Despite all preventive measures, some phishing or Business Email Compromise (BEC) attempts still succeed. No defense is foolproof, especially as attackers continually adapt. That’s why an effective incident response and recovery plan is essential.
A swift and coordinated response significantly limits the damage from an email-based attack. Executives must ensure their organization is ready to respond decisively to phishing or BEC incidents. Effective incident response and recovery involves containing the threat, preserving funds and data, and learning from the experience.
Incident Response and Recovery: Detection and Alerting
Early detection is vital. Encourage employees to immediately report any suspected phishing emails or possible fraud. Configure your email security system or Security Operations Center (SOC) to alert you about account compromises or unusual email activity.
The moment anyone suspects an incident, such as a fraudulent transfer or compromised email account, escalate it immediately. Notify your security team and relevant executives without delay to begin your incident response and recovery process.
Incident Response and Recovery: Immediate Containment
If your organization sends a fraudulent wire transfer, every second counts. Immediately contact your bank’s fraud department to recall or freeze the funds. Banks have established protocols to attempt freezing or retrieving funds, especially when notified quickly.
In parallel, file a report promptly with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) to support recovery efforts. The FBI collaborates frequently with banks and law enforcement to halt funds in transit.
If attackers compromise an email or account, instruct IT to lock down affected accounts. Have your team change passwords, revoke active sessions, and disable compromised accounts. Promptly remove malicious emails from other users’ mailboxes to prevent further harm.
Notify and Engage Key Players
Rapidly assemble your incident response and recovery team, including IT, security, legal, communications, and affected business units (such as finance in a BEC incident). Immediately inform senior management and the board of the situation. Transparency ensures they hear about the incident directly, not from external sources or rumors.
If attackers have leaked customer or employee data, engage legal counsel right away. They will guide you on regulatory obligations for breach notifications. Quickly notify your cyber insurance provider if you have coverage, as insurers usually require prompt reporting and offer expert incident response support.
Incident Response and Recovery: Eradication and Investigation
Act swiftly to eliminate the threat from your environment. Run anti-malware scans immediately if someone clicks a malicious phishing email. Ensure your IT team removes unauthorized email forwarding rules and hidden inbox rules attackers may have set up.
Conduct a thorough investigation to identify the root cause of the incident. Did attackers obtain credentials via phishing, or did they exploit payment verification weaknesses? Engaging forensic cybersecurity experts is advisable, particularly if the incident is complex or involves sensitive information.
Carefully preserve evidence, including logs, email records, and chat transcripts. These records support your investigation and any potential legal actions or regulatory reviews.
Recovery of Funds and Data
If the incident involved stolen funds, persistently collaborate with your bank and law enforcement to recover them. The recovery success rate varies, but rapid action within the first 24–72 hours improves your chances dramatically.
Law enforcement may initiate international coordination, such as the FBI’s Financial Fraud Kill Chain, to halt fraudulent wire transfers. In cases involving stolen data, direct recovery of the data itself is challenging. Still, you can mitigate the damage. Require immediate password resets for compromised accounts and invalidate any exposed credentials.
Provide credit monitoring for individuals whose data was exposed. Offering this service as part of your breach response shows good faith and proactively supports affected individuals.
Communication and Transparency
Clear communication is crucial to successful incident response and recovery. Internally, keep employees informed if an incident may impact them directly. Communicate clearly: “We’ve had a phishing incident. Be extra vigilant and follow IT’s instructions closely.”
Externally, notify clients if attackers targeted them or their data. If attackers impersonate your company, proactively alert your clients to maintain trust and reduce their risk. Handle all public communications—including press releases—carefully, guided by your communications and legal teams. The tone should demonstrate your organization’s control and seriousness in managing the incident.
Post-Incident Analysis and Lessons Learned
After resolving the immediate crisis, conduct a thorough post-mortem analysis. Convene your incident response team and openly discuss critical questions:
- How did the incident occur?
- What worked well, and what didn’t?
- Did we detect the incident quickly enough?
- Were roles and responsibilities clear and effective?
This meeting should produce clear action items for improvements. Employees might be unsure who to contact during an incident. Consider establishing a dedicated security hotline.
Alternatively, you may identify technology gaps, such as implementing DMARC to prevent email spoofing. Consider deploying enhanced email security solutions based on these findings. Update your incident response and recovery plan accordingly and communicate any revisions clearly across the organization.
Training and Future Prevention
Use lessons learned from incidents to enhance future preventive measures. If attackers succeeded because employees weren’t aware of specific phishing tactics, immediately update your training content. If critical verification processes failed, identify the reasons—was the policy unclear, or was reinforcement insufficient?
Employees often become more receptive to cybersecurity training following an incident. Leverage this heightened awareness to emphasize critical lessons. Share sanitized details about the incident in company-wide communications. For example, a memo stating, “We recently experienced a phishing incident. Here’s what we learned and how we’re improving,” reinforces transparency and continuous improvement.
Incident Response and Recovery: Executive Leadership Imperative
Being prepared with a tested incident response and recovery plan for phishing or BEC incidents is as crucial as prevention itself. When incidents occur, swift, decisive action significantly limits potential damage.
Executive leaders must ensure the incident response and recovery plan is current, well-practiced, and clearly understood by all teams involved. Coordinate closely between technical teams, business units, especially finance, and maintain transparent internal and external communication channels.
Treat phishing and BEC incident response and recovery with the same rigor as fire drills or disaster recovery testing. Proactive preparedness dramatically reduces impacts when real incidents occur.
Ultimately, organizations face evaluation not merely based on experiencing an attack—which is increasingly viewed as inevitable—but by their response effectiveness. A competent, transparent response strengthens your organization’s reputation, while poor handling exacerbates damage. The key executive takeaway: hope for the best, plan diligently for the worst, and ensure everyone understands the incident response and recovery strategy.