Startups and tech companies based in the UK are increasingly becoming attractive sources of capital, though this has come with worrying cybersecurity concerns for their organisations. A Business Impact Analysis (BIA) in cyber security refers to a crucial sieve stage which helps create a plan for how businesses will return to normal after disruptions in their functions (source: Lucidica).
Why Business Continuity Planning in Cyber Security is Important
While the importance of cyber security should be accepted in all spheres of most organisations nowadays, for startups and tech businesses, it is a matter of everyday work and organisational existence. A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) safeguards that companies can take action and restore normality after instances of a cyber attack. Moreover, a well-conducted BIA helps businesses comply with data protection regulations such as GDPR by ensuring that critical data is safeguarded against cyber threats.
What are UK Regulatory Measures to Protect Customers
In the UK, regulatory measures such as GDPR protect customers and place severe consequences such as imprisonment for the failure to protect or unsuccessfully report a violation. Not adhering to them may result in serious penalties and preference effects. Consequently, it is paramount for tech companies who are keen on clear operations to harmonise cyber security and business continuity planning within the law.
What Are The Five Components of a Business Impact Analysis?
A typical Business Impact Analysis (BIA) in cybersecurity has five main areas to present a complete picture of the risks and effects:
Critical Business Functions
The first step in a BIA is identifying the key activities of the organisation that should be performed continually during and/or after the cyber breach incident. In the case of a tech startup, it could be cloud services, software developing platforms, and customer data management systems.
Key Resources
The companies BIA should establish what resources, be they technical or human, would be needed to sustain these critical activities. IT systems, staff, finance, or even third-party businesses.
Cyber Threat Scenarios
Each type of cyber threat presents itself differently and can be classified as ransom, phishing, a data breach, among others. The BIA measures the risk of these threats and their impact on business activities.
Impact on Operations
It is about fixing the possible operational interruptions which are likely to follow if an important function is compromised. For instance, with the software development environment of a tech company under cyber-attack, how much downtime will a business build into such an operation before it starts feeling the pinch of the operation being frustrated?
Financial Consequences
In addition to operational impacts, a cyber-attack has financial consequences that must be considered. What would the company spend in such a situation goes beyond operational costs (i.e. fines and expenses for recovery) but also to non-operational costs such as loss in revenue and potentially negative press.
Steps to Conduct a Cyber Security-Focused Business Impact Analysis
Doing a cybersecurity-focused BIA for your tech startup or tech company does not have to be difficult. Here are the standard procedures to follow to warrant a complete process of analysis:
Identifying Critical Business Functions
First, figure out which sections of your business you cannot do without. For technology companies, this might involve the use of software systems, customer records or platforms for communication like Slack or Microsoft Teams. It is easy to see that the damage caused by an attack on such systems would be tremendous hence the need for protection is paramount.
Threat Identification
To proceed further, consider the nature of cyber threats that your business is most likely to face. For instance, ransomware or phishing scams can lock all the employees of some tech startups out of the key systems or expose sensitive data.
Estimating the Costs Caused by Downtime and Data Mining
Let’s take the next step and evaluate how much downtime is acceptable from your business perspective, and how much damage or data breaches it would inflict on finances and reputation. Further, in the growth of technology firms that operate under debilitating constraints, a few hours of taking a break can cause an adverse cut on finances and loss of customer confidence.
Why You Need To Do a BIA When Addressing Cyber Security Issues
Implementing a business impact analysis increases cyber security because it enables an organisation to manage risks by ranking them and developing sound risk management plans. UK startups and tech companies, in particular, can target protective investments where they are most needed by assessing which systems and processes are most susceptible to a cyber assault.
To illustrate, wherein a BIA has revealed that the company’s customer database is susceptible to breaches, measures like additional encryption or stricter access policies would be necessary. Further, a BIA, if done properly, provides companies with a roadmap on how to effectively achieve compliance with data protection measures such as the GDPR, demonstrating that important data assets are well protected from cyber attacks.
To those UK-based tech businesses and new business startups, conducting a BIA has several direct advantages, such as:
Increased Preparedness
The business functions which will remain undermined in the event of a cyber breach are integrated into the business continuity plans developed following a BIA.
Rational Stance
It is easy for companies to know where to concentrate their cyber security instruments such as tools and people within the business, by analysing which areas of the business bear the most consequence to the company’s operations.
Regulatory Compliance
The protection of data in businesses in the UK is taken with utmost integrity and importance. A BIA makes certain that preventive measures are taken toward the blocking of losses that come with non-compliance.
Minimised Downtime
Operational downtimes, especially in the highly competitive government tech space, may lead to unfavourable economic outcomes. a BIA is useful in assisting organisations on how to restore their operations after being attacked.
Protection of Reputation
Most new companies depend upon the trust of their customers. The BIA reduces the impact of cyber terrorism thus, assuring the businesses that positive feedback is achieved as customers trust the businesses.
