startups are easy targets. Startup world is filled with examples of data theft and how a beautiful idea just came down thrashing. Startups have a very narrow financial funnel and Startups are weaker targets, in case of any cyber attacks they are unable to handle legal implications and die. Most important is Planning, cybersecurity threats in today’s times can not be ignored. Startups are more vulnerable and this will increase day by day.

• Startups are Easy target or more easily vulnerable  – Large organizations already have procedures or have good infra & spending power to mitigate these threats, but small companies or startups are not so lucky. Cyber crime is increasing day by day and these startup’s are easy targets for them. Basic concern is protecting customer data. It’s all about protecting your digital assets, one of the ways is to use tools for Vulnerable Management.

• Tarnish Reputation  – Basically startups have to be more vigilant  about their reputation, only a single incident in news can tarnish their reputation. Startups business are like planes taking off from the runway, it’s very important to be very vigilant while taking off. Once startups have enough customer base or good investments, then it’s easy to handle.

• Dependency upon Third Party API’s – Most of the startups initially take support of third party API’s due to the fact that it’s impossible to develop API from scratch or the business model is not financially viable hence, third party API’s are the only source, using API means dependency and data exchange and we never know how this is taking place. Recommendation is that some legal documentation should be done before going for this arrangements.

• Less Spending upon IT Infra & Technology  – It’s very important that you select the best IT infra and technology solutions, we are living  in an advanced era, although there are many IT infra solutions available these days which offer services on the basis of bandwidth usage, this actually means Pay as you use. Ie: AWS , Google Storage’s etc These tools have actually made life easier because we are getting the same quality which larger setups are getting and are actually paying on the basis of usage, these advantages were actually not available even a few years back.

• Testing & Performance  – Most of the startups ignore this process called “Testing & Performance”. Although it’s a very important department, in case there is a financial crunch, startups can go for freelancers available at low cost and high quality.

• Lack of Legal know how – We all know startups are betting on new ideas or playing on new technology which might disrupt the market, and it’s not possible that a legal journey would be so simple for the company, hence just starting on mere ideas is not the only important. Analyzing the legal aspect would be a very wise decision. It’s recommended to hire a Cyber laws expert before going forward, this will not only help the company get a second opinion.

• Startups are Less Likely to fight back – Most of the startups have very small small financial backbone or narrow funnel for finances, In incidents like data thefts or legal notices, many startups haven’t even planned these financial aspects or we can say they have not planned for this situations, these incidents actually lose focus on the actual technology which they are working and leave the focus on what the actual idea was resulting in shutting down of startups or moving in wrong direction.

• Less due diligence  – Duedelegence for the idea is very important, a startup team should spend more and more time on this, Managing their resources, Technology aspects, research, IPR, demographic, usage, bandwidth, People, taste etc.   There are the most important aspects in understanding businesses. It’s also important to understand the Cyber Laws, although the world is becoming borderless, the internet has no boundaries, but these cyber laws would be acting as borders for different communities. Hence it’s very important for IT startups to design their  software in a way that is easily configurable according to the change in laws. Scalability not only refers to the tech infra, but also refers to how immediately you change your policies and how easily it is configurable in your software.

Recommendation

Get your Idea Patented 

The Most important aspect of an idea is to get that registered, you again need some attorney and get to read some local or national laws just going to get your idea registered. Although it’s difficult and time consuming but people have come up with innovative ideas to get it mark in the history that they thought for the idea first and small small efforts they did in this direction could save them from losing their idea. 

Cyber Risk Analysis 

Cyber Risk Analysis is the best due diligence which you can start initially, this report will basically touch endpoints where cyber risks are involved. Moreover this gives more insights before taking steps.

Before going for full scalability, have a cyber laws lawyer on your panel.

It’s very important, startups need to have cyber security & Legal advisors on their panel, this will help them analyse local laws and understand the legal implications before taking any steps. This will help companies to do due diligence before going further. 

Keep a cyber security plan always ready in case of emergency response.

In case of data breach or cyberattacks, always be ready with Plan B and try to minimize the risk to customers data, because that will be the only way to safeguard, once this risk is mitigated all other risks seem secondary and will automatically be secured. 

Always be in touch with the regulators or authorities regarding any thefts which you think would be in advance addressed to policy makers.

If you think your product is new and is somewhat governance is needed with public authorities or regulators, always get connected via events with the regulators of industry. You never know  whom you need to connect at the time of crisis.

 Before releasing any version of your product always keep your Terms & conditions, and disclaimer updated and enforced.

The most important part is the disclaimer policy, most of the court cases have fought and won or loose on the basis of Terms & Conditions of usage and Disclaimer. It is strongly recommended that always keep your Policies Updates and keep it reviewed with your legal consultant every time. 

Be proactive in addressing issues with your users. 

Let’s assume, your system is attacked in past months, and you want users to change their passwords asap, don’t hesitate to this announcement, It’s a responsible step, we have seen any automobile companies recalling cars for some defective part, it’s similar to that, you are becoming responsible company trying to save your customers and their data.

Hence by becoming a proactive founder dont let your Startups become  Easy target and vulnerable. SAVE YOUR STARTUP

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CYBER SECURITY CHALLENGES FACED BY FINTECH START-UPS

WHY BUSINESS CONTINUITY MANAGEMENT IS SO IMPORTANT FOR IT SERVICE PROVIDERS

Whenever there is disruption in business, it can cost money, damage in reputation or sometimes customer loss. Insurance companies does not cover all costs and cannot replace customers that defect to the competition. A business continuity plan is must for any IT service provider for sustaining such catastrophic conditions.

Business Continuity process identifies the likelihood and impact of the risks on the business and then produces a contingency plan to deal with any kind of eventualities, like IT system failure, terrorism, natural calamities like earthquake and flood, unavailability of staff etc.

Business Continuity is one of the most critical aspect of any business.

WHAT IS BUSINESS CONTINUITY MANAGEMENT (BCM)?

Business continuity management (BCM) is a framework for identifying an organization’s risk, its exposure to external and internal threats pertaining to service availability and hence formulating a plan to mitigate the risk. Business Continuity Management involves development of plan to prevent any disaster and assist in recovery in case of crisis. The motive of Business Continuity management is to develop and implement ability to effectively respond to threats such as data breaches or natural disasters and protect the business interests of the organization. BCM includes crisis management, disaster recovery, business recovery, incident management, emergency management and contingency planning.

What Is Business Continuity Planning (BCP)?

Business continuity planning (BCP) is the step by step process of creating a robust preventive system and a mechanism of quick recovery from the potential risks to a company. BCP ensures that personnel and assets are protected, and are able to function quickly in the event of a disaster. Business Continuity Planning is conceived in advance and involves input from key stakeholders and personnel.

Business continuity Planning is the assessment of both internal and external risks and its impact on the business and then implementing preventive, detective and corrective  measures.

BCP involves defining any and all risks that can affect the organisation’s objectives and operations, making it an important part of the organization’s risk management strategy

Basic areas in which Business Continuity Planning needs to be considered:

• IT Service Continuity
• Disaster Recovery (DR)
• Pandemic Planning:
• Life-Safety
• People Continuity

HOW TO DEVELOP BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN?

Development of business Continuity plan includes following steps:

STEP 1 First of all, perform need analysis and define strategy objectives and an implementation framework should be created

STEP 2 Next, business value of organisational applications should be identified and RTO (Recovery Time Objectives) and RPO (Recovery Point Objectives) through data risk should be determined

STEP 3 Next, match technologies for safeguarding data, including backup, disaster recovery, vaulting, snapshot and replication, based upon business value

STEP 4 Next, infrastructure and personnel plans, including organizational and communications processes should be defined. A business continuity team should be formulated and business continuity plan should be complied to manage a business disruption.

STEP 5 Next, required technologies should be implemented and training and awareness to critical personnel as to which business processes are impacted

STEP 6 Table Top exercise and BCP drills of the documented plan should be conducted, in different scenario. Outcomes should be documented.

STEP 7 Next, Measure and validate test results relative to the plan overall objectives

STEP 8 Further, required enhancements that have been prioritized as a result of continuous testing and evaluation should be implemented

STEP 9 Next, continuously review, enhance and improve the business continuity plan with respect to organizational changes, fluctuating business conditions and the addition of new technologies

STEP 10 Finally, remember to repeat the entire process continuously.

BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN CONTAINS:

• Purpose and scope of BCP
• Initial data, including important contact information of all important stakeholders, located at the beginning of the plan
• Change management procedures
• Business Impact Analysis(BIA) and Risk Assessment(RA)
• How to use the business continuity plan, including guidelines as to when the BCP will be initiated
• Business Continuity Policy
• Emergency response and management
• Step-by-step procedures for Data Recovery
• Checklists and data flow diagrams
• Review ,test and update schedule for BCP

WHY BUSINESS CONTINUITY MANAGEMENT IS IMPORTANT FOR IT SERVICE PROVIDERS

Since most of our businesses are digitizes and IT is playing an important role everywhere like ERP, CRM, databases etc. So it’s mandatory for the IT service providers to consider Business continuity in order to keep business up and running in case of disaster. Features of BCP:

• Business Continuity Planning helps to identify all the critical processes and assets of the organisation and all the risk associated with them.
• Business Continuity planning is helpful in continuing the operations case of disasters like fire, cyber-attacks, natural calamities, civil unrest etc.
• Business Continuity Planning prepares the organisation for any kind of disruption and thus minimise the effect of a disruption on an organisation.
• It reduces the risk of financial loss in the organisation.
• This helps the organisation to meet legal and statutory requirements.
• RTO and RPO enables recovery of critical systems within an agreed timeframe.

• This helps in retaining organisation’s brand and image and give employees, clients and suppliers confidence in the organisation’s services.
• Frequent BCP drills help the organisation to react and re-establish the services quickly in case of disaster.
• BCP involves documentation of all the activities which should be performed in case of disruption and a well-tested & document process help to revive the business easily.
• BCP provides an advantage of working from remote location in case of disaster, thus no interruption in operations.
• A well planned BCP helps reducing downtime in case of disruption.
• Taking backups is an integral part of BCP, so organisations can recover data without much loss and can resume their business.

Business Continuity and disaster Recovery cannot be achieved by a single employee or person, it’s a team effort. A single person or an untrained staff cannot deal with disastrous situations. And, like most of the team activities, it requires practice and adequate competence in order to perform effectively in adverse situations like disaster. A proper planning is required.

Proper planning means that a thorough assessment and relevant controls shall be implemented and tested. A proper planning will tell who shall do what and how it shall be performed provides a set of well tested instructions in case of contingency.

If the stakeholders are not informed and not practiced in their roles, they cannot perform well.In that regard, business continuity planning is a sign of inclusion and commitment for a company to have a real plan.