You just clicked on a link that contained malware. Your computer screen turns red. You are the victim of a Ransomware attack.
All of your data has been locked down. You can’t access any of your systems. Your company is completely shut down.
You need to restore your data and get your company back up and running. Every minute means lost revenue and production. Fortunately, you have a back-up plan. Your back-ups are valid, you restore your data and you are back on-line.
This is the best case scenario for most small to medium sized companies. Unfortunately, most small businesses either don’t back-up at all or many times have back-ups that are not valid. Remember testing your back-ups is critical for data restoration. Don’t be one of the statistics. 60% of small businesses that suffer a ransomware breach are out of business within six months.
Data Restoration is the process by which you restore your business data to where it was prior to an incident. That includes putting the databases back into the state they were originally in and restoring all of your files. When setting up your backups, you decide how extensively you want to back up your business; as well as how much information you are willing to lose, and how long you can realistically have your business be down. See our blog “Developing and Calculating Your Backup Strategy”.
In the article, “What is Backup and Why You Need It”, we discussed what backups are, and why they are critical for your business.
When we have a data disruption whether from a breach, an error, mistaken deletions, or natural disaster, we all seek 100% restoration of data. For some industries under compliance requirements audited back-ups are a requirement. Financial institutions are an example of firms that are required by law to have redundant back-ups so that all data may be restored in its entirety.
For others, data back-up and restoration is a choice. An important choice. In fact, it may be a choice between keeping and losing your company. Data restoration and back-up takes on different levels of importance based on the nature of the data. For a doctor’s office that is taking in new patient data and financial information, back-ups and restoration is critical. HIPAA regulations require all patient data be secured at all times. Losing patient data results in huge fines.
Other businesses may have less critical requirements. Website developers may lose the work they are working on but probably are not losing critical records or financial data. In the case of a company like a web developer a monthly or weekly back-up may be sufficient. In the end it all comes down to understanding the risk, the amount of data you are willing to lose, and length of time you can afford to be without your data.
So, how does all of this work? Fortunately, it’s not magic. In the case of a database, the old database files are simply copied back into place, and the database is reset back to its original state. In the case of user files being deleted, then the directories are simply copied back to the point, prior to data loss.
Fortunately, most databases and file systems are actually designed to be backed up and restored in case of a failure, whether it is a hardware or software failure.
Luckily this is exactly what we specialize in at The Tek. Our engineers are trained to help you develop a customized backup strategy by evaluating what types of backups you need for your business, based on your business and budget. By making sure you have the right backups in place and the right technology, an outage can be an inconvenience, but doesn’t have to destroy your business.
Contact us at info@thetek.com for more information about backup products and services.
