Business Continuity, Security and Backups

A presentation by Les Bain and Robin McCain for PASS (Professional Association of Support Services

Business Continuity – What is it?

Business Continuity is a mindset, not a commodity.
It is the conscious decision process to plan for your business to continue in the face of adversity or even disaster.
Physical systems can help, but effective solutions really depend on your perceptions, experiences and periodic task check offs.
Business Continuity now can be the savior to guard against something as simple as someone tripping over a power cord and disabling a home/business desktop computer in the middle of an on-line transaction, for example.

Business Continuity – Why do it?

What is the worst that can happen? How prepared are we? Where is the business vulnerable? How do we know our plans will work? What about our people? How do we determine our risk tolerance? How can we leverage our technology? Are we willing to take that risk?

Author/researcher Michael Croy of the Forsythe Solutions Group consultancy noted the following:

Nearly one-third of current businesses that suffer a major IT disaster go out of business within two to four months.
Two-thirds of mid- to large-sized companies have experienced from one to 24 hours of unplanned down time, with an average cost per incident of $3 million.
Two-thirds of U.S. companies say it would take days to weeks to recover from a significant business interruption.

Business Continuity includes all the following security topics

Financial (income/expenses)
Transaction
Medical
Personal affairs
Client affairs
Corporate interests
National interests

But specifically for this document, Business Continuity is for the technical side of the business. It you computer is essential to your business, then you need a plan for the computer to continue operating.

Backups – essential for Business Continuity

Business Continuity for Computers starts with a sound backup system.
Backups are the major line of defense against disaster
Backups are important enough to make sure there are redundant backups
Data storage and retrieval

Backups – Defining the Terms

Onsite versus Offsite Backups
Full backups versus incremental backups
What is RAID - Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks

Backups – discussion

What needs to be backed up?
- Data
- Programs
- Program Information
- Data in the cloud – gmail, etc.
How often does it need to be backed up?
- As soon as it is saved?
- Once a Day
What is the best method
- RAID
- Offline
- Online

Backups – reference

Backups covered in Sallie Goetsch's fileslinger site

Business Continuity for Computers – Security

Defend against Malware: Worms, Viruses, Spyware, Rootkits
Keep Software current
Use a Firewall
Keep your computer tuned so you know when you have a problem
- Browsers get hacked before phones at security show (Safari)
- By Robert McMillan , IDG News Service , 03/19/2009
- http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9128878

Business Continuity for Computers – What is means to your business

Worst case scenarios vs routine snafus
What really matters in the end - can you recover without fatal losses?

Business Continuity for Computers – Reference

http://weblog.infoworld.com/securityadviser/archives/2009/03/corporate_spies.html?source=NLC-SECADV&cgd=2009-03-23 - about inappropriate insider access. This is a tricky issue, as it involves trusting others to do the right thing (or not).
http://www.privacyrights.org/ar/Privacy-IssuesList.htm - shows convergence between personal privacy and security. An informed and aware consumer is already halfway to a good security mindset.
The Conficker Worm
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conficker - Description
- Conficter Eye Chart - go here to do a quick test to see if you have the Conficker Worm.
Business Continuity Reference
- http://www.business-continuity-world.com/ -
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_continuity_planning - Business Continuity Planning

Robin McCain

Robin McCain is the owner of Small Business Network and a member of the Producers Guild.(SmBizNets) www.SmBizNets.com.
SmBizNets helps you manage & maintain your computer network from mouse to server.
We also have extensive experience in multimedia, computer graphics, business presentations, trade show displays, events planning and more.
Your business has a Business Plan to focus your goals and activities. Have you considered creating a Technology Plan? Business work environments are rapidly evolving – yesterday's paper based file cabinet is being replaced by network based storage. SmBizNets can help you plan for the most cost effective investments to make your office more productive. We do the troubleshooting and solve the problems so you can focus on your business objectives.