As a business owner, there are many items that can threaten your business at any point, such as product recalls or low profit. What most businesses often miss is the threat of data loss.
Cyber attacks are everywhere and can happen to anyone. Any business, no matter their size, can face attacks, and very few of them have a plan. What they all need is business continuity.
What is business continuity? How can it help protect you? We have all your answers and more below.
What is data loss and why does it matter? Data loss is when a cyber attack or a fault in your servers damages or steals your data.
Your data can include anything from a client's personal information, company marketing data, or even research and development data. Even a small leak of this private information could have lasting effects.
This is worse when it comes to the client's private data, but any leak can damage your reputation. When the public knows that someone has compromised your security, it makes it harder for them to want to invest in you.
Lost client data can spell the doom of any future with that client. Lost company data can erase hours and hours of work.
Either of these showcases a massive drop in both revenue and productivity. Your workers will need to make up a lot of ground, either through bringing new clients to replace the old or in sorting through damaged files.
Related Post: Avoid These Five Common Data Archiving Mistakes
You may also do more than lose clients; you may find yourself in legal trouble. With valuable client information like financial details and personal information, losing them could end up in a lawsuit.
If you had important information belonging to someone else and you did not take the needed precautions to protect it, it is your fault.
These lawsuits can be devastating if you are not prepared for them.
Business continuity is the process and plans that put your company from disaster mode back to normalcy. The plan should be sizable, flexible, and understood across your company.
The biggest flaw in most businesses' defense against cyber threats and data loss is that they have no idea what it even is. A large portion of companies has no real clue what to expect.
Researching and crafting a plan is a major step ahead of so many others.
How your company stores data, organizes it, and accesses it is a huge key toward figuring out how to secure it all.
Layering your data across multiple servers is a great way to protect it. If one server takes a hit, it is only part of your data. Avoid putting all your eggs in one basket.
Additional security can come in many forms. Keeping passwords limited to a trusted few is a start. Not dealing with very sensitive client information when possible can help protect you from liability.
Hiring in a proper security firm can be expensive, but as you rise in size and data management, it can be worth it.
When the worst does happen, it is the coordination after the fact that can matter most. Getting the right people onto the job of fixing the issue right away can save a lot in the long run.
This means organizing IT to figure out the breached server, figuring out a way to patch it and reinforce security, and beginning to restore data.
The better you know where to apply pressure and how to re-balance, the faster you can get the entire business on its feet. Recovery is how a business survives a breach.
Business continuity is one major step toward keeping your business on its feet. There is a lot to the concept of cybersecurity and this is only the first step.
Knowledge is power when it comes to understanding and protecting against cyber attacks. Envision IT Solutions has the knowledge in all things IT and business. Check out more articles on IT security here.
