Breach Planning Guide: How to Prepare Your Small Business for a Cyberattack

Most small businesses don’t plan to get hacked, but failing to prepare for a breach can make the damage worse. The question isn’t if your business will face a cybersecurity incident, but when. This breach planning guide provides small business owners with the essential steps to prepare for and respond to a cyberattack, reducing downtime, protecting sensitive data, and avoiding legal and financial consequences.

At SofTouch Systems, we help businesses across Texas create customized breach plans that are simple, actionable, and built to keep you running, even when systems go down.

Why You Need a Breach Plan

Small businesses are increasingly targeted by cybercriminals. From ransomware and phishing to insider threats and vendor compromise, the risks are real and growing. According to the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, over 60% of breaches now impact small to midsize organizations. FTC Breach Response Toolkit

Having a documented, tested response plan in place ensures:

  • Rapid recovery of operations
  • Reduced financial loss
  • Protection of customer trust
  • Legal and regulatory compliance
  • A clearer, calmer response when crisis hits

This breach planning guide walks you through exactly what to prepare in advance.

Step 1: Build a Breach Response Team

Before a breach happens, assign a core team of responders with clearly defined roles. Your team should include:

  • IT/Security Lead: Coordinates technical response and containment
  • Executive Point of Contact: Makes business decisions and manages resources
  • Legal/Compliance Advisor: Ensures proper documentation and reporting
  • Communications Lead: Handles public messaging, customer updates, and media relations
  • Third-Party Support: Include your MSP (like STS), backup providers, and insurance contacts

Maintain an up-to-date contact list, including after-hours numbers, and keep a printed copy in case of system failure.

Step 2: Define What Constitutes a Breach

Not every incident is a full-scale breach. Clarify the events that would trigger your breach response plan, such as:

  • Unauthorized access to customer or employee data
  • Compromised credentials or leaked passwords
  • Malware or ransomware detection
  • Unusual login or network activity
  • Suspicious behavior from an insider or third-party vendor

By clearly defining thresholds, your team can react decisively when real threats arise.

Step 3: Identify and Classify Your Critical Data

You can’t protect what you haven’t mapped. Work with your IT provider to document:

  • What data you store (e.g., financial records, medical data, contracts, client lists)
  • Where that data resides (cloud storage, file servers, endpoints, etc.)
  • Who has access to it
  • Which data is regulated (HIPAA, PCI, etc.)

Classify your systems and data by priority. During a breach, recovering essential systems like billing, payroll, or client communications should take precedence.

Step 4: Document Containment & Recovery Procedures

When a breach occurs, the first step is containment. Your plan should include:

  • How to isolate infected devices or servers
  • How to revoke compromised credentials
  • How to shut down remote access or third-party integrations
  • How to activate backups and business continuity solutions
  • When and how to restore affected systems safely

Make sure your breach planning guide includes instructions that non-technical staff can follow in an emergency.

Step 5: Prepare Communications Templates

Clear, timely communication during a breach reduces panic and protects your brand. Prepare pre-approved templates for:

  • Internal teams
  • Clients or partners
  • Vendors
  • Regulators or law enforcement
  • Public/media (if necessary)

These should include an incident summary, what actions are being taken, and how affected parties will be updated going forward.

Step 6: Test Your Plan Regularly

A plan is only effective if your team knows how to use it. Schedule biannual breach simulations or tabletop exercises to:

  • Review each team member’s role
  • Test decision-making under pressure
  • Ensure recovery procedures are up to date
  • Uncover weaknesses in your documentation or tools

Involving STS in these drills can help you refine your breach planning guide using real-world scenarios and emerging threats.

Step 7: Post-Breach Review

After every incident, whether minor or major, schedule a post-mortem meeting to review:

  • What happened and how it was detected
  • What worked and what failed in the response
  • What data or systems were affected
  • What needs to change in your policies or tools
  • How long it took to return to normal operations

Update your breach planning guide accordingly.

SofTouch Systems Can Help

We provide end-to-end support for breach prevention, detection, and recovery. Services include:

  • Breach planning and documentation
  • Endpoint and network protection
  • Secure backup and disaster recovery
  • Employee security training and simulations
  • Real-time incident response support

We don’t just offer tools, we build custom response systems tailored to your specific risk profile, industry regulations, and team size.

Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late

A breach doesn’t have to be a catastrophe. With the right plan in place, it can be a contained event instead of a business-ending crisis.

Book your free breach planning consultation with STS today and gain the peace of mind that comes with being prepared.

Create a Private AI Assistant That Understands Your Business Documents

Small businesses today need smarter tools to handle repetitive tasks without handing over sensitive data to Big Tech. That’s why more organizations are choosing to create a private AI assistant, a secure, customized tool that can read your internal documents and answer questions in real time.

At SofTouch Systems, we show Texas businesses how to build AI tools that are secure, affordable, effective, and completely under your control.

What Is a Private AI Assistant?

A private AI assistant is a custom chatbot trained on your own business documents. It doesn’t rely on public internet data or cloud-based AI subscriptions. Instead, it runs on secure, local models and pulls responses directly from your files.

You can upload PDFs, Word docs, spreadsheets, and more. The assistant then becomes your company’s internal search engine, capable of answering questions like:

  • “What are our payment terms?”
  • “What’s our return policy?”
  • “What is included in the bronze-level service plan?”

Best of all, the assistant works securely within your own infrastructure, giving you control over performance, privacy, and cost.

How to Build an AI Assistant (w/Help: STS)

With open-source tools and expert guidance, any small business can now build a private AI assistant tailored to its needs.

Step 1: Choose the Tools

We recommend combining Ollama for local AI models with LangChain or LlamaIndex for document processing and natural language querying.

Step 2: Add Your Documents

Simply load the files you want your assistant to understand. These can include onboarding guides, internal policies, service manuals, HR documentation, or training materials.

Step 3: Train the Bot to Answer Questions

Your AI assistant doesn’t require traditional training. It uses retrieval-based methods to pull exact answers from the document content. You can begin asking questions as soon as setup is complete.

Step 4: Deploy It Privately

Run the bot on your server, local PC, or a secured cloud instance. No data is sent to external vendors unless you choose to integrate optional services.

Why You Should Keep It In-House

Many cloud-based AI services expose your content to third-party data storage, usage logging, and unpredictable fees. When you create a private AI assistant, you benefit from:

  • Data ownership and complete privacy
  • Customization for your business environment
  • No vendor lock-in or SaaS pricing traps
  • Faster responses and offline availability

STS specializes in setting up AI tools that are fully aligned with your security policies and compliance needs.

Real Use Cases for Local Businesses

  • IT Consultants: Search SLA terms and ticket procedures instantly
  • Nonprofits: Let volunteers query policy docs without HR assistance
  • Legal Offices: Reference prior case law and procedural docs
  • Manufacturers: Find product specs or technical references instantly

Let’s Build Yours

We help clients across Central and South Texas deploy secure, private AI solutions that give them a competitive edge. Whether you’re just exploring your options or ready to implement, we’ll walk you through every step.

Schedule a free AI consultation with SofTouch Systems today and see how a private AI assistant can serve your business better. (Orig Story on MSN)

Grocery Cyberattack Warning: What UNFI’s Breach Means for Business

When most people think of cyberattacks, they picture banks, tech firms, or maybe healthcare providers, not grocery distributors. But the recent UNFI cyberattack proves that even industries once considered low-risk are now in the crosshairs. If cybercriminals are going after food supply chains, your small business could be next. (Story by: TechCrunch)

What Happened to UNFI?

United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI)—one of the largest wholesale food distributors in the U.S.—experienced a major cyberattack in mid-June. This attack disrupted operations, delayed shipments, and caused grocery store shortages nationwide.

While the company says it’s recovering, many grocers are still feeling the effects. For everyday small business owners, the message is clear:

You don’t have to be in finance, software, or real estate to become a cyber target.

Grocery cyberattack warning. UNFI hit by cyberattack. What every small business needs to know and how STS can help.

Why This Affects Every Industry

Cybercrime is no longer industry-specific. Attackers are shifting their focus from highly protected targets to vulnerable ones, like regional distributors, HVAC companies, and retail operators. Small to midsize businesses often lack the layered security infrastructure of enterprise-level organizations, making them ideal entry points for cybercriminals. Industries once considered low-priority, such as food service, logistics, and manufacturing, are now facing increasing threats due to their critical supply chain roles. The growing number of ransomware incidents in these sectors demonstrates that cybercriminals are looking for weak links with high operational urgency. As shown by the UNFI cyberattack, even a brief disruption can ripple across the entire industry, amplifying pressure to pay ransoms and restore services quickly. Why?

  • Many small and mid-size businesses lack hardened IT infrastructure
  • Supply chain access gives hackers leverage over many downstream partners
  • Ransomware payouts are easier from unprepared companies

The UNFI cyberattack underscores a larger trend: no one is off-limits anymore.

What STS Recommends for All Business Owners

Whether you’re in food, construction, education, or logistics, you can take steps right now to avoid becoming the next headline:

1. Backups Are Non-Negotiable

Daily offline backups prevent data loss and give you leverage if ransomware strikes.

2. Email Security Should Be Your First Defense

Phishing is still the most common entry point. Train your team and filter your inboxes.

3. Limit Admin Access

Use the principle of least privilege. The fewer people who have full system control, the better.

4. Segment Your Networks

Separate financial, operational, and customer-facing systems so one breach doesn’t cripple your whole company.

5. Patch Systems Promptly

Hackers exploit outdated software. Automate your updates or let a Managed Service Provider handle it.

STS Pro Insight: You’re Not “Too Small” to Be Targeted

If criminals can breach a $28 billion food distributor, they can—and do—target local businesses for quick payouts. In fact, 63% of SMBs report at least one attempted cyberattack annually.

Our team at SofTouch Systems has worked with businesses across Texas to recover from attacks, and more importantly, to prevent them from happening again.

Schedule a Cyber Risk Assessment Today

Don’t wait for a breach to realize your vulnerabilities.
Contact SofTouch Systems today for a no-obligation cybersecurity assessment tailored to your industry.