Business continuity is a tricky beast, and one that is best fought with proactive and preventative measures. The reason for this is simple: any situation where your business’ data is put at risk could mean the end, and we are not catastrophizing when we say that. Let’s look at two issues that are only small problems at the surface level, but could snowball into serious problems.

Security Breaches and the Ensuing Fallout

Data security is something that all businesses should prioritize, as even a simple phishing email could cause serious damage to your infrastructure. Imagine that someone clicks on a phishing link and hands over their network access credentials to someone pretending to be IT. The hacker on the other end could log into your network, install ransomware or other threats, then demand that your business pay an astronomical fee for a decryption key or a quick fix to your woes. If you don’t pay, you might even have your data leaked online.

Granted, even paying the ransom doesn’t put you in a better position. They might not give you the decryption key at all, and they might choose to sell your data online, adding insult to injury. Worse yet, this data is now in the hands of unknown parties who will do who-knows-what with it. Compliance officers in your local or state government, and especially your clients, certainly aren’t going to like that one bit, and your organization might be subject to considerable fines as a result.

Then we get to how this impacts your business’ operations; yes, we haven’t even scratched that surface yet. During this entire situation, your employees are probably not working, as they cannot access the information they need to do their jobs. Then you consider what your clients think about the situation. Before you know it, you could be facing lawsuits and a significant decline in customers. Without customers, what happens to your business? You don’t need us to answer that question.

Any Data Loss Disaster Could Threaten Your Business

Even something as simple as issues with your utilities or office infrastructure could pose a threat to your business, should you let it. Let’s say your office has a shoddy electrical infrastructure because it’s an old building that hasn’t been updated in a couple decades. Like any business who hosts their infrastructure on-site, you have a server room consuming a serious amount of electricity, and you’re noticing intermittent issues with your technology. It’s not really impacting operations, so you ignore it, pushing any repairs to your infrastructure to the back burner until you can afford to fix it.

Then an electrical storm strikes, and your server gets hit with the full force of a lightning strike.

Suddenly, you’re left without access to infrastructure, and your data could potentially be gone forever if you’re not using a data backup and disaster recovery solution. Plus, what if that same electrical storm and power surge sparked a fire? You would then be dealing with damage to your physical infrastructure, further increasing your company’s expenses to recover from the disaster. It’s small issues like these that can potentially develop into larger-scale problems that are more timely and costly to fix, if they can be fixed at all.

It’s a Slippery Slope; Don’t Slip Up and Fall

Even small issues can develop into major problems if left unchecked long enough. Don’t let something like any of the above scenarios derail your business’ future. To learn more about how you can secure your future, be sure to contact us today at (410) 531-6727. We’ll help you implement the technology you need to keep your business safe as can be.