Cyberattacks are happening everywhere, all the time. Last year, nearly 60% of organizations were hit by ransomware, according to The State of Ransomware 2024 by Sophos, and the numbers are equally alarming for other threats, such as data breaches and phishing campaigns.
But the cyberattack itself often isn’t what destroys an organization—the combination of the initial breach and a botched response is what creates the real disaster. Let’s examine the five most costly response errors that turn manageable breaches into full-scale disasters.
Mistake 1: Everyone’s Running Around Like Chickens With Their Heads Cut Off
When a cyberattack hits, the absence of a formal incident response plan (IRP) can transform a manageable security incident into organizational chaos.
Without an IRP, organizations face several immediate challenges during an attack:
- Decision paralysis: No designated incident commander means key containment decisions get delayed while stakeholders debate who has authority.
- Uncoordinated response: IT, legal, and communications teams work in silos, often taking contradictory actions.
- Evidence mishandling: Without preservation protocols, forensic data gets overwritten or deleted.
- Compliance failures: Teams miss regulatory notification deadlines, triggering potential fines.
- Communication breakdown: Inconsistent messaging to customers, partners, and employees erodes trust.
Every minute spent figuring out basic procedures is time the attackers use to expand their foothold, exfiltrate more data, or deploy additional malware.
Despite this, only 21% of organizations have a formal IRP in place, and nearly half lack confidence in their ability to create one. While the lack of confidence in creating IRPs is understandable (many SMBs don’t have security personnel or incident response expertise), it’s not an acceptable reason to remain unprepared.
Managed cybersecurity service providers can help organizations develop IRPs tailored to their specific environment, regulatory requirements, and risk profile. They can also conduct tabletop exercises to validate the plan and identify gaps before an actual incident occurs.
Mistake 2: Paying Ransom Without Considering Other Options
The average ransom payment has increased 500% in the last year, with organizations that paid reporting an average payment of $2 million, up from $400,000 in 2023.
The steep increase in how much organizations pay on average to regain access to their systems is easy to explain. When your entire operation grinds to a halt, every passing hour feels like watching money burn. Production lines sit idle. Customer orders can’t be processed. Employees can’t access work files. That blinking ransom note suddenly starts looking like the fastest escape route from an unfolding nightmare.
But there’s a good reason why the FBI doesn’t support paying a ransom in response to a ransomware attack: “Paying a ransom doesn’t guarantee you or your organization will get any data back. It also encourages perpetrators to target more victims and offers an incentive for others to get involved in this type of illegal activity.”
Instead of paying, it’s much better to start with your backup strategy. If you have your data safely backed up in a protected cloud or offsite location, you can close the vulnerability, wipe your systems clean, and recover everything from backups.
If backups aren’t available or were compromised, you can still investigate free decryption options. Security researchers have cracked numerous ransomware variants. Resources like the No More Ransom Project or specialized incident response services have a good success rate in decrypting data without paying ransomware attackers.
Mistake 3: Destroying Evidence Before Forensics and Insurer Review
Many organizations invest in cybersecurity insurance as their financial safety net against attacks, only to rob themselves of coverage through well-intentioned but catastrophic cleanup efforts. They reimage servers, delete suspicious files, clear logs, and overwrite user data in their rush to return to normal.
This digital cleanup makes it nearly impossible for insurance companies to verify your claim. Was it truly a ransomware attack, or did an insider accidentally delete files? Did the breach result from a sophisticated attack, or from gross negligence in patching known vulnerabilities? Without digital forensics, these questions become unanswerable, and insurers will interpret that ambiguity in their favor.
The solution circles back to what we emphasized at the beginning of this article: the critical importance of having an incident response plan. Specifically, your IRP should integrate directly with your cyber insurance policy requirements. Many insurers provide specific evidence preservation guidelines or even 24/7 hotlines for immediate forensic support. Build these resources into your plan so they become automatic actions.
Mistake 4: Treating Legal Deadlines Like Suggestions or Not Being Aware of Them Entirely
In the chaos of responding to a cyberattack, regulatory notification requirements often become an afterthought (if they’re thought of at all). This oversight transforms what could have been a manageable incident into a compliance nightmare with cascading legal consequences.
Every U.S. state has its own breach notification law, each with different timelines, thresholds, and requirements. Some states require notification within 30 days, others give you 60, and a few demand action “without unreasonable delay.” Miss these deadlines, and the penalties can be severe.
For organizations working with the Department of Defense, the stakes get even higher. The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) framework requires contractors to report cyber incidents affecting Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) within 72 hours. Those who miss this window can lose their ability to bid on federal contracts.
The solution is straightforward: don’t wait for an attack to figure out your obligations. Instead, you should maintain current compliance matrices covering every applicable regulation, pre-identify breach counsel, and keep template notifications ready. When an incident strikes, you can simply execute an established plan.
Mistake 5: Skipping the Post-Mortem and Failing to Harden Defenses
The attack is over, systems are restored, and everyone wants to move on. But organizations that skip the post-incident analysis are setting themselves up for a repeat performance.
Even if the response was “good enough” this time (maybe you caught the breach quickly, restored from backups, or avoided paying the ransom) that same playbook isn’t guaranteed to save you next time since cybercriminals constantly evolve their tactics.
In just the last few years, phishing emails have become crafted to perfection thanks to generative artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT, so looking for poor grammar and various generic phrases is no longer enough.
Similarly, ransomware groups have evolved from simple encryption to double and even triple extortion: first encrypting your data, then threatening to leak it publicly, and now directly contacting your customers and partners to pressure payment.
A proper post-mortem forces you to confront uncomfortable questions, such as:
- Why didn’t our email filters catch this phishing attempt?
- How did the attacker know which employee to target and what project to reference?
- What other systems could they have accessed with the stolen credentials?
- How long did the attacker have access before we detected them?
By thinking like an attacker, you can better prepare for the next attack, which will happen sooner or later since 83% of organizations experienced more than one data breach in a single year, according to IBM’s data.
Conclusion
Cyberattacks are stressful enough without making them worse through preventable mistakes. Yet, every day, organizations turn manageable incidents into disasters by panicking without a plan, destroying vital evidence, missing legal deadlines, and failing to learn from their experiences. The good news is that every mistake we’ve covered has a straightforward solution.
If you’re unsure about your incident response readiness or need help developing a comprehensive plan, OSIbeyond’s managed security services can provide the expertise and support you need. Schedule a consultation to learn how we can help protect your organization before, during, and after a cyberattack.