One day you're doing business, and the next day, you're being hit with threats from every direction. What are you supposed to do?
Every business that conducts itself needs to ensure it has a business continuity plan and test it to ensure it's effective throughout the time they're in business. If you're starting out, it might not be clear what this type of plan is and how to test it, which is why we're here.
Below you'll find a brief guide you need to ensure you're implementing a plan that works for your business.
A business continuity plan, as mentioned, is when you create a system that aids in determining potential business threats and how to plan for them.
For example, after documenting potential threats, the next step is to determine the plan you use to recover after your business has been attacked.
Having a plan is crucial because your business is entrusted with consumer data, and you've got to protect it.
When you don't protect customer data, it breaches the relationship you've created with the customer and can cause your business to face several penalties on a legal level.
These penalties could mean paying fines and other requirements that will bring you back within compliance. Not to mention threats or attacks that are successful can ruin your company's reputation and takes years to repair.
As cyber-attacks become more sophisticated, it's crucial to have a plan to combat and protect your business against them.
To ensure your plan is working for your business, the first thing you've got to do is perform a risk assessment. This assessment will detail the risks that could affect your business and the magnitude of these risks.
You can't defend against a threat you didn't see coming.
After the risk assessment is performed, the next step is to begin implementing and determining the safeguards you will use to protect your business from these risks.
After this, test the procedures you've selected to ensure that they will work when the time comes.
And lastly, remember to review the strategy you're using every so often.
As your business grows, you might find that you need to put in more safeguards to cover every area of your business.
One of the steps in creating your business continuity plan is to test the plan constantly.
Testing the plan allows the crisis team to identify potential gaps that need to be secured.
It can also help your business to remain within compliance because, as mentioned, there are consequences for not doing so. Another reason to test your plan is to reduce the time it takes to recover from cyberattacks.
This can also reduce the amount it costs for your business to recover.
There are several testing tiers, with the first tier focusing on the response your crisis team has to threats.
The team should know the threat and how to take it on.
The second tier is about identifying who is responsible for what when an attack occurs.
The third tear is about implementing your strategy. This is happens by giving each department a practice scenario they need to respond to and recording what they do when presented with the scenario.
Next, after each department completes the task, you'll continue extra rounds of crisis testing to ensure everyone is on the same page.
When it comes to having a business continuity plan, there are several things you need to do to ensure it works. Identify what your threats are and run your team through practice scenarios.
Contact Envisions IT Solutions and let us help you create a plan that makes sense.
