When it comes to business continuity and disaster recovery plans, businesses always seem to have challenges with keeping them in the forefront. Even when adopting cybersecurity measures, unfortunately, business continuity and disaster recovery plans aren’t always included.
This is why, as a risk management company, we always talk about cybersecurity as best implemented with a holistic posture in mind. You want to avoid overlooking any areas that would put your business at risk.
Business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) plans are often discussed when hurricane season comes around, which is this time of year; but they should be aspects that a business keeps in mind throughout the year because BC and DR plans can also help if your data gets taken hostage, like with ransomware; or if your network is hacked and put offline.
For companies with a CIO, this means taking the time to discuss with the CIO your BC and DR plans. Find out if you have such plans; and if so, what review process is implemented. You are meant to develop BC and DR plans, but they should be reviewed regularly to ensure any updated software or technology that has become a part of your business operations is included. You also need to know if everyone in the company has been informed of the plans and what that means for them. This is particularly important during hurricane season if communication gets cut off and no one is able to get in touch with each other. You want a way for everyone that works with you to know what they can or can’t do during an interruption, and your clients should also be taken into consideration, so they know if services have been suspended or not.
If you’re a company without a CIO or someone assigned to take care of this (someone who is hopefully knowledgeable on BC and DR plans), you need to consider outsourcing the job so that you can get a BC and DR plan for your company and then pinpoint your review process as well so you can ensure they don’t get put away and forgotten.
A risk management company such as NCX Group is a good place to start; in fact we recently added a service to our offerings for small businesses that assists with policies and procedures (providing you with ready-to-edit cyber policy templates, and checklists), which is also an important part to business continuity since cybersecurity risks can bring about downtime and therefore a lack of continuation of business. Here’s a link to our free SMBs solution: https://training.ncxgroup.com/free/.
Obviously, it would be best to discuss your exact business’ needs, so a call to discuss where you stand with BC and DR plans is ideal. To schedule your free consultation – click here.
Don’t let hurricane season or cyber risks bring down your business, it’s not fun when something unexpected happens and you are unprepared. All it takes is a call and fifteen minutes of your time.
Schedule some time to get on top of BC and DR plans, and your overall cybersecurity posture!
Photo courtesy of Mathias Rosenthal