What Happens After a Cyberattack: Prevent, Respond and Recover

By , Owner, PDX Information Technology Services

Last updated:

For a small business, a cyberattack is rarely about one stolen file. It is about days of disrupted work, difficult conversations with customers and a scramble to figure out what was touched. Knowing what to expect makes it easier to prepare.

What can happen when you are hacked

  • Data exposure: customer, employee or financial information can be stolen.
  • Financial loss: fraudulent payments, recovery costs and lost work.
  • Downtime: systems that are locked, corrupted or taken offline.
  • Reputation and legal exposure: notification duties and lost trust, depending on your industry and the data involved.

Prevention basics

  • Unique passwords and a password manager.
  • Multi-factor authentication on email and remote access.
  • Regular patching of operating systems and applications.
  • Email filtering and phishing awareness training.
  • Endpoint protection with someone watching the alerts.

Recovery basics

Keep backups separate from your network and test restores. Have a short written plan: who makes decisions, who calls your provider and insurer, and how staff are told what to do. Good backups give you more options if systems are locked.

Why a managed approach

Prevention and recovery depend on routines that are easy to skip when everyone is busy. Managed cybersecurity makes them part of the service.

Related reading

Talk to a local team

PDX Information Technology Services provides managed IT, cybersecurity and compliance support for small businesses in Portland, Lake Oswego, Beaverton, Hillsboro and Vancouver, WA. Plans start at $100 per user per month (Gold) and $180 per user per month (Platinum). Call 971-331-4871 or book a free assessment.

Request an IT assessment

Tell us a little about your business and a PDX IT team member will follow up to schedule an assessment. Prefer to talk? Call 971-331-4871.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
  • No mobile information will be shared with third parties/affiliates for marketing/promotional purposes. All the above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties
Steve Shaff, owner of PDX Information Technology Services

About the author: Steve Shaff

Steve Shaff is the owner of PDX Information Technology Services, a managed IT provider he founded in 2020. From the Tualatin office he helps businesses across Portland Metro & Southwest Washington with IT support, cybersecurity and compliance. More about Steve ยท Contact PDX IT

Get In Touch
Contact Us
Share On Social Media
Other Recent Blog Articles
Infostealer Malware: How Stolen Session Cookies Get Past MFA (and How to Stop It)
November 7, 2026

Infostealer malware copies saved passwords and live session cookies from a browser and sells them on the dark web, which lets attackers walk past MFA. Here’s how it works and a practical 10-step plan for Portland-area small businesses.

Double Extortion Ransomware: When Gangs Sell Your Stolen Data on the Dark Web (A Small Business Guide)
November 6, 2026

Modern ransomware gangs don’t just lock your files. They copy your data first, then threaten to publish or sell it on the dark web. Here is how double extortion works and what Portland-area small businesses can do before, during and after an attack.

Portland Small Business Mobile Security: How to Protect Phones, Public Wi-Fi and Wireless Devices
November 5, 2026

Portland small business mobile security checklist: lock phones, avoid risky public Wi-Fi, secure office wireless, spot text scams and handle lost phones.