Disasters Aren’t Always Caused By Disasters

Disasters are a very real possibility that businesses have to deal with, but not all disasters come in the form of a flood or fire. You can predict weather effects that can create problems for your business, like thunderstorms and ice storms that bring down power lines, but you can’t possibly predict when and how your organization will suffer from a data loss incident. We’ll discuss in-depth how your business can save itself the trouble of dealing with cyberattacks and user error--particularly in regard to data backup and disaster recovery.

Cyberattacks are Disasters, Too
Even if cyberattacks aren’t your first thought when you think of a disaster, it doesn’t change the fact that the end results are strikingly similar to those of a flood or fire. Your infrastructure could potentially be rendered unusable for an extended period of time. For example, if your office is hit by a flood, chances are that it will sustain considerable damage that will keep employees from working in it until arrangements have been made to clean it up. When your network is hit by a cyberattack, you can’t let your employees on the network until it’s secure. Otherwise, you could make an already big problem much, much worse.

Cyberattacks can happen for a variety of reasons, but the majority of the time, they will be caused by a combination of two things: poor user security practices, and poor network security management practices. The former is a little harder to address, but for your network, you should be using a comprehensive enterprise-network security solution designed to keep threats out of your network. This includes a firewall, along with a dedicated antivirus, spam blocking software, and even a content filter, all to take a preventative approach to your organization’s network security.

End-Users Don’t Help
Depending on how much they are trained in how to prevent disasters and secure your network, untrained users could become a major detriment to your organization’s success and survivability. Let’s imagine a scenario when your organization needs to take a data backup due to your solution not being automated (tape backup). If your employees are the ones setting the data backup, there is a chance that they could potentially forget to do so, or do so incorrectly.

Untrained users can also be a major problem for the health for your network. Since the untrained user may fall victim to social engineering scams or phishing attacks, having a strategy to provide comprehensive training to the people that utilize your organization’s computing network will pay dividends by delivering less downtime and a more effective network for your business.

Through proper training your staff should be able to identify potential security risks to your network and respond in kind. Washington Works can help you secure your network on both a technical side and end-user side by providing security and data backup solutions designed to mitigate damage as a result of disasters. To learn more, each out to us at 301-571-5040.