The short answer would be, as with most things in life, prevention is definitely better. However, as we all know, it isn’t always possible to be ahead of the game, and that’s when you need a cure. Both have their place.
What’s this got to do with data? Well, you have two choices, protect your data now and ensure if the worst happens, you’ll suffer the minimum disruption, or, protect it later and hope for the best.
At Vitanium we deal in prevention and cures every day, helping companies protect their data and recover it, and like most professionals, we’d prefer to see people acting earlier to keep their data healthy and safe. In our experience, the stress, risk, and expense that late action causes just aren’t worth it.
What am I preventing?
One reason a lot of businesses fail to protect their data is because they don’t know exactly what they’re supposed to be keeping it safe from.
We’ve all seen the big headlines about ransomware attacks and threats to data security, but on a day-to-day basis there are three main types of threat: accidental, malicious, and physical.
- Accidental threats
“It was just an accident,” might sound like an innocent enough sentence, but the truth is accidental threats to your data are as dangerous as malicious ones and could bring your business to a grinding halt.
In Verizon’s 2022 Data Breach Report, 82% of breaches involved a human element such as social attacks, errors, and misuse. Employees, even well-meaning ones, can be dangerous to data. Accidental breaches include:
- Data leaks.
- Password vulnerabilities.
- File overwriting or deletion.
- Forgotten or mishandled backups.
- Shadow IT – data held on systems that the business is unaware of due to remote or hybrid working.
- Malicious threats
Malicious threats exist to inflict harm on your business. In the Report mentioned above, 4 out of 5 breaches were down to organized crime, and the number one motive was financial gain. Malicious actions include:
- Malware and ransomware.
- Social engineering – pretending to be someone else to gain access to data.
- Man in the middle (MitM) attacks – using one employee to reach another’s data.
- Denial of service (DoS) – disrupting your access to servers, data, or devices.
- Injection attacks – infecting your web application with malicious code.
It’s worth asking yourself the question, would you want to be put in the impossible position of either losing your data, losing money, or both? If the answer is no, you need to make sure you’re protected against malicious attacks.
- Physical threats
Where is your data stored, and is it safe? Physical threats get the least attention but can cause serious problems. Is your data protected from natural disasters, physical intrusion, and energy issues?
If you’re thinking that sounds far-fetched, what about flood and fire risks? Is your data backed up in more than one place? Who has access to that area? How and where are the backups kept safe? What happens if there’s a power outage? Even a spilt cup of coffee can be as dangerous to data as a flood. Don’t leave one of your most valuable assets open to unforeseen disasters or carelessness.
Is it really about data?
No. It’s also about cost. When people come to us with problems, they’re worried about how much the downtime is going to cost their business. What value does data hold for your business? Can you afford to lose it? If you can’t access it, what effect will that have on your operations?
Here’s an example:
- A customer came to us unable to restore their data. He had stopped all business activity for three days whilst he tried to repair the problem but was unable to get up and running again. We fixed his problems and set up a Veeam system, meaning his data could be restored, and system running, within 10 minutes if the situation ever happened again. 3 days of lost business vs 10 minutes. What’s that worth to your organisation?
Why outsourcing makes sense
Backups and data storage aren’t at the top of everyone’s list, but in an increasingly digital world, it’s vital to safeguard one of your most valuable company assets. Prevention, when it comes to data, is most definitely better than cure.
What we propose
At Vitanium we are experts in data storage, backup, and security. We know the right questions to ask to best protect your systems. Which is why we’re currently offering a free, no-obligation Health Check in a bid to encourage businesses like yours to take data security seriously before disaster strikes.
What’s involved in a Vitanium Health Check?
- We’ll send you a simple, online questionnaire to fill in about your setup.
- Then we’ll give you a call and ask some key questions about your data and security. You may not know all the answers, and that’s ok, we’re here to identify any gaps.
- Finally, you’ll receive a free, no-obligation report from us with a summary of your current situation, and clear recommendations about what you could do to better protect yourself.
- If you want to talk to us about the report, or ask us to help you secure your data, we’ll be happy to help. If not, at least you’ll be better informed.
Let us manage your data, so you can get on with managing your business.
Take advantage of Vitanium’s free, no-obligation Health Check and find out how you can better secure your data. Find out more→