The possibility of unexpected disasters—whether natural or man-made—can lead to serious and costly consequences for organizations that are unprepared. But with 88-95% of data breaches being caused by human error, it’s safe to say that no business or organization is completely immune to the destructive consequences of a disaster.
One way to protect your business and its data from such disasters is to have an effective disaster recovery plan in place. A well-crafted recovery plan is your safeguard against more than lost money—lawsuits and reputational damage are other possible effects of having a weak or non-existent disaster recovery plan.
Why You Need an Effective Disaster Recovery Plan
A well-crafted and up-to-date recovery plan should include all the elements necessary to safeguard a company’s critical data, mitigate any risk of loss, and ensure that operations can be restored quickly in the event of a disruption.
Equifax’s data breach in 2017 is a prime example of what can happen when an organization doesn’t have effective disaster recovery services in place. The lack of risk assessment and remediation plans contributed to the extensive damage caused by the breach. This included a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) where Equifax agreed to pay $575 million to the FTC because they failed to protect over 147 million of their clients.
If that’s not reason enough to have an effective recovery plan, here are a few more:
- Protection: An effective recovery plan will help protect the integrity of your business’s data, preventing financial loss and reputational damage.
- Mitigate Downtime: Operations can be restored quickly in the event of a disruption, allowing you to get your business back up and running without unnecessary downtime.
- Stay Compliant: Having an up-to-date recovery plan will help your business meet compliance requirements and regulatory standards such as NIST and CMMC.
- Long-Term Benefits: In the long run, this ensures your money and time are well spent as it safeguards against data breaches, cyberattacks, infrastructure outages, and natural disasters.
Your Disaster Recovery Plan Checklist
The most important elements of a recovery plan start with a trustworthy provider. Follow this checklist to ensure you have all the necessary steps covered:
1. Disaster Recovery Team
Choose a reliable provider that offers recovery services and can provide support when needed. Your data should be in secure hands that have expertise in risk assessment, performance monitoring, and backup procedures.
2. Risk Evaluation
There’s no such thing as one-size-fits-all when it comes to disaster recovery services. It’s important to evaluate what type of risks your business is most likely to face and tailor the plan accordingly.
3. Business Critical Data
Identify what your business-critical data is and make sure you have a plan for its safekeeping. For example, financial and customer data should be encrypted before being stored.
4. Backups
Be sure to create reliable backups of all your business-critical data and ensure they are stored securely offsite or in the cloud—you never know when you may need it.
5. Test, Re-Evaluate, Test Again
Your recovery plan should be tested regularly and re-evaluated to ensure it is up-to-date and effective. Without regular testing, you may not be aware of changes that could affect how successful your plan is.
Prepare for the Unexpected with adrytech
adrytech can help you develop and implement an effective disaster recovery plan. Our team of consultants will work with you to identify, analyze, and assess your risks so that we can create a strategy tailored to your organization’s needs.
With effective disaster recovery services in place, you can have peace of mind knowing that the worst-case scenario won’t come about. Contact us today to learn more about our disaster recovery services and how we can help you prepare for the unexpected.
