What Every HR Professional Should Know About Partnering with Cyber Incident Response Companies

The HR department has a responsibility to keep employee and applicant information safe.

Most people outside of HR don’t realise it, but your team deals with social security numbers, bank accounts, medical records, home addresses and more on a daily basis. That’s why cybercriminals view your team as a target-rich environment.

The issue is most HR departments aren’t prepared for a cyber attack. And when a breach occurs, it can impact your organisation fast and severely.

Fortunately, by knowing how incident response services work, HR leaders have the power to safeguard their organisation and their employees’ data.

Let’s take a look…

What You’ll Learn

• Why HR Data Is Targeted (A Lot)
• Understanding Incident Response Services
• How to Find the Right Incident Response Partner
• How HR Can Build an Incident Response Ready Team
• HR Specific Concerns

Why HR Data is Targeted (A Lot)

HR professionals know they’re a target just waiting to happen.

Think about all of the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) employee records are made up of. Credit card numbers, bank accounts, social security numbers, medical records, home addresses, etc.

Cybercriminals can use this information for identity theft, fraudulent activity and ransomware attacks. HR records are a virtual goldmine.

And keeping that data safe can be difficult. Even more so when employee records are housed in multiple systems.

According to Verizon’s 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report, human error alone causes 68% of breaches. Phishing clicks, weak passwords and misconfigured settings caused over 2/3rds of breaches last year. It’s no surprise that HR is a target considering employees are more likely to open attachments from unknown senders than anyone else in your organisation.

Candidates send resumes. Vendors send contracts. People apply for jobs every day. So, HR mailboxes see a lot of traffic.

But it doesn’t stop there…

Employees can unintentionally open malicious attachments. Weak passwords give attackers a way into your systems. And lacking defences make your organisation even more vulnerable.

In fact, research from Varonis shows that more than 77% of organisations don’t have an incident response plan in place.

So if your HR team does become a victim of a cyber attack, they may not know who to contact. Or in what order. There’s no chain of command and no process for responding.

That’s where cyber incident response companies come in.

By partnering with professionals that specialise in incident response, HR teams can respond properly to a breach and minimise damage to employee data.

Understanding Incident Response Services

Hopefully, you know what an incident response service does at this point.

If not, here’s a brief overview.

Similar to how you’d call the fire department if your building caught fire. You call an incident response service when your organisation suffers a breach.

The benefits of having an incident response partner are significant.

They contain the breach and stop the attack from spreading. They conduct a forensic analysis to discover how the attack happened. They assist with recovery efforts and navigate your organisation through any legal compliances that must be met.

How much better would you feel if your HR team had a partner that specialised in incident response? One that could mitigate the damage and ensure your employee’s data was safe?

According to the Ponemon Institute, organisations that lack a documented incident response plan or never test their plan end up spending 58% more per breach than those with an IR plan that’s been tested at least once.

Needless to say, having an incident response partner you can trust is critical to minimising costs if your HR team is ever compromised.

How To Find the Right Incident Response Partner

Finding the right partner can be tricky.

HR professionals should ask the right questions before entering into any contract. After all, your organisation’s security is on the line if you make the wrong choice.

When evaluating incident response companies look for these characteristics:

• 24/7 availability – Cybercrime happens around the clock. Your incident response partner should be available 24/7 with defined response times.
• Industry specific experience – Every industry has different compliance rules and regulations. From HIPPA to PCI DSS. Make sure your partner understands HR security and compliance requirements.
• Retainer agreements – Ideally, your incident response partner will offer a retainer agreement. This means your organisation has unlimited access to the response teams. There’s no wait time if your HR team is compromised.

Asking questions is one of the best ways to find the right partner.

What’s your average response time? How many HR related breaches have you remediated? Can you provide references from HR professionals at similar organisations?

Prepare a list of questions like these. Then set up a meeting with each vendor to discuss their services. Do your research and figure out who you trust the most.

The last thing you want is to wait for an incident to occur before you begin interviewing vendors.

How HR Can Build an Incident Response Ready Team

Now it’s time to look internally.

Once you’ve found and committed to an incident response partner you should take steps to make your HR department response-ready.

Here are some ideas to help you get started.

Employee Cybersecurity Training

Only 45% of employees receive cyber security training from their employer.

That means over half of your employees aren’t trained to spot a phishing email or social engineering attack. Yet they’re on the front lines defending your company.

HR leaders can ensure their teams are trained to spot malicious emails and know who to report them to.

Response Planning & Documentation

It’s important to document everything.

Where are employee records stored? Who has access to payroll information? Who completed security awareness training? If your organisation suffers a breach, you’ll want an auditor to see this information.

If you don’t have response plan documented somewhere it’s time to do that.

Your plan should include escalation procedures, team members, and important contact information. Then test your plan!

Incident Response Drills

A plan you never practice isn’t much of a plan at all. Make sure you run regular table top exercises that test your response plan.

Invite your IT, legal and HR teams to participate.

Vendor Risk Management

This is often overlooked but extremely important.

Third-party vendors have access to your HR systems. Make sure their security controls meet your organisation’s requirements.

HR-Specific Concerns

Recruiting sensitive data

Imagine what would happen if your employees’ salary information was leaked.

Or if their medical records were exposed.

Compared to IT and finance data, HR data can cause immediate harm to your employees. Something as seemingly harmless as a spreadsheet with employee salaries can do a lot of damage if it falls into the wrong hands.

HR data also opens your organisation up to lawsuits and regulatory penalties.

Remote Workforce

Working from home is nice until someone hacks your employees home network.

With so many people accessing HR systems remotely, the network perimeter has expanded. Cybercriminals are experienced at attacking weak spots like home WIFI routers.

Recruiting Attack Vectors

Posting a job opening may as asking cybercriminals to target your HR department.

“Send your resume to HR” is a common instruction cybercriminals use when embedding malware in documents. Every job posting is a direct invitation for attackers to target your HR systems.

Wrapping It All Up

HR leaders have a responsibility to their employees to protect their data.

We understand that HR teams are already busy. But taking the proper steps to prevent a breach can save your team from disaster.

Partner with the right incident response company and build a response-ready HR department. These steps will provide your organisation with a fighting chance if cybercriminals attack your HR systems.

Cyber attacks aren’t a matter of if your organisation will be attacked. It’s a matter of when.

And HR leaders who take the necessary precautions now will be better equipped to protect their organisations later.