Ensure business continuity and avoid data loss caused by an internal mistake
A key part of any business continuity plan is having a disaster recovery strategy in place that ensures the protection of your most valuable asset: your data.
While you may have already planned for threats posed by a potential cyber-attack or a natural event, the biggest threat to the security of your data may be the one right under your nose. The threat posed by the likelihood of mistakes made by your own staff which could result in the catastrophic loss of all your crucial data. This scenario may not only affect you but also the sensitive data you may be holding about your clients.
If this happens, you must ask yourself what contingency you have in place to ensure your business survives.
The underestimated threat posed by human error
According to information received from the Information Commissioner’s Office in the UK, more than 60% of all recently reported data breaches came as a result of human error, compared to not even 10% coming from hacking and inadequate webpage security.
If, therefore, the greatest risk to your critical data is an internal one, what can you do to mitigate it?
Risk-reducing strategies
There are a number of strategies to consider when you are planning for business continuity and disaster recovery; these include:
- off-site verification/restoration of data
- automation of data backups
- storage replication
- WAN Acceleration to max backup/replication efficiency
- encryption solutions
- backing up to Cloud.
The off-site verification and restoration of data is regarded as one of the most effective methods of averting data loss caused by human error. This, together with having the right automatic backup solutions in place, significantly reduces the risk if someone pushes the wrong button or unplugs something they shouldn’t. The risks can be reduced even further by adhering to best practice.
Recommended best practices for any UK Business
The backup of data to an offsite data centre is critical to safeguarding the integrity of your information and is highly recommended as a best practice for any UK organisation. Making sure that your staff are as well trained as possible is another best practice, as they themselves have a deeper understanding of what’s at stake.
However, even though your staff may be well-trained data is backed-up to an off-site location and you’ve automated and encrypted as much as possible, the risk posed by human error remains. So, what else can be done?
Final considerations
Include a strategy that addresses human error in your business continuity planning. If you are not sure how to go about this, our experts at ASL can help you to identify a solution that works for you.
Adhering to defined processes is something else to address. ASL can also help define what these should be for your company and how they should be carried out in a way that reduces risk as much as possible.
Having the right technology can do much to reduce the risk of data loss occurring due to human intervention. ASL can advise you on the most suitable hardware/software for your business, no matter what size, taking your specific objectives into account.
To err may be an inevitable part of being human, but losing data that is critical to your business is avoidable with the right precautions in place.
For further information and to discuss how ASL can help you with your DR and BC requirements, call us today on 0345 862 0350.
