If there’s anything that 2020 has taught business owners, it’s that preparedness is key to survival. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, business plans were thrown off course and remote working setups had to be implemented almost overnight. Organizations that had infrastructure and strategies in place were able to quickly shift their configurations to adapt to the changing times, but businesses that didn’t have a disaster recovery plan greatly struggled.
If you want your business to thrive in 2021, you must be prepared for any catastrophe by having a backup and disaster recovery strategy that works.
Cyberattacks are getting smarter
You might think that a data breach will never happen to your organization because you’re “just a small company”. But in truth, 43% of cyberattacks target small businesses because they’re easier to infiltrate.
What’s more, these attacks are increasing not just in number but also in sophistication. Phishing emails that used to contain generic information are now tailor-fit to each receiver, making it more difficult for security solutions to identify them as spam. Fileless malware attacks are also on the rise. Without the usual signatures that make these attacks identifiable, they can bypass security software and remain undetected in the system while they do malicious activities.
Cyberattacks are becoming smarter and more numerous than ever, and you must be prepared to suffer a breach. Apart from implementing security solutions, your business must have a plan B in case these solutions fail. Having a backup and disaster recovery (BDR) strategy mitigates the effects of a data breach and ensures that your operations can swiftly return to normal.
Agility is no longer merely an option
Most businesses are prepared for natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods, but almost every company was caught off-guard by the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, your company must prioritize its BDR response to ensure business continuity in case of any disaster. Doing so will also improve your organization’s agility, or its ability to quickly adapt to sudden changes in the business landscape.
You need a BDR plan that will enable your business to keep operating even if you can’t access your physical facility. To illustrate, the pandemic has prompted various social restrictions that prevented you or your employees from accessing your facility entirely. While you can’t control these limitations, you can control how your business reacts to unforeseen events.
An organized company response is critical
When disaster hits, your company must know exactly how to respond. In case of a data breach, every employee must know what steps they need to take following the attack. Who is in charge of communicating the situation to the customers? Who is responsible for getting your systems back up and running? Without a planned protocol for such scenarios, you stand to aggravate the effects of a data breach.
A strong backup and disaster response strategy is invaluable in outlining what every staff must do following a breach. This minimizes panic, removes task redundancies, and improves your recovery time objective (RTO), or the maximum allowable time that business processes must be restored after a disaster to avoid a break in business continuity. And in a fast-paced market economy, the closer your RTO is to zero, the better.
Your customers expect excellent service
Customers are more discerning than ever, and they expect great service from companies that they deal with. When even mere seconds of website downtime can cause a customer to post negative feedback about your company, you can only imagine how they’d react when your business suffers a breach that compromises their sensitive data.
Without a solid BDR strategy, you can lose data and your customers’ trust. For small and medium-sized businesses, this could mean closing their doors for good, as customer reacquisition costs five times more than retaining them. One of the best ways to keep your customers is to protect their data, and having an effective backup and disaster recovery plan is key to that.
Disasters happen. While they are often out of your control, you can create a strategic step-by-step plan that will let you recover quickly after one. SpectrumWise offers comprehensive business security so your company can enjoy reduced risk and liabilities, updated backup systems, and rapid recovery after a disaster. Talk to us about business continuity planning today.
