My Texas Business Had A Data Breach: Now What?
If your Texas business experiences a data breach, there are several steps you should take to minimize the impact and protect your customers and your business. These data breach response steps include:
7 Data Breach Response Steps for Texas Businesses
- Mobilize your data breach response team: Immediately contact your internal response team, IT services provider, and legal team.
- Identify and contain the breach: Determine what information was compromised, how the breach occurred, and take steps to secure your operations and prevent further unauthorized access.
- Notify affected individuals: If the data breach affects any individuals, you should notify them as soon as possible. You can do this through a written notification, an email, or by phone.
- Notify law enforcement: If the data breach is serious or involves a significant number of individuals, you should notify law enforcement, such as the FBI or the Department of Justice.
- Notify regulatory agencies: Depending on the nature of the data breach and the information that was compromised, you may also need to notify regulatory agencies, such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or the Office for Civil Rights (OCR).
- Do not destroy evidence: be careful to preserve any forensic evidence discovered during your investigation and remediation.
- Implement measures to prevent future breaches: After a data breach, it is important to implement measures to prevent future breaches. This may include updating security protocols, training employees on data security best practices, and reviewing and updating your data security policies and procedures. Getting a cybersecurity risk assessment is an important step to uncovering where you have gaps in your security.
It’s important to take prompt and appropriate action in response to a data breach to minimize the risk of harm to individuals and to your company’s reputation.
It is also a good idea to consult with an attorney or other legal professional to ensure that you are complying with all relevant laws and regulations of data breach response in Texas.
Fix Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities
Take steps to remediate the vulnerability that was exploited and uncover other security gaps exposing you to future data breaches. This may involve checking and improving the security and configurations for many areas of your IT environment such as:
Patching: Apply any necessary software patches to address the vulnerability that was exploited. This includes operating system updates, application updates, and firmware updates.
Configuring security controls: Configure security controls such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and antivirus software to block known attack vectors and prevent future breaches.
Changing default credentials: Change any default credentials on devices and systems to ensure that attackers cannot use commonly known login information to gain access.
Segmenting networks: Segment your network to limit the potential spread of a breach and to isolate compromised systems.
Hardening systems: Hardening systems by disabling unnecessary services, protocols, and accounts.
Implementing multi-factor authentication: Implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) or two-factor authentication (2FA) to make it more difficult for attackers to gain access to your systems.
Conducting penetration testing: Conducting penetration testing to identify any additional vulnerabilities and to ensure that your remediation efforts have been effective.
Regularly monitoring and logging: Regularly monitoring and logging system activity to detect any suspicious activity and to maintain a record of what happened during the incident.
Texas Data Breach Reporting – F.A.Qs
You’re probably wondering who you should notify about a company data breach. The first person you should notify about a data breach will depend on the specific circumstances of the breach and the policies and procedures your company has in place for handling such incidents.
Generally, the first step in responding to a data breach is to quickly assess the situation and determine the extent of the breach, including what information has been compromised and how many individuals are affected. Once you have a clear understanding of the breach, you should follow your company’s established protocols for reporting and responding to data breaches.
This may involve contacting relevant internal personnel, such as your company’s IT department or legal team, as well as external parties, such as law enforcement or regulatory agencies. Below we explore some commonly asked questions about who needs to be notified after a data breach for your Texas business.
Do I have to Notify the Texas Attorney General’s office of a data breach?
If the personal information of 250 individuals or more was leaked, then yes, you are. The Texas Identity Theft Enforcement and Protection Act requires businesses to notify affected individuals as soon as possible and the Texas Attorney General’s office if their personal information is compromised in a data breach. Personal information is defined as an individual’s first name or first initial and last name in combination with any of the following data elements:
- Social Security number
- Driver’s license number or state identification card number
- Account number, credit or debit card number, in combination with any required security code, access code, or password that would permit access to an individual’s financial account
If your company’s data breach involves personal information as defined above, and the breach affects at least 250 Texas residents, you are required to notify the Texas Attorney General’s office. You must provide notice to the Texas Attorney General’s office no later than the seventh calendar day after the date on which you provide notice to affected individuals.
It is important to note that the requirements for notification to the Texas Attorney General’s office may vary depending on the specific circumstances of your company’s data breach.
Do I have to notify the FBI of a data breach?
There is no general federal law that requires businesses to notify the FBI of a data breach. However, if your company’s data breach involves certain types of sensitive information, such as personal information of government employees or classified information, you may be required to notify the FBI.
In addition, if your company’s data breach affects a significant number of individuals, or if the breach is particularly serious, you may choose to notify the FBI to request assistance with the investigation and to help prevent further unauthorized access to sensitive information.
It is important to note that the requirements for notification to the FBI may vary depending on the specific circumstances of your company’s data breach. The FBI encourages businesses to report internet crimes and other suspicious activity at www.ic3.gov to protect our nation’s critical infrastructure.
It’s a good idea to consult with an attorney or legal professional to determine whether you are required to notify the FBI in the event of a data breach.
Do I have to notify the FTC of a data breach?
Under certain circumstances, you may be required to notify the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) if your Texas company experiences a data breach.
The FTC has the authority to enforce a number of laws that protect consumers’ personal information, including the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA).
If your Texas business experiences a data breach that involves personal information covered by one of these laws, you may be required to notify the FTC. For example, if your company’s data breach involves children’s personal information and your company is subject to COPPA, you may be required to notify the FTC.
It is important to note that the requirements for notification to the FTC may vary depending on the specific law that is applicable to your company’s data breach. Read the FTC Data Breach Response Guide online for more information.
Do I have to alert the media about a data breach?
Notification to the media is not specifically required by Texas law, but businesses may choose to do so as a way of informing the public and demonstrating their commitment to transparency and accountability.
It’s important for businesses to carefully review and comply with all applicable laws and regulations related to data breaches and the handling of personal information. If you have specific questions about your legal obligations in the event of a data breach, you should consult with a qualified legal professional.
Eliminate Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities Now
After a data breach, it is important to work with cybersecurity experts to ensure that remediation steps are taken properly and that the organization’s systems are secure moving forward.
Protect your business from future data breaches, assess your business’ cybersecurity risk now to identify vulnerabilities in your IT network, and reduce your threat surface.
If your organization is looking to check your network security, Juern Technology is the top provider of cyber security services in Southern Texas.
Discover where your business is at high risk of cybercrime. Book a FREE Discovery Call or give us a call at (210) 245-6900 to learn how we can keep your business safe from cyber scum.
