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Security is crucial in Business Continuity planning

VBS IT Services

Every business from a small home based office to a large enterprise may not always understand the relationship between a good Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plan and good system security. Unfortunately for many buinesses, security is never given top priority until something happens and when it does, that’s when the finger pointing begins.

First off, many organizations believe that if they have basic security in place – things like a firewall, system patching, strong passwords and backups, then they have all that they need from a security standpoint. However, this is not the case when it comes to Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity.

Loss of information and data can be disastrous to any business, small, medium or enterprise. The loss of critical information or the loss of critical infrastructure can be business ending. Nowadays, more than ever, IT Administrators and IT support need to be aware of attacks on the business, especially when it comes to cyber security that could render the business information and data useless.

Here are 3 things every business needs to consider when it comes to security and business continuity:

  1. Conduct a security audit:
    A security audit can give a business meaningful and significant insight and direction into the current state of security and business continuity. The important part here and the best approach with an audit is that it is completed by someone either outside the IT department or outside the business. Many times, it’s very easy to skip over things and check off a box when you think something is working, usually more so when it is your own work, even that of a colleagues work. Best practice for an internal security audit if conducted properly and unbiased, needs to be done by people who have no involvement in the current IT system but also have a strong understanding of the systems in place.
  2. Get the correct technology for your business model:
    We cannot stress this enough. Implementing the proper technology for your business will make your business much more resilient, adaptable and profitable, getting the wrong technology and no matter what you do you will never achieve your true business potential.
  3. Test, Test, Test: So many times when businesses implement a security system they fail to test it. Many don’t realize that restoring backups is usually not the problem. It’s when they are restoring a full system or a database to another location, then running the business off it before rolling it back. This procedure can be absolutely stressful for any business owner. Setting up procedures and testing the system allows a business to see what will happen in a total failure scenario. Relying on a system without ever having testing it is like playing Russian roulette with your business.

Having a Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity Plan needs to be part of your business security profile. Without it, if something happens to your data then you could be severely compromising the security of your data including a loss of that data. Remember, even though security is an IT risk and issue, it is not ONLY an IT issue, organizations are incredibly dependent on technology to handle such situations untouched. We can help with putting a plan in place and help you plan for the unforeseen. Contact us to learn more about our business continuity solutions.