A Cyber Disaster Has Somehow Occurred… What to Do Next?

Follow

More often than not, people and businesses keep their sensitive and confidential information in their data storage within their cyber system. Their main concern is how not to lose that valuable content. Some studies suggest that more than 40% of businesses never re-open after losing their confidential data, while around 90% of them close their businesses 5 years after such an incident. So, losing this type of information can be seen as a serious and sometimes fatal harm to many organisations. The thing everyone should think about is how to protect their critical data from harm or how to recover them after a disaster happens. In this article, we deal with well-known scenarios in terms of data recovery and provide a better insight into current issues and trends in the field.

What Are the Current Cyber Threats for a Business?

There are numerous risks and uncertainties connected to a modern business environment. The fact is the majority of modern businesses rely on IT infrastructure, but is a cyber threat the only thing that concerns us? Certainly, it’s not. There are a lot of different dangers, such as natural disasters, fires, threats to physical security, etc. that can affect business continuity and people’s safety.

When talking about current business and its functioning, let’s compare it to a surface of the water. If there is no wind or no one throws the stone in, the surface will remain calm. The similar situation is with the business. If an incident happens, it will seriously affect an operation of the entire business.

So, what would be the goal of any business existing in a highly aggressive and risky environment? Many believe that a contemporary business has no future without a good business continuity and disaster recovery strategy. This plan should ensure a continual and safe operation of the business, even in case of an emergency situation.

As far as computer-based attacks to our business infrastructure are concerned, it must be said that not only big companies are under risk, but very often, small and midsize businesses as well. Many hackers and cybercriminals target this sort of businesses, because they believe they are an easy catch due to their low security measures.

Indeed, there is a large spectre of scenarios and techniques that data thieves can apply. These normally include cyber espionage in order to obtain confidential details about the business. Afterwards, these would be sold on the black market and consequently the thieves could make a financial gain. The other scenario includes hackers’ and intruders’ activities that can lead to diverse sorts of cyber sabotage and different types of IT harm to their victims.

OK! The Incident Happened… Now What?

Many studies suggest that the majority of small and midsize businesses worldwide are simply unprepared to handle an occurrence of a cyber incident within their IT infrastructure. Many of them are not even capable of surviving an ordinary data breach, which is a regular incident in a cyberspace of today.Why is it so?

First of all, small businesses are too small to invest a serious amount of money and time into their cyber defence. That opens numerous opportunities for cybercrime groups.

In addition, such businesses are still profitable and usually possess highly confidential and valuable data, such as credit card details, employees’ documentation and even some intellectual property or patent information. All those things must be so appealing to bad guys!

So, what we have is such valuable data that can be sold on the black market on one hand, and on the other, easy access to all of those.

In such a case, what we are supposed to do is to try to save what we can. The best advice here is to follow security procedures and try to recover the data using tools available on the market. System and data recovery, as well as a good backup, can be a vital link in the chain that could protect your business from a permanent data loss.

In general, when such an incident happens, the best thing to do is to take some steps that will help you to recover from a disaster. Organisations with a high level of cyber maturity do not improvise or resolve problems ad hoc; they follow very-well defined standards and procedures which enable them to minimize an impact of the incident on their staff, customers and overall reputation.

Things that Can Protect your Organization from Harm

As mentioned before, the best things here are proper cyber defence procedures and processes. After all, cyber security is not only about risk management; it is also about people, processes and technologies involved into that management.

Finally, if a business is not capable of functioning in case of an emergency, it will not survive in a dynamic environment such as our today’s market. In other words, to get ready for such an extreme situation, it is vitally important to have a very-well developed business continuity plan, as well as a disaster recovery strategy.

These two plans will prove themselves more  than useful in the situation of uncertainty and high risk to your organisation and employees. Only with them, you will be able to protect your strategically important resources and eventually save your business.

Thinking Ahead is the Best Protection at the Moment

So, what seems as crucial here is a well-planned scenario in case of a disaster. In order to make a good strategy, you need to think in advance and protect yourself and your business from all the potential difficulties that can occur in a real life situation. In other words, thinking ahead can offer the best protection at this moment.