers Network, Security Boulevard

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Source: securityboulevard.com – Author: Daniel Churches

I recently caught up with Karissa Breen, the founder of KBI.Media, and we got straight into our topic: What is breach readiness and business continuity planning in complex environments? Everyone talks about having a plan, but actually putting it into action, especially when you’re under attack, is a completely different story.

Realities of Breach Readiness

When people say, “just have a plan,” it sounds easy. But in practice, it’s not just writing down a set of procedures. The real challenge is detailing who’s responsible for what and everyone keeps their cool when the worst actually happens. Most companies have business continuity plans and run exercises for things like server outages or natural disasters. But for cyber breaches, we’re talking about doing simulations that mimic what an actual attack might look like and seeing if your policies and controls stand up under pressure. And today, we’re talking about how the business can maintain minimum viability while under attack and how quickly they can return to pre-attack organizational productivity.

I’m not talking about a resource heavy breach scenario exercise that burns up cycles. We can deploy our technology in days across a select number of non-prod devices facing the internet, start in observation mode, and simulate an attack to see what happens. How well does your business function under attack conditions? How well do the teams handle their responsibilities? It’s like running a penetration test, but instead of only testing your firewall or password policy, you’re testing your company’s before, during and after breach response readiness. This doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be built right on top of the continuity drills you’re already doing.

Addressing the Overwhelm

I get it, people in IT security are often rolling their eyes at “another tool” or “another process.” It’s another step when you’re already drowning in tasks. But attackers aren’t slowing down, and they’re getting sharper and better funded.

Here’s the trade-off: putting microsegmentation and breach readiness measures in place is not just “another thing.” It’s something that can stop a breach in its path rather than shutting down whole network segments and critical systems. If you can quarantine the attack and let the rest of the business keep operating, that’s huge. It’s not just preventing some theoretical damage; it’s preserving real revenue, reputation, and operational uptime.

Measuring Risk Tolerance in Real Terms

One thing that’s often overlooked is that businesses rarely take the time to think about their actual risk tolerance related to cyber resilience. They might imagine paying a ransom or dealing with data loss, but what about the cost of not getting your business back to pre-breach productivity for weeks or even months while you try to figure out where the breach originated? That’s the hidden cost that hurts you long after the ransom is paid. It’s not just the attack; it’s the months of forensics and remediation at low productivity. That’s what kills your momentum and messes with your growth and profit targets.

When you introduce the idea of microsegmentation, you’re not just playing defense—you’re giving yourself the ability to isolate the problem area and keep the rest of the business humming along. Imagine how much that saves you compared to having to shut everything down. Now you’re not just “doing cyber stuff”—you’re making a business decision that protects performance targets and meets continuity and compliance obligations.

Why Microsegmentation?

A lot of organizations think they’re covered because they’ve got network segmentation. But the difference with microsegmentation is right there in the name. It’s not just about splitting your network into big chunks; it’s about going granular. When there’s an attack, you no longer need to shut down whole network segments and critical systems in your environment just to be safe. With our solution, you can isolate exactly where the bad traffic is and quarantine that area so the rest of the business rolls on as usual. That’s what microsegmentation brings to the table—a precision tool rather than a sledgehammer.

Tailored Policies and Out-of-the-Box Support

Building policies isn’t as painful as it sounds. We have industry-specific templates – from healthcare to finance to energy and mining – ready to go. This helps you avoid guesswork. Healthcare, for example, is a strong area for us because they have a huge mix of technologies – legacy systems, operational tech (OT), cloud apps, and more. We can handle all of it, including those environments where you can’t install agents because medical devices won’t allow it. Agentless solutions mean we can still give you that crucial visibility without forcing downtime or messing with your critical systems.

This flexibility also matters in critical infrastructure, where downtime is not an option. If you’re running energy grids, water supply, or any vital community service, you know you just can’t go offline. It’s not just about convenience; it’s about public safety. Microsegmentation lets these organizations keep running even if one part of the network is under siege.

Why Some Organizations Hesitate

It’s not that leaders in critical infrastructure or big organizations don’t see the risks. They do. But they have a backlog of security projects a mile long. Each new solution, no matter how beneficial, can feel like something else they’re barely able to get to. The trick is explaining that this isn’t just another security widget – this is something that directly affects business continuity and operational uptime. It moves us from a purely tech conversation into a discussion about business resilience, continuity, legislative compliance reporting and cyber insurance premiums.

When I start talking in terms of minimizing breach related downtime, performance impact, and the productivity of your staff tied up in forensics for months, that’s when I see the lightbulb turn on. Suddenly, microsegmentation isn’t just another project. It’s a business decision that gets pushed to the head of the queue because it promises a level of resilience that’s too valuable to ignore.

Long-Term Implications

Let’s not kid ourselves – when a breach happens, people remember. A major breach can taint a company’s reputation for years. It’s not just about the data that was stolen, it’s how the company managed (or failed to manage) the situation. Everyone gets hit these days, the difference is how well you contain it and get back on your feet. If you come out of it looking prepared and resilient, your reputation might actually strengthen. If you flounder, well, customers don’t forget that kind of thing.

This long-tail impact is real. Years after, if customers still recall how poorly you handled a breach, that’s a problem. People might choose your competitor because they trust them more to have it together when trouble strikes. The solution is to have a readiness plan that doesn’t just exist on paper but actually works when tested. That’s what gets you back to full capacity faster and protects your name in the market.

Wrapping It Up

At the end of the day, breach readiness and containment in complex supply chain environments are about facing reality. Attacks will happen. The question is: will you have to shut everything down and scramble, or can you isolate the threat and keep moving? Microsegmentation and proper breach readiness exercises can make the difference between a total operational collapse and a manageable bump in the road.

This isn’t just technology for technology’s sake. It’s about business continuity, maintaining trust, and meeting your own growth and profit targets despite the chaos of an attack. There’s real value in getting this right, and the tools are here now. It’s time to start using them.