September is National Preparedness Month: Is Your Business Ready for a Disaster?

September is National Preparedness Month: Is Your Business Ready for a Disaster?

 

September is National Preparedness Month, which is a good time to remind yourself about the critical importance of preparing your business for any emergency, especially with hurricane season upon us.

While natural disasters like hurricanes grab headlines, businesses must also be prepared for a variety of potential disruptions—be it power outages, cyberattacks, fires, equipment failure, a pandemic or even human error.

The unfortunate reality is that disasters, both natural and man-made, can strike without warning. That’s why having a comprehensive Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) plan is essential for every business.

Why Your Organization Needs a BCDR Plan

Time moves fast but it wasn’t long ago when our lives were flipped upside down from a worldwide pandemic.  COVID 19 caused businesses to scramble to get a plan in place to try to keep their businesses afloat and to enable their employees to work remotely.

A well-constructed BCDR plan is your business’s safety net. It ensures that in the face of disaster, operations can continue, or at the very least, recover quickly with minimal damage. Without a plan, the consequences can be catastrophic—lost revenue, damaged reputation, and, in worst cases, business closure.

Consider these types of disasters that could affect your business:

• Natural Disasters: Hurricanes, floods, fires, and earthquakes can cause widespread damage and prolonged outages.
• Pandemics: COVID 19 taught us that disasters aren’t always physical—unexpected global events can have a profound impact on business continuity.
• Cybersecurity Threats: Ransomware attacks or data breaches can grind operations to a halt and compromise sensitive data.
• Power Outages or Hardware Failure: Even something as simple as a prolonged power outage or server failure can lead to hours or days of downtime.
• Human Error: Accidental deletion of critical files or data mismanagement can create issues just as severe as any physical disaster.

The common thread? Without a plan, recovery can be long, costly, and uncertain.

What Happens If You’re Not Prepared?

A business that fails to prepare for disaster risks losing not only operational capability but also customer trust. According to research, 93% of companies without disaster recovery plan who suffer a major data loss are out of business within one year. The inability to recover swiftly can lead to the loss of customers, financial instability, and irreversible damage to your company’s reputation. In today’s fast-paced world, where downtime can mean lost revenue and opportunities, businesses can’t afford to be unprepared.

The recent incidents with United Healthcare and CrowdStrike serve as wake-up calls for businesses that underestimate the importance of a solid Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) plan. United Healthcare faced billing system outages due to a cyberattack, while CrowdStrike, a leader in cybersecurity, encountered its own security breaches. In both cases, operations were disrupted, raising the question: Did they have a comprehensive BCDR plan in place?

Imagine your business unable to send invoices, collect payments, or access critical systems. What do you do when you can’t bill? Who is going to reboot your servers, recover the data, or delete the malicious code that’s wreaking havoc on your operations? These incidents highlight the importance of having a well-tested BCDR strategy—not just for recovering data, but for keeping your business running when the unexpected happens.

These real-world examples emphasize that even industry giants are vulnerable, making it essential for businesses of all sizes to ask themselves: Are we prepared to handle a disruption of this magnitude? Without a proper BCDR plan, the fallout can be catastrophic.

What’s included in a Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan?

A strong Backup and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) plan in 2024 includes several key components:

1.Data Backup Strategy:

• Regular automated backups, both onsite and offsite (cloud-based).
• Incremental and full backups to minimize data loss and ensure quick recovery.
• Backup encryption for data security during storage and transit.

2. Disaster Recovery Strategy:

• Clearly defined recovery objectives (RPO/RTO) to guide recovery time and data loss tolerance.
• Step-by-step disaster recovery procedures for different scenarios (cyberattacks, hardware failure, natural disasters).
• Testing and regular updates of the recovery plan to ensure effectiveness.

3. Cloud Integration:

• Leveraging cloud-based backup solutions for scalability, accessibility, and redundancy.
• Multi-cloud or hybrid cloud setups to enhance data availability and reduce dependency on a single provider.

4. Cybersecurity Measures:

• Advanced threat detection and prevention tools (e.g., AI-based monitoring) to protect against ransomware, malware, and other cyber threats.
• Strong encryption protocols and multi-factor authentication for access to backup data.

5. Compliance and Regulatory Adherence:

• Ensuring backup and recovery strategies meet industry-specific regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, and others.
• Regular audits to ensure compliance and identify potential vulnerabilities.

6. Business Continuity Plan:

• Ensuring critical business functions can continue operating during and after a disaster.
• Contingency plans for remote work, communication, and alternative operational workflows.

7. Regular Testing and Review:

• Routine testing of backup and recovery processes to ensure reliability.
• Regular plan reviews and updates based on new technologies, threats, or changes in business operations.

8. Communication Plan:

• A well-documented communication strategy that outlines roles and responsibilities during an incident.
• Clear guidelines for informing staff, customers, and stakeholders in case of a data breach or disaster.

What’s the difference between an Incident Response Plan and Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery plan?

An Incident Response Plan (IRP) and a Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) Plan serve different but complementary roles in ensuring business resilience.

An Incident Response Plan:

• Deals with immediate responses to specific cybersecurity incidents (e.g., data breaches, malware attacks, or ransomware).

• Contain and mitigate the damage caused by a security incident, minimize data loss, and restore system integrity.
• Typically short-term, focusing on isolating the threat, protecting sensitive information, and recovering compromised systems.
• Detection, investigation, containment, eradication, and communication protocols during the incident.
• Activated immediately when a security breach or cyber threat is detected, involving IT/security teams.

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) Plan:

• Addresses the broader impact of any kind of disruption—natural disasters, hardware failures, or cyber incidents—on overall business operations.
• Ensure critical business functions continue during a disruption and restore normal operations as quickly as possible.
• Long-term, covering disaster preparedness, data recovery, infrastructure restoration, and alternate operational processes.
• Backup strategies, recovery time objectives (RTO), recovery point objectives (RPO), and detailed steps for restoring business operations.
• Activated when business operations are disrupted, covering a wide range of scenarios beyond just security incidents.

In essence, the IRP is focused on reacting to security threats immediately, while the BCDR plan ensures the broader business can continue and recover from any kind of disruption. Both plans are critical for resilience, but they address different phases and types of incidents.

How Proper Sky Can Help

At Proper Sky, we understand that small and medium sized businesses need more than just a recovery plan—they need peace of mind. That’s why we offer a comprehensive Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR)  and Incident response services tailored to protect your operations from any type of disruption. Our solutions are designed to ensure that your business can quickly recover from any event with minimal downtime.

Get started with a Proper Back up solution and Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery plan today! Contact us at Proper Sky online today or give us a call at 215.305.8899 for a free assessment of your currently processes.  We’ll look under the covers at what you currently have and make recommendations on how you can improve your backups and business continuity and disaster recovery plans.

This September, as National Preparedness Month emphasizes the importance of readiness, take a proactive step toward securing your business’s future. Don’t wait for disaster to strike—partner with Proper Sky and ensure that you’re prepared for any situation.

Whether it’s safeguarding against hurricanes or preparing for a potential cyberattack, Proper Sky’s managed IT services are your business’s shield against the unexpected. Let’s talk about how we can help you protect what matters most.