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Do You Need a Disaster Recovery Plan?
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If you suddenly lost access to documents and applications pertinent to your daily work life, how would you cope? Would you know where to go, or who to look to for help? Whether the loss occurs because of a natural disaster, hardware failure, human error, or cyber-crimes, a Disaster Recovery Plan (DR) is essential for businesses of all sizes!


A *2023 survey found that only 54% of businesses had an established company-wide disaster recovery plan in place. That is barely more than half of all businesses. Aside from having the plan in place, it’s also important to regularly review and test your plan to ensure your team knows how to execute the strategy. Ponemon Institute estimates the average cost of downtime at a staggering $9,000 per minute or $500,000 per hour. Being able to restore systems and operations quickly is imperative to recovery from a disaster. Those averages might look high for your small business, but the fact is downtime is expensive. It’s not just the direct financial losses but also the expense of lost productivity, missed opportunities, customer dissatisfaction, and long-term reputational damage.

Though most owners believe they are unlikely to suffer a cyber-attack, small businesses suffer 43% of all data breaches. Do you currently have strategies in place to protect your data? A solid DR plan is crucial as it aims to minimize downtime and data loss, enabling a company to swiftly return to normal operations following a catastrophic event. This guide breaks down the various elements of a disaster recovery plan, highlighting their significance and demonstrating real-world scenarios where such planning proves invaluable.

Understanding Disaster Recovery

At its core, disaster recovery involves preparing for and recovering from events that can significantly disrupt business operations. These events range from natural disasters like earthquakes to man-made challenges such as cyber-attacks. A well-structured DR plan addresses these threats by outlining steps to resume critical operations swiftly and securely.

Key Components of a Disaster Recovery Plan
Risk Assessment and Business Impact Analysis (BIA): This involves understanding a business’s specific risks and potential impact on operations. It helps prioritize the recovery of critical systems and data.

  • Data Backup Strategies: Robust data backup strategies ensure that critical data is regularly backed up to secure, offsite locations, allowing for the restoration of lost data.
  • Recovery Solutions: DR plans must detail the solutions for restoring IT systems, applications, and data, including both on-site and cloud-based options.
  • Communication Plan: A clear plan for notifying employees, customers, and stakeholders during a disaster is vital for maintaining transparency and minimizing panic.
  • Regular Testing and Updates: Regular testing and updates ensure that the plan evolves with the business and remains effective over time.

The Importance of Each Component

Each component of a DR plan plays a critical role in safeguarding business operations. For example, the BIA guides resource allocation during and after a disaster, while data backup strategies prevent catastrophic data loss. Recovery solutions bring data back into action, and the communication plan maintains trust and order. Regular testing guarantees that the plan will work as intended when needed.

Real-World Applications

Consider a business that experiences a severe data breach. With a comprehensive DR plan in place, the company can quickly identify the breach’s extent, revert to recent data backups, and effectively manage customer expectations and regulatory requirements. Regularly tested recovery procedures ensure a swift return to operation, minimizing downtime and financial loss.

The Value of Preparedness

In today’s digital age, disasters are inevitable. The examples above underscore the value of a DR plan, providing a blueprint for action that can mean the difference between a setback and a complete shutdown. Investing in a thorough disaster recovery plan is critical for responsible business management, ensuring resilience, and maintaining trust.

Avoid becoming another cautionary tale of poor planning. Please give us a call. We would be happy to help you implement your disaster recovery plan or review your current plan!

*Statistics are taken from the article “Disaster Recovery Statistics Every Business Should Know.” At https://phoenixnap.com

 

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Why Regular IT Reviews are Critical for Your Business Growth and Management
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In today’s business landscape, the role of technology is crucial. Ensuring your IT system operations are seamless is paramount for business success. Regular executive technology review meetings play a key role in detecting and addressing potential issues and fortifying a company’s foundation for future growth. There are five main areas of focus in TEK Utah’s technology review, identifying and addressing risks, evaluating hardware and software efficiencies, investing in employee security training, streamlining operations, and planning for future growth. Proactively responding to items revealed in our review meeting will save a business time, money, resources, and potentially a company’s reputation.

Identifying and Addressing Risks

A primary goal of regular IT review meetings is to assess and improve data management and security protocols. In an era where cyber threats are prevalent, safeguarding sensitive information is essential. IT reviews provide a platform to examine existing security measures, identify vulnerabilities, and implement solutions. Proactively addressing potential risks helps companies avoid data breaches, protecting their assets and reputation.

Sometimes IT security can be as simple as setting stronger passwords. Recently, a local business encountered a security breach within its email system. An unauthorized individual gained access to the administrator account, primarily due to the absence of multifactor authentication and the use of overly simple passwords. The intruder then created a new user account to impersonate the business owner, attempting to defraud the company financially. The breach was only discovered when a vigilant vendor flagged a suspicious email.

A routine check-up would have helped prevent this security incident. Regular IT reviews are the perfect time to assess security measures and identify potential weaknesses that could lead to substantial financial losses. Outside of regular reviews we offer cyber security products to help ensure your systems are secure. Check out this video where we address three key solutions for your business’s security needs.

Evaluating Hardware and Software Infrastructure

Outdated hardware and software can hinder productivity and expose a company to security risks. Regular IT reviews allow decision-makers to evaluate the current technological landscape, identifying areas that require upgrades or replacements. Investing in the latest hardware and software solutions optimizes performance, reduces downtime, and enhances efficiency.

Not long ago a client suffered severe data loss due to a failed hard drive. The user was not backing up their data externally, and unfortunately, crucial information was lost and unable to be recovered. While this incident did not permanently cripple the business, it highlighted a critical oversight. This issue could have easily been avoided had the user been regularly backing up their data. It’s easy to overlook backend systems because they are not meant to be in the foreground. However, a routine IT review is the perfect time to look in the background at all the systems that we take for granted and make changes where necessary.

Investing in Employee Training

The strength of a company often lies in its employees, but human error can be a vulnerability. “A joint study by Stanford University Professor Jeff Hancock and security firm Tessian found that a whopping 88 percent of data breach incidents are caused by employee mistakes” (https://securitytoday.com/articles/2022/07/30/just-why-are-so-many-cyber-breaches-due-to-human-error). It doesn’t matter how robust your security measures are if your employees are opening the door for attackers. Regular IT review meetings offer an opportunity to assess employee skill sets and identify areas for additional training. Investing in ongoing training programs ensures that staff members are well-equipped to navigate the evolving technological landscape, reducing the likelihood of errors and enhancing overall IT system effectiveness.

Streamlining Operations and Reducing Inefficiencies

Efficiency is crucial for success in any business. Regular reviews enable executives to scrutinize IT processes, identify bottlenecks, and streamline operations. By eliminating inefficiencies, companies can save time and resources, redirecting them towards more strategic endeavors that contribute to overall growth. Whether your business is ready or not, AI is fast becoming the key to increased productivity, and if your business is not equipped, you’ll be leaving profits on the table. But you’re in luck we recently added AI training to our list of services. This training is completely customizable and may be just what your company needs to update and enhance your processes. Read our blog article to Unlock your Business success through AI.

Planning for Future Growth

Businesses are dynamic entities, and their IT infrastructure must align with future growth plans. Regular IT review meetings provide a strategic forum to discuss and plan for future technological requirements. Whether it’s scaling up existing systems, implementing new technologies, or expanding digital capabilities, a proactive approach ensures that IT infrastructure evolves in tandem with the company’s broader objectives.

How can you save time, money, and resources?

The practical significance of regular IT review meetings is undeniable. By addressing critical areas such as data management, security, hardware and software improvements, employee training, and operational inefficiencies, these meetings contribute to significant savings in time, money, and resources. Moreover, they act as a shield for a company’s reputation, preventing potential setbacks caused by data breaches or technological failures.

In the fast-paced world of business, staying ahead requires a vigilant eye on the technological pulse. Executive IT review meetings serve as a practical measure and empower companies to thrive in an ever-evolving digital landscape. Prevention is key, and in the realm of IT, it translates to sustained success and growth.

Click here to schedule your executive technology review meeting.

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IT SecurityUncategorized
MFA Protection
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In our current digital landscape, safeguarding your business’s vital online accounts is paramount. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is a crucial fortification in this ongoing battle. It’s not just an additional security measure; it’s a necessary shield in today’s interconnected world.

TEK Utah has recently witnessed the consequences of inadequate security measures firsthand. We have observed cases where email accounts were hacked, which could have resulted in significant financial and reputational damage to the business and their clients. Incidents like this remind us of the vital importance of securing all of our critical systems with tools like MFA.

Examples of Critical Systems for MFA Implementation:

1. Email Accounts: Protecting email accounts is non-negotiable, given the sensitive information they often contain. MFA ensures that even if a password is compromised, unauthorized access is still blocked.
2. Banking and Financial Platforms: Any system that handles financial transactions or sensitive financial data must be doubly secured with MFA to prevent substantial monetary losses.
3. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems: CRMs are treasure troves of customer data. Securing them with MFA helps protect your customers’ privacy and your business’s reputation.
4. Cloud Storage and File Sharing Services: Services like Dropbox or Google Drive often contain sensitive business documents. MFA can prevent unauthorized access to these critical files.
5. Remote Access Tools: With the rise of remote working, securing remote desktop protocols and VPNs with MFA is essential to prevent unauthorized access to your internal network.

MFA requires additional verification methods beyond just a password – like a phone call, text message, or biometric check – making it nearly impossible for hackers to gain unauthorized access.

Yet, if uncertainty still looms over whether your accounts are secure, TEK Utah offers a vital service: the Dark Web ID Scan. This service probes the dark web for compromised credentials, offering businesses insights into potential vulnerabilities and the necessary steps to address them. Learn more and schedule this service on our website: https://www.shop.tekutah.com/product-page/dark-web-id-scan.

While MFA does introduce an extra step in the login process, this minor inconvenience pales in comparison to the robust protection it provides. Implementing MFA across these critical systems can be the difference between a secure business and a vulnerable one.

MFA is not just an added security feature; it’s an essential layer of defense for the critical systems that keep your business running. Embracing multi-factor authentication (MFA) is committing to the security and longevity of your business in the digital age.

 

 

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