Nothing can ruin a day quicker than that gut-wrenching feeling that something with your online presence is very, very wrong. Questions immediately flood your head, like:
“Is this going to take minutes or weeks to fix?”
“Does our team know how to handle this?”
“Will we have to notify our stakeholders?”
“Will we come back from this?”
You want to have dependable and efficient cybersecurity tools in place BEFORE these questions start swimming around in your brain. So here are five cybersecurity tools that will minimize disasters and help calm your nerves the next time you encounter digital problems.
What types of digital disasters could your business run into?
User Error
Your team works hard to keep your business running, but we’re all human. Unfortunately, mistakes happen more often than you think — and can cause lasting damage to your company’s digital presence or open the door for malicious attacks. In 2021, a Data Breach Survey revealed that human error caused 84% of severe data breach incidents.
While proper employee training and management can help reduce the chances of costly mistakes, some things will inevitably be overlooked or fall through the cracks. So, having a backup plan for when humans fall short can save you from costly data loss.
Malicious Attacks
Did you know that global cyber crimes are predicted to cost $10.5 trillion annually by 2025? No company wants to be a part of that statistic. With cyberattacks rising across all industries, it’s not uncommon to experience a cyberattack attempt multiple times a year. More than half of all businesses have experienced the drain and damage that cyberattacks can cause.
Physical Damage to Hardware
Natural disasters or physical damage may also wreak havoc on your digital system. Flooding, fires or earthquakes could impact your data storage. Not having dependable disaster recovery tools could mean the difference between bouncing back quickly and dealing with long-term damage.
Digital Bugs and Breaks
Did you know that 88% of website visitors are less likely to return to a site after a bad experience? If you have a buggy or broken site, you can lose potential customers. This slow-burn disaster may not be dramatic, but it will impact your bottom line eventually.
With all the potential disconnects that can happen in even a robust digital system, bugs and breaks are inevitable. When they happen, they can slow down your system or even act as a backdoor into your network for hackers.
System Non-compliance
Whether you’re working in the healthcare industry, the financial industry or you’re working with sensitive client data, there are procedures you need to follow to meet data protection standards. When your preventive measures fall short, you can get into hot water with organizations that monitor company compliance with SOX and HIPAA protocols.
What damage can these disasters cause?
Unplanned Outages/Downtime
Unplanned downtime, when your system is unexpectedly not functioning, is a common yet frustrating symptom of digital disasters. While a few moments of downtime probably won’t impact you beyond being a temporary annoyance, more severe downtime can last hours, days or weeks. When this extended downtime happens, it can damage both your public reputation and bottom line.
Data Loss or Damage
Your system data is arguably your most valuable resource as a company. Whether the result of user error, malicious attacks or physical damage, data loss or damage is one of the more dire consequences that can impact a business after a digital disaster. In fact, 40-60% of small businesses won’t reopen after permanent data loss.
No company wants to fall into that statistic, so every precaution you take against permanently losing your internal data is well worth the effort.
Monetary Ransom
Ransomware is an especially nasty version of a cyberattack that holds crucial company info, like a website, for ransom until a company pays a hefty price. Ransomware is on the rise, with 37% of global organizations falling victim to ransomware attacks in 2021. With the median ransomware payment falling around $36,000 in 2022, this is an incredibly lucrative opportunity for hackers, who are increasingly taking advantage of this strategy.
Damage to Reputation
One of the more holistic impacts of a digital disaster is the damage it can cause to the public’s trust in your company. Once you lose the trust of your patients, clients or stakeholders, it can be challenging to win it back. While this is tough to quantify in calculations, it can have a very real and lasting impact on your bottom line.
Fines
You can also fall into hot water with regulation organizations when you don’t take the necessary precautions to protect your client or patient data. If they find anything lacking in your compliance practices, it can lead to fines, probations or even loss of licenses. Tacked on top of the other consequences of digital disasters, this one can feel like rubbing salt in the existing wound.
5 Cybersecurity Tools that can Help Mitigate or Avoid Digital Disasters
Network Monitoring
Network monitoring is the eyes and ears of your digital system. When something is wrong (or about to be wrong), dependable network monitoring will catch and fix the issue before it impacts your digital presence.
This process of observing and tracking any problems or potential threats that could impact your network includes continuously scanning your system for vulnerabilities and identifying areas for improvement. Managing these slow, malfunctioning or failing aspects of your network saves your system from downtime or data loss and creates a better overall user experience for employees and clients alike.
Proactive Maintenance
Studies have shown that companies that use proactive maintenance experience:
- A 10-times return on investment
- About 25-30% reduced maintenance costs
- About 75% fewer breakdowns
- About 40% lesser downtime
- About 25% better production
Proactive maintenance includes ensuring that your patch management is up to date, pushing the most current antivirus databases to all clients in your network and monitoring users who try to perform unauthorized actions. It also can monitor your hardware to detect issues and improve its efficiency.
Dependable proactive maintenance can save system downtime, prevent large-scale virus infections, minimize legal issues and reduce productivity losses. That is an immense benefit to your business with a single cybersecurity tool!
Disaster Recovery
Did you know that 43% of businesses without a business continuity plan will go out of business in the wake of a significant data loss? That is a pretty compelling reason to leverage this cybersecurity tool.
Disaster recovery includes having off-site backup options to keep your data safe and secure in case something happens to your mainframe or data collection tools. With an excellent disaster recovery plan, your off-site backup strategy can even update daily to have the most current version of your data at any given time.
Cybersecurity
You’re not alone if you don’t have a plan to mitigate cyberattacks. More than 77% of organizations do not have a cybersecurity incident response plan. Unfortunately, this is one of those tools that you only notice the moment it becomes imperative. If your company is ever targeted with a malicious cyber attack, every decision your team makes when combating the threat is critical and can be the difference between avoiding damage and experiencing a lasting impact.
Your best bet against malicious attacks is an informed team. Regular employee cybersecurity training can give your employees the tools they need to individually and collectively protect your data, from identifying phishing scams to understanding the best way to handle breach attempts.
Help Desk Available 24/7
When you feel out of your wheelhouse, having access to a dedicated team of experts can feel like a lifeline. You never know when cyber threats, data damage or other digital disasters will arise — so a help desk that can jump on crises the moment they happen can minimize the impact of the problem.
When you work with experts who can implement an efficient and robust incident response plan, the chances of crises leading to website downtime, permanent data loss or breaches are greatly minimized.
Rely on the Professionals — We Can Help
A long list of security measures and responsibilities can help protect your company from many disasters, but sometimes problems are unavoidable. When disaster strikes, it can be overwhelming to take it all on internally. MDL can handle your entire disaster recovery program, so you can rest easy knowing your sensitive info is in good hands.
Many assume that outsourcing their technology needs comes with a hefty price tag. However, with affordable solutions for businesses of all sizes and industries, MDL Technology is there for your IT needs every step of the way. Contact us today to learn more.