Recently, we have noticed that there has been another spate of virus attack (Ransomware) doing the rounds. If you do not have a robust data backup and recovery solution in place, you might end up losing critical company and client data that could lead to huge loss in revenue, high data recovery costs, lost client trust and regulatory violations.
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Is your financial data safe and backed up? Has someone tested that it can be recovered if you need be?
Recently, we have noticed that there has been another spate of virus attack (Ransomware) doing the rounds. Some of our clients lost their critical business data, which cost them a considerable loss in revenue and high data recovery fees, and we feel their pain!
Could they have been avoided? Possibly.
Could recovery have been faster and less costly? Most Certainly.
But there are many causes of lost information besides virus attacks. Some of the ones we have seen over the years include:
- Natural disaster, such as earthquakes, floods & fires;
- Systems fault: Server failure, backup failure, equipment failure, power failure;
- Malicious Attacks: Ransomware attack, hacker attack, virus attack, espionage from overseas competitors, disgruntled ex-employees;
- Accidental damage: staff data deletion, incorrect backup process;
- Fraud: both internal and external.
THE CONSEQUENCES
To Your Revenue – Not backing up or not having a reliable backup of your organization's data can lead to a direct impact on your revenue. Databases and documents stored on your server could be lost, meaning you may need to either spend valuable time and money recreating what you already had. You may even have to contact your clients and suppliers to find out what they owe you.
To Your Reputation – Clients may not respond positively to either being asked for the content you originally generated or being told that pending supplies will have to wait while you begin again from scratch. Suddenly, your business that has worked hard to build a good reputation doesn't look so good in your clients' or suppliers' eyes, and they may start looking elsewhere for more reliable services.
To Your Costs – Even if your data can be fully or partially recovered, the recovery cost can be expensive albeit not as expensive as paying for ransomware, but it will still be an additional operational cost to your business. This is above the potential loss of any revenue if your customers don't help you out with full details. Plus, odds are your accounting and payroll systems were the worst hit, forcing you to try and figure out where your business stands.
To Your Time – If you do suffer from significant data loss, all the above points could make you lose days, weeks, or even months recovering from it.
Regulatory Problems – Losing critical data can be a violation of government regulations or standards compliance. This could subject your business to re-compliance costs. The government may then look to investigate your business for anything they consider inaccurate. Such examples could be your GST, PAYG & Super liabilities. This could lead to more lost time and further tarnish your reputation.
SOME QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF
Why – Would I not want to preserve a copy of everything that we value the most?
What – Information is critical that needs to be protected?
When – Was the last time a recovery exercise was carried out?
Where – Is my backup stored and is it easy enough to recover?
How – Can I design a confident recovery strategy?
The Solution –Taking some simple steps to protect your data can save you hours of your time and hundreds of dollars of your money, not to forget your company reputation. Therefore, we urge you to invest your time and money in implementing a robust data backup and recovery solution for your business.
We offer a weekly service to test your backup processes, to ensure that should you ever need your backup, they do work as expected. We can also assist you in ensuring that you are playing it safe & adequately protecting your investment & lifeblood to your business.