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If you run a business, you are probably dependent on the internet for your daily operations. If something happened to your internet access, what would you do? How would you continue to meet the needs of your customers and clients? Unfortunately, there are a lot of threats in the current environment. You might suffer data loss due to a natural disaster, or you could be hit by a ransomware attack.
In this situation, it is important to protect your data so you can maintain your operations. That is where an effective disaster recovery plan is helpful. What are a few steps you need to follow if you want to effectively respond to a disaster? Take a look at a few important steps below, and be sure to consider MSSP.
1. Identify Your Biggest Threats
If you want to make sure you are ready for a disaster, you need to identify your biggest threats. These can be divided into two categories. The first category involves natural disasters. What are some of the natural disasters in your area? If you live on the coast, you might face the threat of hurricanes. If you live in the midwest, you might face the threat of tornadoes.
The second category involves viruses and malware. These are malicious lines of code that can seriously threaten your daily operations. Ransomware is one of the most dangerous types of malware, but it is far from the only one. You need to make sure you can defend against all of these threats.
2. Highlight The Core Functions of Your Business
Next, you need to highlight the core functions of your business. What are the most essential operations that your business has to carry out every day? If your infrastructure is taken offline, you need to know how you will respond. The only way you can keep your operations going is if you know what your most important operations are.
You will need to meet with the managers of different departments to figure out how they might respond in the event of a disaster. You need to ask them what they need to do to continue to do their jobs in the event of a virus or natural disaster. Then, you can develop a plan to keep your company going.
3. Ensure Everyone Knows Their Role
After this, you can create emergency response policies and procedures. Now that you know what your most important operations are, you know what you need to do to keep them going. As you put together your emergency policies and procedures, you need to make sure everyone understands their role.
For example, in the event of a virus attack, someone has to be responsible for notifying the manager. Someone also has to be responsible for telling individual staff members what they need to do to protect their data and their personal information. You may need to revisit these procedures from time to time to update them accordingly.
4. Institute a Strong Backup Plan
If you want your business to remain operational, you need to have a strong data backup plan in place. You need to backup your data from time to time to make sure you can keep your operations going even if the original copy is locked up. That is why you should follow the 3, 2, 1 rule of data backup and recovery.
What this means is that you need to have three copies of your data stored in at least two different formats. At least one of these formats should be stored off-site. Even though it can be cumbersome to back up your data, there are automated programs that can do this for you. Ideally, you should back up your data every day. That way, if something happens to it, you only lose one day’s worth of work.
5. Perform Tests Routinely To Ensure You Are Ready
Finally, you need to make sure your company is ready to respond in the event of a disaster. That is why you need to test your disaster recovery plans regularly. There are penetration testers and ethical hackers who can identify holes in your cybersecurity measures. That way, you can pass them before an actual hacker tries to take advantage of your company.
You should also try to drill natural disaster responses from time to time. What happens if there is a fire in the company? What happens if the power goes out? Perform a drill from time to time to make sure everyone knows what to do. That way, you will know that you are ready.
Make Sure You Are Ready for a Disaster
Even though you might think you have done everything right, a disaster can still take place when you least expect it. Therefore, you need to be prepared. You need to make sure you have a copy of your data that you can upload to keep your operations going.
You have a lot to do on a daily basis, and you may not be able to handle all of this on your own. Fortunately, there are professionals who can assist you. If you want to make sure you are ready in the event of a natural disaster, you need to reach out to an expert who can point you in the right direction. That way, you make sure you have data you can restore, allowing you to keep your operations going.
You may also like: Backups vs. Disaster Recovery: What is Better to Choose?
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