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Nowadays, having a Disaster Recovery Plan (or Disaster Recovery Plan) is an essential requirement for the continuity of services provided by companies working in digital environments.
After all, failures and vulnerabilities can occur for a variety of reasons, either natural causes or human actions. In addition, with the advancement of technology and digital transformation, the threat of cybercrime becomes ever greater and more present in the reality of various enterprises. It is no coincidence that Brazil holds the record for attacks of this nature against companies in different sectors.
In 2021, for example, Brazil was the 5th country in the world that suffered most from cybercrime . In the first quarter alone there were more than 9 million occurrences and that is more than the entire year of 2020, according to the German consultancy Roland Berger .
Thus, presenting its benefits and importance in view of the different possibilities of attacks and complications that companies are subject to in the virtual world, the purpose of this content is to bring more information about the Disaster Recovery Plan and how it can help you.
Good reading!
What is Disaster Recovery Plan?
Disaster Recovery Plan means disaster repair and its translation is Disaster Recovery Plan. Thus, as the name implies, it refers to techniques and measures that companies can use in order to minimize the impacts of a cyber attack , for example, but not only that.
It also applies to any issue that could put the system at risk, hampering the organization's productivity.
Examples for this situation can be power failure, strong electrical discharge, human errors and system crashes. That is, it is not only about cyberattacks, but also about other situations that all companies suffer from at some point.
Thus, the Disaster Recovery Plan is a plan that aims to ensure the continuity of the IT infrastructure after an incident of any nature.
After all, if your company's services needed to be paralyzed for hours (sometimes even days) for every problem that occurred, the losses would be enormous.
Why does your IT need an action plan?
The digital or physical IT infrastructure has the possibility of suffering some unforeseen events, either by human action or external action, as explained earlier.
In this scenario, the Disaster Recovery Plan acts as a set of actions that can minimize the negative impacts, caused by incidents, on the organization's results, as well as acting in the recovery of internal data and customer data, mitigating financial and reputational losses. of your brand.
See what are the main storms to which the IT infrastructure is subject:
1- Cyber attacks
Brazilian companies are one of the main targets of cyber attacks, mainly via phishing, ransomware and personal data theft. In 2020 alone, there were more than 80 million attempts.
According to SonicWall , of the 304 million ransomware attacks carried out in the first half of 2021, 9.1 million of them were in Brazil alone.
In the corporate world, small and medium-sized companies are the most frequently attacked, mainly due to the lack of resources or information to invest in cybersecurity. After all, hackers know the combination of negligence and lack of training, and they use that to their advantage.
If you want to go further, be sure to check out the reading: Cybersecurity Trends for 2022
2- Equipment failures
If the company works with local data centers to store its IT infrastructure, it runs the risk of losing part or all of the data with a power surge, for example.
Obsolescence can lead to breakage and locking of internal parts of the equipment, cables can wear out, for example, and compromise the entire structure if there is no constant and preventive maintenance.
That is, any physical data center is a potential risk of harm to organizations and therefore requires extra care.
3- Human error
The human agent is also one of the main causes of failures in the IT structure, whether operating the system or the machine incorrectly, even the possibility of spilling water on the equipment causing an accident with irreparable losses.
In addition, human errors can be the gateway to cyber attacks, discussed in topic 1. After all, clicking on a link in an email that appeared to be safe is usually one of the most common mistakes and is the gateway to ransomware attacks .
4- Power outage
If there is no generator or proper grounding at the company, a simple power outage can knock down the company's system for hours and make it difficult to fully restore.
Companies located in cities that suffer from floods and, consequently, power outages, need a Disaster Recovery Plan with the highest level of urgency, because if every problem their services have to be paralyzed, it will certainly not only lose in sales as well as credibility.
5- Natural disaster
There is also the possibility of a strong discharge of energy caused by lightning making the continuity of the IT infrastructure unfeasible or heavy rains that could damage external equipment or the wiring to which the infrastructure in the local data center is connected.
In this way, all the previous problems end up connecting as a result of the lack of a Disaster Recovery Plan.
How to develop a disaster recovery plan?
In order to prevent such problems mentioned above from harming organizations, we can adopt some strategies in the Disaster Recovery Plan for this purpose.
Below is a list of good practices that can be considered:
#1 Know the existing threats
Identify the types of disasters to which your company and the IT sector, in particular, are more susceptible. Does it rain a lot in the city? Is it torrential rain with lots of lightning? Here is a concern to keep in mind. Also evaluate the quality of the power supply. Is there always a light drop or flickering?
Remembering that some disasters such as fires and human errors do not depend on location, as well as cyber crimes. Thus, it is necessary to consider all events that may threaten IT continuity, measuring the negative impact of each one of them on the routine and productivity of the sector and the company as a whole.
#2 Identify the loss capacity of the company
This capacity can be calculated by two indicators: (1) the recovery point (RPO) and (2) recovery time (RTO).
The first concerns the amount of information that your system or application can afford to lose before the recovery plan is triggered. In this case, the larger it is, the more forgiving the system is. In that case, if the result is below, it is essential that there are backups more frequently , preferably in the cloud.
The second indicator concerns, in turn, the recovery response time, that is, how long the recovery takes. Here, the smaller it is, the better for the business.
Without having the measurement of these two indicators, it is impossible to perform disaster recovery efficiently.
#3 Develop Recovery Strategies
By mapping the main threats that can put your business at risk, build recovery strategies, answering exactly the question: what to do when there is a disaster of this nature? Each one will have a greater or lesser impact, depending on the team's preparation to minimize its effects.
Therefore, it is strictly important that the team has the knowledge and is trained to put the developed strategies into practice. It is also necessary to consider whether the team is sufficient to achieve the goals of the Disaster Recovery Plan, as well as to assess whether the company has the infrastructure to achieve the goals of the plan.
For example, assessing whether there is enough backup infrastructure and bandwidth.
Some solutions that can help in this regard are:
Backup Infra
Having or increasing backup infrastructure is necessary for the disaster recovery plan to be effective.
In this case, the backup should be performed periodically. Thus, when a disaster occurs, the company will have copies of the files, being able to restore the IT infrastructure in less time.
cloud computing
Cloud computing is now a strong ally in IT management. Due to its online structure and decentralized servers, the cloud protects data in any type of disaster.
In addition, in specific cases of cyber attacks, cloud providers work with a strict security system at different levels, from antivirus programs to encrypted access.
EDR Solutions
EDR solutions act specifically on IT endpoints, that is, on computers, tablets and smartphones connected to IT systems and applications.
If your company already works with cloud , then it means that access to the system is carried out from different machines, inside and outside the office, which, if on the one hand, makes work more flexible and increases productivity, on the other it increases costs. risk of theft and invasion.
That's why endpoint solutions are essential, as they track access and are able to identify the source of the invasion, eliminating or minimizing the impact of the threat, without discontinuing the IT infrastructure.
#4 Integration between departments
In addition to training the IT team, it is essential that there is also integration with other sectors, such as logistics and finance, since these are areas that generate important data for the company.
Such departments also need to be aware of the disaster recovery plan and know how to put it into practice, if necessary.
#5 Test the plan
As important as elaborating is testing the disaster recovery plan, since it is necessary to make sure that that set of strategy is the most suitable for each type of threat that the company may suffer.
Test, including, with the team to measure the recovery time and the level of learning of each employee with the strategy. With the tests, it is possible to verify weaknesses and strengths, making necessary adjustments before the real disaster happens.
Disaster Recovery Plan: It's time to take safety
We have seen that disaster recovery is now an essential resource for any company that uses digital as part of its assets.
Thus, it is essential to invest in an infrastructure that is adequate to the volume of data, as well as in resources that can guarantee the security and recovery of data in a minimum time to maintain the continuity of the IT infrastructure. Otherwise, not only IT, but also other sectors, may be offline indefinitely.
There is still the risk of the company being punished by the ANPD , receiving fines and even the suspension of its services, especially in cases of invasions.
As benefits, a good disaster recovery plan, using effective digital solutions, such as EDR, contributes to cost savings, maintenance of the company's good reputation, more security for data and information, guarantee of continuity of the IT infrastructure and , consequently, maintenance of productivity.
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