How to Build a Cyber Resiliency Plan for Your Business

Cyber threats are no longer a distant possibility. They are a constant risk that every business, regardless of size or industry, must be prepared to face. While cybersecurity focuses on preventing attacks, cyber resiliency takes it a step further by preparing your organization to respond effectively, recover quickly, and continue operating when prevention isn’t enough.

It's not a matter of whether an attack will happen, but how ready your business is to handle it. In this guide, we’ll outline six essential steps to help you build a resiliency plan that fits your business and strengthens your overall security posture.

1. Assess Your Current Risk Landscape

Before you can build an effective resiliency plan, you need a clear picture of where your business is most vulnerable so you know exactly where to focus your efforts. A good first step is to review these key areas:

• Catalog all digital assets: Include servers, databases, applications, connected devices, and cloud services, along with less obvious assets such as IoT devices, security cameras, and smart building systems connected to your network.
  
  
• Evaluate your current cybersecurity posture: Check that firewalls are up to date, multi-factor authentication is in use, and vulnerability scans are performed regularly. Tools like EpiOn’s security assessments or Microsoft Secure Score can help pinpoint gaps and provide actionable recommendations.
  
  
• Access your backup systems and data recovery processes: Ensure backups cover all critical data, are stored securely, and can be restored without issues. Schedule regular tests to confirm recovery times meet your business needs and that no files are missing or corrupted.
  
  

2. Define Critical Business Functions

Systems in your organization vary in how critical they are. Some can be offline for hours or even days without major consequences, while others are so essential that even minutes of downtime can cause significant damage.

Identify which systems, applications, and departments are truly mission-critical. These might include your customer database, payment processing systems, manufacturing equipment, or communication platforms. Consider both the direct impact of losing these systems and the ripple effects throughout your organization.

For each critical function, set two targets: how long the system can be down before it disrupts operations (your recovery time objective) and how much data you can afford to lose (your recovery point objective). For example, a financial services firm might need email restored within hours but could survive a week without their training portal.

During a crisis, you'll know exactly which systems to restore first and how much time and resources to allocate to each recovery effort. It also helps you make informed decisions about backup frequency, redundancy investments, and insurance coverage.

3. Build a Layered Defense Strategy

The most effective way to strengthen cyber resiliency is to protect your systems at multiple points. Building layers of defense ensures that if one control fails, others are ready to prevent or limit the damage.

Key layers to include in your strategy:

• Network perimeter defenses: Use firewalls and intrusion detection systems to monitor incoming traffic and block malicious activity before it reaches internal systems.
  
  
• Endpoint protection: Ensure every device such as laptops, smartphones, servers, and IoT devices has updated antivirus software, endpoint detection tools, and secure configuration management.
  
  
• Multi-factor authentication (MFA): Require MFA for all users, especially those with administrative access or sensitive data permissions, to add an extra barrier even if passwords are compromised.
  
  
• Regular patching and updates: Apply security patches and software updates on a consistent schedule to close vulnerabilities before attackers can exploit them.
  
  
• Employee security training: Provide ongoing training to help staff recognize phishing attempts, social engineering tactics, and other common attack methods.
  
  
• Backup and disaster recovery systems: Maintain reliable backups in multiple locations, including offline or air-gapped storage, to protect against cyberattacks, hardware failures, natural disasters, and human error.

4. Establish a Response and Recovery Plan

When a cyber incident occurs, every minute counts. A well-documented plan reduces confusion, ensures the right actions are taken, and minimizes the impact on your business. Your plan should outline exactly what to do, who is responsible, and how to keep operations moving during and after an incident.

Key steps to include in your plan:

• Define roles and responsibilities. Identify who detects incidents, who is notified first, and who has authority to make critical decisions such as shutting down systems or authorizing payments. Use a decision tree to guide the team through different scenarios without lengthy debate.
  
  
• Establish communication protocols. Outline how you will share information with employees, customers, vendors, and regulatory bodies. Include requirements for incident reports and any necessary notifications about service disruptions or data breaches.
  
  
• Document incident-specific procedures. Create step-by-step playbooks for ransomware, data breaches, denial-of-service attacks, and other threats. Include contact details for key personnel, technology partners, cyber insurance providers, and legal counsel.
  
  
• Plan for non-cyber disruptions. Account for natural disasters, power outages, and supply chain interruptions. Identify how operations will continue if your primary office is inaccessible or if a critical vendor goes offline.
  
  
• Prepare alternative workflows and communication methods. Determine backup channels for team coordination if email is down, and outline how to shift production or services to secondary facilities or cloud environments if primary systems are unavailable.
  
  

5. Test and Refine the Plan

A resiliency plan only works if it performs under real-world conditions. Regular testing exposes gaps, strengthens your team’s readiness, and builds the confidence needed to act quickly during a crisis.

Ways to test and improve your plan:

• Conduct tabletop exercises. Hold quarterly sessions with key stakeholders to walk through different incident scenarios. Begin with simple cases, such as a compromised user account, and progress to complex situations like supply chain attacks or multi-vector incidents.
  
  
• Run simulated attacks. Use penetration testing to uncover vulnerabilities that routine scans may miss, and phishing simulations to measure employee awareness and identify those who need additional training.
  
  
• Verify backup and recovery processes. Don’t just check that backups are running. Test them by restoring data and applications to confirm they are complete, functional, and can be recovered within your required time frame.
  
  
• Review and learn from each event. After every test or real incident, assess what worked well, where improvements are needed, and whether everyone understood their roles. Use these findings to update procedures, training, and technology.
  
  

Keep the plan up to date. Review it formally every six months, and make immediate updates after system changes, staff changes, or shifts in business priorities. Consistent testing and refinement ensure your plan stays relevant, actionable, and effective.

6. Build a Culture of Cyber Awareness

Technology and procedures are only as strong as the people using them. Lasting cyber resiliency comes from creating an organizational culture where security awareness is part of everyday work, not just an occasional training topic.

Steps to strengthen your security culture:

• Lead by example: Executive leadership should actively participate in training, follow security protocols, and prioritize cybersecurity in decision-making. Visible commitment from the top reinforces its importance across the organization.
  
  
• Make training continuous: Evolving threats require ongoing education. Use a mix of monthly security updates, quarterly phishing simulations, and annual in-depth training to keep skills and awareness current.
  
  
• Customize training by role: Different teams face different risks. Tailor content so that each department (from sales to IT to accounting) learns how to handle the threats most relevant to their work.
  
  
• Encourage early reporting: Promote a “report early, report often” mindset. Provide simple reporting processes and assure employees that raising concerns will not result in punishment. Recognize and reward proactive reporting.
  
  
• Embed security into business processes: Make cybersecurity assessments a standard part of vendor selection, new product launches, and system implementations.
  
  

A strong culture of cyber awareness turns every employee into an active participant in defense, reducing risks and improving the organization’s ability to respond effectively when incidents occur.

Your Path to True Cyber Resilience

Cyber resiliency ensures your business can respond quickly, recover fully, and keep moving forward when disruptions happen. Achieving that level of readiness starts with a clear, well-structured plan that prepares your team to act decisively and keep operations on track when challenges arise.

At EpiOn, we help businesses build cyber resiliency plans that are practical, customized, and designed to grow with changing threats. From the initial assessment to ongoing refinement, we work with you to create a plan you can count on. Schedule a cybersecurity consultation today and take the first step toward building your plan.