Disasters and disruptions can strike any organization, anywhere, at any time. Just this past September, Las Vegas’ prominent MGM Resorts became the target of a vicious cyber-attack, proof that even the largest organizations are not immune.
The incident was first reported on September 11th and resulted in approximately 10 days of costly downtime for the resort.
The MGM cyberattack comes less than a week after another distinguished Las Vegas resort, Caesars Palace was targeted by the same hacking group. Reports state that between the two casino-hotel attacks, more than 6 terabytes of data, including personal information of hotel guests and patrons, was stolen.
Today we’ll discuss how a business continuity plan could have shifted the outcomes for both casino resorts and how it can help your organization protect data and keep operations running in the face of similar attacks.
A business continuity plan (BCP) is an organization-wide strategy that provides steps to maintain a business’s critical operations during and after a disaster. More comprehensive than a disaster recovery plan, the document outlines contingencies for business processes, assets, human resources and business partners.
In any high-stress situation, having a clear decision-making hierarchy is a must. This not only helps prevent further catastrophes and chaos from ensuing, but it also ensures that the right people are in charge of making decisions.
To create support teams to handle related functions like business readiness and emergency response, it’s important to establish communication channels between them. You should also consider creating a second stakeholder for every key role in case the primary is unavailable in the event that something occurs.
Successful business continuity management comes from being able to accurately identify all potential disruptions that could affect your organization’s operations.
The most efficient business continuity plans will consider worst-case scenarios, prioritize business operations and go through regular updates.
It’s not enough to just have a business continuity plan– it must be tested regularly!
Conducting comprehensive emergency simulations such as safety drills, crisis communications, and workplace recovery processes allows businesses to test the effectiveness of their plan and make any necessary changes before facing an actual disruption.
Communication is critical during any disaster – from debilitating types of cyber-attacks to nasty natural disasters.
The better your team is able to communicate with each other during these stressful times, the faster your business will be able to get back up and running. In maintaining effective communication, you can reassure team members that your organization is taking the steps required to appropriately respond and recover.
To account for this, a business continuity plan will often include a list of key contacts as well as press releases and social media posts. Having these prepared in advance can speed up communication in the midst of a crisis and ensure that customers and members of the public are kept up-to-date.
A business continuity plan is only as good as the people who are trained in it.
When disaster strikes, it’s not only important that your organization have a plan in place, but that your employees are well-educated on how to handle it. This reduces panic and chaos in the workplace and ensures everyone knows what to do when disaster strikes.
Data is a company's most valuable asset, but unfortunately, it's also one of the least protected.
In fact, many insurers will not cover forfeitures related to data loss resulting from breaches, hacks, data center and server failures as well as backup losses.
And with more cyber- and ransomware attacks making headlines every day, data safety and recovery planning are now more important than ever.
With a BCP, your business can effectively manage and store data while reducing downtime caused by a cyber-attack or data loss.
If you're not prepared for disaster, it could mean more than just losing some data.
According to FEMA, 90 percent of businesses fail within a year if they are unable to get back up and running within 5 days after a disaster. And with today’s most common cause of downtime causing an average of 16.2 days of interruption, it’s clear intervention is needed not just to minimize costs but to keep businesses afloat.
Business continuity planning is essential for keeping your organization running during and after a disaster. A comprehensive BCP can make the difference between being back up in minutes versus days, or even weeks.
You can’t prevent disasters from happening. But you can mitigate the impact they have on your organization.
When we think of disasters, images of earthquakes, hurricanes and other natural catastrophes flood our minds. But these aren’t the only devastations known to cause businesses’ downtime. Data deletion due to human error, malicious sabotage, cyber-attacks, and hardware failure are also cited as top sources.
With an up-to-date business continuity plan, your company will be adequately positioned to maintain operations and ensure data protection, no matter what threats come knocking at your door.
Stand out as a trusted leader in your industry by quickly restoring operations after a disaster.
With a tested and up-to-date BCP, you’ll have a clear strategy in place to get your network up quickly and efficiently, restore access to business data and documents, as well as reconnect employees to communicate with each other and support your customers.
A disaster- whether natural or man-made- has the potential to disrupt your day-to-day operations and cause irreparable damage to your business– from loss of productivity and revenue to damaging your hard-earned reputation among clients.
Keep your operations on track with up-to-date business continuity planning. At JBM Office Systems we offer several Datto business continuity solutions suitable for businesses of all sizes.
Contact us today to find a solution that ensures your business is able to quickly recover from any disaster.
If there is a product or service that you
are interested, please let us know, we’d be
happy to go through the benefits with you