Right now, somewhere in the United States, a cyberattack is happening. In fact, many cyberattacks are likely happening—which is why cybercrime damage costs are estimated to hit $6 trillion annually by 2021. Risk management professionals and executives are not only challenged by the volume of cyberthreats, but by their growing complexity as well.

Ransomware attacks, for example, were predicted to exceed $5 billion in 2017—up more than fifteen-fold from 2015—as organizations grapple with how to not only prevent these attacks but mitigate the financial losses and downtime they cause. Yet despite the trends, more than half (52%) of organizations that suffered successful cyberattacks in 2016 indicated in a Cybersecurity Ventures report that they would not make any changes to their security in 2017. And even for those that do update their cybersecurity plans, cyberattacks have become an inevitability for most organizations. As a result, developing a complete response plan for cyberattacks is essential to protecting your business and customers.

For enterprises developing a cyberattack response plan, consider these five strategies:

1.Be proactive, not reactive
The global average cost of a data breach is $3.62 million, according to the 12th annual Cost of Data Breach Study conducted by Ponemon Institute. Would you rather have a plan in place aimed at minimizing such losses should a cyber incident occur, or risk ending up in the growing majority of companies that have sustained attacks? Protecting your stakeholders should be of utmost priority, and the first step is having a plan ready. You will be grateful that you do when your servers are down, people are trying to reach you, and immediate action is required.

2. Assemble a team
Most organizations immediately turn to IT when thinking about cyberattacks. While IT is indeed a big part of the picture, it is just that: one piece. When a cyberattack occurs, its impact is felt across your entire organization.

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