Unless you’ve avoided the media for the past few months, you’ll notice there have been some serious computer attacks, also known as malware, ransom ware & viruses, around the world. Companies and individuals have been affected on different levels, from an annoyance to major financial impact.
We wanted to take this opportunity to talk to you about disaster recovery, which is often not considered, until it’s too late.
Wait, where are my computers?
Picture this scenario: it’s 2pm, in the middle of production and Aliens swooped in and take all your computers across your entire business. What happens now?
Well Aliens may or may not exist, but the reality of some of these attacks, these mystery bandits can destroy everything on the affected computer. Including anything that your computer can talk to, without physical access to your building.
The reality is, while the hardware might physically power on after an attack, the whole computer needs to be reinstalled, a costly and time-consuming process. Multiplied by the number of computers in your business, the headaches start growing.
To read articles about security and malware attacks please visit Ars Technica.
How to get up and running again?
- Access your back ups and restore strategy
This is seemingly obvious, access your backups. Ensure that everything is backed up, and regularly. This should be ideally hosted offsite and can be restored quickly and efficiently.
- How do I get ten computers installed and running?
Here come the less obvious and harder tasks, like ‘how do I get ten computers installed and running?’ This is going to take time and money. Work out what systems and documents you need to make this happen, e.g. insurance details, credit cards…
- Access critical documents to get back up and running
Ensure you have some independent way of accessing critical data. For information such as insurance policy numbers, key logins/passwords, payroll details…
Creating your disaster recovery plan
Plan for the worst, hope for the best!
The more plans and checks in place, the more assurance you have in the unfortunate event of the worst-case scenario. Sleep easy knowing what to do if a disaster occurs, to get your business back online again.
While we don’t want to scare you, we do hope this article has provided you with thought provoking tips that will safeguard your business going forward.
Need more help?
If you require further advice, then we suggest you contact an independent IT consulting company to help you put plans in place. It’s insurance for your business.
For a general guide to IT disaster recovery download our free eBook.
