Disaster Recovery: Are You Prepared?

Posted By: Claire Thursday 25th January 2018 Tags: ,

A disaster recovery plan, especially in business is intrinsic to the successful running of a company. Unfortunately, the worst attitude individuals can have to disaster is that specific misfortunes will never fall on them. Whilst wonderfully optimistic, putting a plan in place is almost like falling from height onto the security of a safety blanket. Today we’re discussing disaster recovery from an IT perspective. Should disaster recovery be something you brush aside for the sake of an optimistic outlook?

Disaster recovery and business continuity plans, in the ’80s and ’90s, didn’t exist. Needless to say, disasters occurred however, there were no real plans in place from an IT perspective. Business Continuity plans and disaster recovery plans are now used frequently as business/company owners are aware of the damaging consequences that may occur.

What is Business Continuity Planning?

System creation of prevention and recovery to deal with potential threats is the basic definition of business continuity planning. The ultimate goal of such a process is to enable ongoing operations before, during, and after a disaster.

When it comes to an IT disaster, unfortunately it’s not merely a case of a “quick fix” to solve the problem or rectify the disaster. Ensuring a carefully constructed disaster recovery plan is in place is key to running a successful business/company smoothly.

What could happen without;

A company without access to important files and data will lose money. Quite simply, the longer you’re not online, the longer your business is not able to fully operate. For example products and services can’t be sold and you and your team don’t have access to invoices or client data. Worst case scenario, doors will have to be closed until the disaster is rectified.

How about this for a disaster?

In 2020 Hackney Council  residents were left worried after a severe cyber attack hit in October. Following the attack, the council were unable to set up or change direct debits. This naturally resulted in widespread problems with accounts and other services. The knock on effect meant a number of people who were not able to retrieve their benefit entitlement were powerless in paying rent. Further down the chain, landlords become sorely out of pocket. Worst case results saw eviction and even homelessness.

Did Hackney Council think ‘it will never happen to us’? As potentially irrelevant as it may seem, a disaster recovery plan in this instance would have allowed systems to be back up and running far more quickly. Overall, the glitch would have caused some problems but wouldn’t have been nearly as bad.

Is Your Data Secure?

A good strategy becomes solid when securing data from breach and theft. A recent survey indicated that by 2021 a new organization will be breached by a cybercriminal every 11 seconds. With specific viruses able to lay undetected in networks for up to 100 days, they could very well pose a problem.

If you currently have a backup solution on a rolling 30-day schedule and the dormant virus goes live this is potentially a huge business risk with unwanted knock on effects to reputation and customers.

Operations Director at LaneSystems, Mark Shields, says;

I see evidence of this optimism when discussing IT disaster recovery with others, including clients. When discussing the subject I’m often met with phrases such as “That won’t happen to us”, “It has never gone wrong before” and “we will deal with that if it happens”. It’s scary.

Why is Disaster Recovery Important?

If a company experiences disaster and has no plan in place this could result in losing all stored data. Company impact includes a loss of sales, customer confidence, reputation and worse still, the business as a whole.

Unfortunately, when it comes to an IT disaster, we’re not just talking about inconvenience or annoyance. If such disasters were ‘minor’, surely they wouldn’t be disasters? Should trouble strike, this could potentially mean complete failure of IT Systems in their entirety. In layman’s terms this means:

  • Locked out of a PC/Laptop
  • Unable to check emails
  • No access to invoices or orders
  • Missing data

Results often find companies quickly screeching to a halt. How long this lasts all depends on the quality and preparation that has been put into creating the disaster recovery plan in place. Without something effective, it could potentially be weeks, months, or even forever. Harsh but True.

As a business owner could you afford this to happen? Is it worth risking the chance of a disaster? Not only could the loss of data prevent a company from running, but it could also go against GDPR guidelines resulting in hefty fines.

Phishing

Phishing is the process used by cybercriminals to gain private information from victims. The ultimate goal of a cybercriminal is to persuade potential victims to click on links within their scam. Although emails they create may look real, valid and harmless, they become malicious once clicked, as viruses could be linked to hack your device or even steal your passwords.

Here’s a tip;

Refrain from using the same password for everything, click here to find out more.

Backups Within IT

Don’t worry, I have backups!

Backups are fantastic, more so when you’re aware of exactly what specifically is backed up. Sadly, backing up files in the event of disaster recovery is necessary yet simply not enough. Have server operating systems been considered? What about the domain environment, email servers, and user accounts? Can you and your team get into these easily? How long will it take to manually recreate all the configurations required to get your systems back up and running? Each of these features are certainly something to consider.

Optimism is wonderful, something as humans we all need, especially in 2021! At times, however, it pays to coincide optimism with a realistic outlook. Don’t allow the lack of a disaster recovery plan to ruin the future of your company.

2020 has been a really tough year for all of us, businesses included. The information provided today should prove enough to encourage disaster recovery plans across the board. Why add unneeded additional pressures?