It sounds slightly alarming and catastrophic when we start using the word disaster, but if your business were to be the target of a cyberattack or if you were to lose all your documents, we would be inclined to describe that as a disaster!
Events such as these could be that start of the end for your business, without the right procedures in place, all could be lost. It is thought that 90% of businesses fail within a year if they can’t reopen within 5 days of a disaster.
So, what do you need to do?
Start off with a comprehensive risk assessment of your business. Analyse the risks to your business, what could happen, how could it happen, and the likelihood of it happening. Then, look at how you can prevent these risks and create a backup and disaster recovery strategy. There are a lot of options out there for large businesses to SMEs, so it’s important to work out what is right for you and your business. An IT service company like Computer Care should be able to create a strategy with you and put measures in place to minimise your risks.
Things to consider.
Back up EVERYTHING and use the cloud. Businesses are at a constant threat, from accidental overwrites and deletions, to malicious destruction. 60% of small businesses that lose their data shut down within 6 months, so it really is very important to ensure every workstation and the main servers are backed-up.
We use StorageCraft, which offers complete system protection by allowing you to recover all your files through their secure online portal. So, if it all goes wrong, you still have access to all your data, at the click of a button.
Ensure your networks are secure by installing a firewall, setting up a VPN and installing antivirus and malware software. Ensuring that this software stays up to date is of utmost importance – there are constant threats of new viruses, and these updates contain the latest files needed to combat them in order to protect your computer.
Educate your employees! So often, data breaches are caused by carelessness and uninformed employees. Give your team security training, and they will recognise a threat and what to do about it.
There are a few things to consider, but with every defence in place, then you should be in a good position knowing that you’ve done what you can to protect your business from disaster.
If you are worried about the security of your business network, then an outsourced IT service can provide you with a very high level of security and expertise. Here at Computer Care, we’ve spent the past 20 years looking after businesses and protecting their systems to the highest level. If you would like to have a chat and see how we can prevent your business from a disaster, follow the link to arrange a 15-minute chat with our founder, Simon Pardo.