Unused accounts, excessive permissions, missing updates and untested backups can all create unnecessary risk. In many cases, addressing these issues costs nothing beyond the time it takes to identify and fix them.

Before investing in another security tool, start with these six practical cybersecurity improvements.

Quick Summary: Some meaningful cybersecurity improvements don’t require new technology. Strengthening authentication, removing unused accounts, limiting administrator access, installing updates, improving password practices and testing backups can help close common security gaps using tools your business may already have.

1. Strengthen multi-factor authentication

If multi-factor authentication (MFA) isn’t enabled across your most important accounts, start there.

MFA requires users to provide additional verification beyond a password before accessing an account. If an attacker steals or guesses a password, that additional step can make it significantly harder to gain access.

Prioritize MFA for:

• Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace
• Banking and payroll systems
• Cloud storage
• Remote access and VPN accounts
• Administrator accounts
• Business-critical applications

But simply enabling any form of MFA shouldn’t be the end goal. Not all MFA methods provide the same level of protection. SMS codes, for example, can be vulnerable to interception and social engineering, while some sophisticated phishing attacks are designed to capture authentication codes or trick users into approving fraudulent requests.

CISA recommends moving toward phishing-resistant MFA, such as FIDO/WebAuthn-based authentication, where possible.

If your existing platforms already include stronger authentication options, enabling them can be one of the most valuable cybersecurity improvements you make without purchasing another product.

Resource: 5 Ways Hackers Bypass MFA

2. Remove accounts you no longer need

Former employees aren’t the only source of forgotten accounts. Temporary workers, contractors, vendors, old administrator accounts and accounts created for short-term projects can remain active long after they’re needed.

Every unnecessary account creates another potential path into your systems.

Review accounts across your important applications and ask:

• Does this person still work with us?
• Does this account still serve a business purpose?
• Has the account been inactive for an extended period?
• Does this user still need access to everything the account can reach?

Disable or remove accounts that are no longer required and adjust access when someone’s responsibilities change.

Better yet, make account reviews part of your normal onboarding and offboarding processes. When an employee or vendor leaves, there should be a defined process for removing access rather than relying on someone to remember every application they used.

3. Stop giving everyone administrator access

Administrator accounts can install software, change configurations, create users and alter security settings. That makes them useful for IT teams — and particularly valuable to attackers.

Review who currently has elevated privileges and whether each person actually needs them to perform their job.

The goal is least privilege: users should have only the access necessary to perform their responsibilities. Someone who occasionally needs administrative access doesn’t necessarily need to operate with those privileges throughout the day.

Where practical, use separate administrator accounts for privileged tasks and standard user accounts for routine work. If an everyday account is compromised, limiting its permissions can also limit what an attacker is able to do with it.

Don’t forget to review administrator privileges within individual applications, either. A user may not be a network administrator but could still have unnecessary elevated access to Microsoft 365, financial software, cloud platforms or other critical systems.

4. Turn on automatic updates

Software vulnerabilities are continually discovered, and updates frequently include security fixes designed to address them.

Check whether automatic updates are enabled for commonly used devices and applications, including:

• Windows and macOS
• Phones and tablets
• Web browsers
• Microsoft 365 and other productivity software
• Security applications
• Frequently used business applications

Don’t stop at employee laptops. Servers, networking equipment and other connected devices may also require software or firmware updates.

Some business-critical systems require testing before updates are deployed, so automatic updating isn’t appropriate in every environment. The larger goal is to make sure updates are being managed rather than ignored.

A vulnerability that’s already been fixed by the vendor shouldn’t remain an unnecessary opening simply because the update was never installed.

5. Improve password management

Employees are often told to create strong, unique passwords for every account. The problem is that remembering dozens of complex passwords isn’t realistic.

That’s when password reuse, predictable variations and other risky habits can creep in.

If your organization already provides a password manager, make sure employees are actually using it. Password managers can generate and store unique credentials so users don’t have to rely on memory or reuse the same password across multiple accounts.

Also look at whether your existing systems support single sign-on or passwordless authentication. Reducing the number of passwords employees have to manage can improve both security and usability.

This is the one item on the list that may not be completely free if your current technology doesn’t include password-management capabilities. Before purchasing another product, however, check what functionality is already included in the platforms and licenses you’re paying for.

6. Test whether your backups actually work

A successful backup notification isn’t the same thing as a successful recovery.

The purpose of a backup is to restore data and systems after ransomware, hardware failure, accidental deletion or another disruption. If nobody has tested the recovery process, you don’t really know whether your backups can do what the business expects them to do.

Start with a few questions:

• When did our last successful backup complete?
• What systems and data are actually being backed up?
• Has anyone performed a test restore recently?
• How long would recovery take?
• Who is responsible for initiating recovery?
• Does that recovery time meet the needs of the business?

This last question is particularly important. Having the data isn’t enough if restoring critical operations takes significantly longer than the business can tolerate.

Backup testing should therefore be part of a broader disaster recovery strategy. Regular recovery testing can help uncover missing data, configuration problems and unrealistic recovery expectations before you’re dealing with an actual outage.

Free doesn’t mean unimportant

Cybersecurity conversations often focus on what businesses should buy next. Sometimes the better question is whether you’re fully using and properly managing what you already have.

These six steps don’t replace a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy, and depending on your environment, additional technology, monitoring or expertise may still be necessary. But adding more tools before addressing basic security gaps can leave you spending more without necessarily becoming more secure.

Start with the controls you already have. Strengthen authentication. Clean up unnecessary accounts. Reduce excessive privileges. Keep systems current. Improve password practices. And make sure your backups can actually recover what your business needs.

Then you can make better decisions about where additional cybersecurity investments will have the greatest impact.

Related: More Cybersecurity Tools Don’t Always Mean Better Security

Where are your cybersecurity gaps?

Not sure which security improvements should come first? Invenio IT can help you evaluate your current environment, identify gaps and prioritize practical improvements based on your business, systems and risk level.

Schedule a short discovery call with Invenio IT to take a closer look at your current cybersecurity environment.

Individually, those decisions may make sense. The problem comes later, when a collection of useful tools turns into a security stack that nobody fully understands or manages as a whole.

Too many cybersecurity tools can create overlapping capabilities, disconnected alerts and configuration gaps that make security harder to manage. The goal isn’t to have the largest security stack. It’s to make sure every tool has a defined purpose and works as part of a coordinated cybersecurity strategy.

Quick Summary: More cybersecurity tools don’t automatically create better protection. An overcrowded security stack can increase complexity, duplicate costs, overwhelm teams with alerts and leave configuration gaps. Businesses should regularly evaluate each tool’s purpose, coverage and integration before adding more technology.

1. More cybersecurity tools can create more complexity

Security stacks rarely become complicated overnight. A business adds email security, endpoint protection, backup, identity protection, vulnerability management and other solutions as new needs arise.

Eventually, the bigger challenge becomes understanding how everything fits together. IT teams may need to move between dashboards, review separate reports, manage licenses and renewals and determine which system is responsible for detecting or responding to a particular threat.

Complexity can also make it harder to identify what’s not protected. Two products may provide overlapping protection in one area while another risk receives little attention.

That’s why visibility matters. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) emphasizes maintaining visibility into organizational assets and the effectiveness of deployed security controls as part of an effective information security continuous monitoring strategy.

A cybersecurity stack should make your environment easier to understand and protect, not harder.

2. Too many alerts can make important threats harder to find

Security alerts are useful only when someone can determine what they mean and take appropriate action.

When multiple security products generate their own notifications, IT teams can end up sorting through a constant stream of information. Some alerts indicate normal activity, others require investigation and a small number may signal an active threat.

That volume can create alert fatigue. When people encounter too many low-priority or repetitive notifications, important warnings can become harder to distinguish from routine noise. A suspicious login, unusual file transfer or malware detection shouldn’t become just another item in a crowded queue.

Businesses need a process for consolidating, prioritizing and responding to security events so the most significant risks receive attention quickly. This is where the management behind the technology becomes as important as the technology itself. Adding another product that generates more data doesn’t necessarily improve security if nobody has the capacity or process to act on that information.

3. Overlapping security tools can waste money

A growing security stack can also hide unnecessary spending. Businesses may discover they are paying for multiple products with similar capabilities or maintaining standalone tools for features already included in another platform.

That doesn’t automatically mean overlapping protection is bad. Some security controls intentionally provide multiple layers of defense. The important question is whether that overlap is deliberate.

If two tools perform similar functions, there should be a clear reason both are necessary. Otherwise, the business may be paying additional licensing costs while creating more administrative work for the IT team.

Redundant tools can become particularly problematic during an incident. If two platforms report conflicting information or trigger separate workflows, the team may have to determine which data is authoritative before deciding how to respond.

A regular review of your security stack can identify these redundancies and determine whether each product still provides enough value to justify its cost and management requirements.

4. A security tool is only as effective as its configuration

Buying security software doesn’t automatically create protection. Every tool needs to be configured correctly, updated and monitored to ensure it continues protecting the systems and users it was intended to cover.

This is one of the easiest places for security gaps to develop. A security feature may be disabled temporarily while troubleshooting and never re-enabled. A new employee might not be added to the appropriate protection policy. A company may adopt new cloud applications without updating monitoring. Security settings that made sense when a tool was originally deployed may no longer match the organization’s current environment.

The result can be a dangerous gap between having a security product and actually receiving the protection the business assumes it provides.

NIST’s guidance on security-focused configuration management emphasizes managing and monitoring system configurations throughout their lifecycle to help reduce organizational security risk.

Businesses should therefore review security configurations regularly rather than treating implementation as a one-time project.

How to tell if your security stack has become too complicated

You don’t necessarily need fewer tools. You need the right tools, with clear responsibilities and effective management.

A useful security stack review starts with a few practical questions:

• What risk is each tool intended to address?
• Who is responsible for managing and monitoring it?
• Does another product already provide the same capability?
• Are all intended users, devices and systems actually covered?
• Are alerts reaching the right people?
• When was the configuration last reviewed?
• Is the product integrated with the rest of your security environment?
• Does the value it provides still justify its cost?

If those questions are difficult to answer, the problem may not be that your business needs another cybersecurity product. It may be that the existing stack needs to be evaluated first.

Build your cybersecurity strategy before your stack

Cybersecurity technology should support a strategy, not become the strategy.

Start by identifying the systems, data and business operations you need to protect. Consider where an attack could have the greatest operational or financial impact and which controls are already addressing those risks. Then look for gaps.

Only after that assessment should you determine whether another tool is necessary.

This approach can also reveal opportunities to simplify. You may find redundant products, unused features, outdated configurations or tools that no longer fit the way your organization operates.

The result doesn’t necessarily have to be a smaller security stack. It should be a more intentional one — where every product has a defined role, the people managing it understand that role and the different layers work together.

Strategy beats quantity

The strongest cybersecurity environment isn’t necessarily the one with the most products. It’s the one in which technology, people and processes work together to address the risks that matter to the business.

Adding another tool can improve security when it closes a known gap. Adding one because more technology simply feels safer can have the opposite effect.

Before making the next purchase, understand what you already have, what it protects and where genuine gaps remain. Your security stack should give you greater visibility and control — not more complexity.

Is your security stack working as a system?

If you’re unsure whether your cybersecurity tools overlap, leave gaps or create unnecessary complexity, Invenio IT can help you evaluate your current environment and determine where your defenses can be strengthened or simplified.

Schedule a short discovery call with Invenio IT to review your cybersecurity needs and determine whether your current tools are working together effectively.

Those clues still matter, but phishing attacks have evolved. Cybercriminals can use artificial intelligence to create polished emails, research employees and vendors, imitate normal business communications and build convincing requests around information that is publicly available online. Phishing has also expanded beyond email to text messages, QR codes, collaboration platforms and even AI-generated voices.

That means businesses need to rethink some of the traditional rules for identifying phishing scams. Employee awareness remains important, but the goal should no longer be to rely on employees to spot every fake message. Businesses need safeguards that assume some phishing attempts will look legitimate.

Old rule: Bad grammar is a phishing giveaway

New reality: A phishing email can be perfectly written

Poor grammar, awkward wording and unusual formatting were once some of the easiest ways to identify a phishing email. Generative AI has made those clues far less reliable.

Attackers can quickly create professional messages with the right tone, terminology and level of formality. They can also use publicly available information about a company or employee to make the communication more relevant. A fraudulent email might reference the recipient’s role, a real executive or a vendor the company actually uses.

That doesn’t mean employees should stop looking for traditional warning signs. It means a polished message should never be considered trustworthy simply because it looks professional.

Instead, employees need to consider the context of the request. Is someone unexpectedly asking for credentials? Has a vendor suddenly changed its banking information? Is an executive requesting an urgent payment outside the normal process? Those behavioral clues can be more useful than grammar or formatting.

Old rule: If you recognize the sender, the message is probably safe

New reality: Attackers can impersonate or compromise trusted accounts

Seeing the name of a colleague, executive or vendor at the top of an email can create an immediate sense of trust. Attackers take advantage of that.

Some phishing attacks use lookalike domains or display names to impersonate legitimate contacts. Others are more difficult to identify because the attacker has gained access to an actual email account.

This is especially dangerous in business email compromise (BEC) attacks. A cybercriminal may monitor genuine conversations before inserting fraudulent payment instructions or requesting a change to banking information. From the recipient’s perspective, the request can appear to be part of an existing conversation with someone they already know.

The FBI recommends independently verifying payment requests and changes to account numbers or payment procedures as part of its guidance on business email compromise.

For businesses, the takeaway is simple: identity alone should not authorize a sensitive transaction. Financial changes, credential requests and unusual access requests should have a separate verification process, even when they appear to originate from someone the employee knows.

Old rule: Phishing happens through email

New reality: The attack can start almost anywhere

Email remains a major phishing channel, but employees now encounter potential phishing attempts through text messages, QR codes, phone calls and workplace communication platforms.

Smishing uses text messages to direct victims to malicious websites or fraudulent phone numbers. Quishing hides malicious destinations behind QR codes that may appear in emails, documents, invoices or even printed materials. Vishing uses phone calls or voice messages to persuade victims to provide information or take an unauthorized action.

AI adds another complication. Voice-cloning technology can make a fraudulent call sound like someone the recipient recognizes. An employee may hear what appears to be an executive requesting an urgent payment or asking them to bypass an established procedure.

Businesses should therefore teach employees to recognize social engineering, not simply phishing emails. An unusual request should receive the same scrutiny whether it arrives through Outlook, a text message, a QR code or a phone call.

Old rule: MFA will stop an attacker who steals a password

New reality: Some phishing attacks are designed to get around MFA

Multi-factor authentication remains one of the most important protections businesses can put in place. A stolen password is much less useful when an attacker still needs another form of authentication.

But not every form of MFA provides the same level of protection.

Attackers can create fake login pages that capture credentials and authentication codes in real time. Other attacks repeatedly send authentication requests in the hope that an employee eventually approves one. Session theft can potentially allow an attacker to gain access after authentication has already occurred.

That is why businesses should move toward phishing-resistant MFA where possible. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recommends phishing-resistant authentication, including FIDO/WebAuthn, as a stronger defense against credential phishing.

This does not mean businesses should abandon traditional MFA if stronger authentication cannot be implemented immediately. It means MFA should be treated as one layer of identity security rather than a guarantee that phishing cannot succeed.

For a closer look at these techniques, see our guide to 5 Ways Hackers Bypass MFA.

Old rule: Security software will catch the bad messages

New reality: Some phishing emails contain nothing obviously malicious

Traditional security tools are very good at identifying known malicious files, suspicious URLs and other recognizable threats. But what happens when a phishing email contains none of them?

A message asking an employee to change payment information may not include malware. An attacker impersonating an executive may simply ask the recipient to reply. A fraudulent voice call contains no attachment for an email security platform to scan.

This is one reason businesses need layered cybersecurity. Advanced email protection can identify suspicious links, attachments and impersonation attempts, but it should work alongside identity security, employee awareness, account monitoring and established verification procedures.

It is also why traditional spam filters can struggle with AI-generated phishing emails. When an attack relies primarily on context and manipulation rather than malicious code, detecting it becomes more complicated.

Old rule: Employees need to learn how not to click

New reality: Employees need to know what to do when something feels wrong

“Don’t click suspicious links” is useful advice, but it doesn’t give employees much guidance when a request looks legitimate.

Modern security awareness training should focus on the decisions attackers try to manipulate. Employees should know that requests involving payments, passwords, account changes and sensitive information deserve additional verification. They should also understand that urgency and secrecy are common social-engineering techniques.

Most importantly, reporting a suspicious message should be easy. Employees should know exactly where to send questionable communications and what to do if they have already clicked a link or entered information.

The faster IT knows about a potential compromise, the faster it can investigate the account, revoke sessions, reset credentials and determine whether an attacker gained access.

What businesses should do differently

The evolution of phishing does not mean businesses are powerless against it. It means phishing prevention needs to evolve beyond a checklist of suspicious-email characteristics.

Start by establishing independent verification procedures for financial transactions, banking changes, payroll requests and access to sensitive information. Employees should use a known phone number or another trusted communication channel rather than contact information supplied in the message they are trying to verify.

Use multi-factor authentication throughout the organization and move toward phishing-resistant authentication for sensitive accounts where possible. Administrators, executives and employees with access to financial systems should receive particular attention because compromising those accounts can give attackers access to valuable systems and information.

Email security should also be configured to detect impersonation and social-engineering attempts, not just malware. Businesses should monitor for suspicious sign-ins, unauthorized email forwarding rules and unusual account activity that could indicate an attacker has already gained access.

Finally, make security awareness an ongoing process. Employees should encounter realistic examples of current phishing techniques and understand why verification procedures exist. The objective is not to turn every employee into a cybersecurity analyst. It is to make questioning an unusual request a normal part of doing business.

What if someone falls for a phishing attack?

Even strong cybersecurity programs should assume that an employee may eventually click a malicious link, enter credentials into a fraudulent website or approve an authentication request they should not have.

When that happens, speed matters. Employees should immediately report the incident so IT can determine what information may have been exposed, reset compromised credentials, revoke active sessions and investigate suspicious activity. Depending on the attack, affected devices may also need to be isolated and examined.

If money was transferred as part of a business email compromise scam, contact the financial institution immediately. Businesses can also report suspected cybercrime through the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.

Phishing response should also be incorporated into the organization’s broader incident response and business continuity planning. Knowing who needs to act, how accounts will be secured and how critical systems will be protected can reduce the disruption caused by a successful attack.

Phishing changed. Your defenses should too.

The biggest change in phishing is not that every attack is suddenly sophisticated. Plenty of obvious phishing emails still reach inboxes every day. The problem is that businesses can no longer assume an attack will look like an attack.

A professionally written email can be fraudulent. A message from a familiar contact can be compromised. A recognizable voice may be cloned. And MFA can significantly improve security without making an account immune to phishing.

The strongest defense is therefore not a single security product or employee training session. It is a combination of technology, verification procedures, identity protection, monitoring and a workforce that knows when to question an unusual request.

Are your phishing defenses keeping up?

One convincing message can expose credentials, redirect a payment or give an attacker access to sensitive business information. Invenio IT can help you evaluate your email security, identity protection and other cybersecurity controls to identify gaps before they become incidents.

Schedule a short discovery call with Invenio IT to discuss your current cybersecurity environment and where additional safeguards could reduce your risk.

Creating a disaster recovery plan for a small business is essential. Operational disruptions are extremely costly for smaller companies, and a lack of continuity planning can threaten their survival.

In this starter guide, we outline what to include in a recovery plan for your business, including critical protocols and technologies – and why they’re important.

Getting started: the role of a DRP

A disaster recovery plan (DRP) for small business is typically focused on information technology, such as data backup and recovery systems. But a DRP can apply to all aspects of business operations. It can encompass a wide range of tools and processes that ensure minimal downtime and efficient recovery after a disaster, including:

• Data backup and recovery technologies
• Failover systems
• Redundant hardware and equipment
• Secondary business locations
• Recovery protocols and procedures

Below, we outline each of these components in greater detail and provide a basic business recovery plan template with some additional sections to include in your documentation.

Together, all of these components guide a small business through all stages of the disaster management cycle: prevention, preparation, mitigation and recovery.

Starter template: disaster recovery plan for small business

A business disaster recovery plan outlines a company’s strategies for dealing with operational disruptions. Much like a business continuity plan (BCP), a DRP is a comprehensive document that spells out how the business should respond to various disaster scenarios (and how to avoid them).

A typical disaster recovery plan for small business includes the following sections:

Creating a disaster recovery plan for an SMB is the first critical step of the planning process. It requires a business to consider the specific incidents that threaten operations and create detailed recovery protocols for each scenario.

Related guides and templates:

• Easy Checklist for Disaster Recovery Plans
• Manufacturing Disaster Recovery Plan Template
• Explained: The Difference Between a Disaster Recovery Plan and a Business Continuity Plan

Why it’s important to have a business disaster recovery plan

Operational disruptions—and the financial losses they cause—are arguably the single greatest threat to any size business.

Disaster recovery statistics show that virtually every business experiences costly disruptions. Out of 1,000 companies surveyed in 2025, 100% reported financial losses from IT outages.

Small businesses are often unprepared when these incidents occur. Consider some of these alarming business disaster recovery statistics:

• 46% of businesses have no documented disaster recovery plan, according to data from Computing Research. Among organizations that do have a plan, 7% never test any of the protocols or systems documented in the plan.
• Nearly 40% of small businesses fail to reopen following a disaster, according to FEMA.
• 90% of smaller companies fail within a year if they can’t resume operations within 5 days after experiencing a disaster.
• Each hour of downtime can cost businesses anywhere from $10,000 to millions of dollars, depending on the size of the company.

Business disaster recovery planning is critical to ensuring that companies are prepared for any threat and that personnel know how to respond when those incidents happen.

The truth about disasters, business, and a business disaster recovery plan

Disaster recovery is not solely focused on destructive natural disasters, such as tornadoes and hurricanes. While those are indeed serious threats that require proper planning, other types of disasters are far more common.

Examples of common disaster scenarios:

• Ransomware & malware that disable or destroy data
• Data loss caused by accidental or malicious deletion
• Network outages that block internet, communication and server access
• Hardware failure that destroys or prevents access to data
• Utility outages that prohibit the business from functioning
• Fire or flooding that destroys infrastructure and forces relocation

Each of these events—even the loss of a single critical file—can pose enormous challenges for a business. Operational disruptions of any kind can translate into tremendous costs that are difficult for smaller companies to overcome.

Costs of prolonged recoveries in business

Consider, for example, the impact of a single ransomware infection. With files encrypted, entire computers become unusable and operations are effectively frozen across the organization. This results in lost wages, lost productivity, interrupted revenue streams, costly recovery efforts and a host of other expenses.

In 2025, a devastating cyberattack on Jaguar Land Rover forced the automaker to halt global vehicle production for five weeks, resulting in over $350 million in direct losses and an estimated $2.5 billion in broader economic damage. Catastrophic disruptions like these underscore the necessity of comprehensive disaster recovery planning.

Over the past few years, ransomware has forced several businesses, from smaller companies to prominent organizations, to permanently close their doors, including:

• Stoli Group USA (2024): The US operations for the famous vodka brand filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late 2024, explicitly citing a 2-month ransomware attack that destroyed their ERP and accounting systems as a major contributing factor.
• MediSecure (2024): An electronic prescription provider that was forced to cease operations and enter administration after a catastrophic ransomware breach compromised its databases and caused insurmountable financial fallout.
• St. Margaret’s Health (2023): A rural Illinois hospital permanently closed its doors, making it the first US hospital to publicly cite a ransomware attack as a primary reason for shutting down after the attack crippled its billing systems for months.

Business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) for small business

The term “business continuity and disaster recovery” is often used to describe a business’s data backup system. Shortened as BC/DR, it is an essential IT deployment that ensures a business can restore data from a backup after a disaster.

• While many forms of data backup software exist, robust BC/DR systems typically offer greater protection against a range of data-loss events.
• Many of today’s disaster recovery solutions deploy a dedicated backup device, combined with intelligent software and cloud storage. (See our recommended backup for SMBs below.)
• High backup frequencies and fast recovery methods are what define the best BC/DR solutions, ensuring that businesses can maintain continuity through any disaster.

Operational system failover planning

Beyond data, businesses also need to have a backup plan for replacing a wide array of systems that are critical for company operations to function. Failover systems create redundancy, enabling businesses to quickly fall back on secondary resources when primary systems become unavailable.

Examples of failover systems include:

• Backup generators that continue to supply power to the business during electrical outages
• Network failover systems that enable communication to continue during outages (i.e. via redundant telecommunications lines, wireless failover, network failover systems, etc.)
• Failover servers that are activated during planned/unplanned maintenance on primary systems

Failover ensures that critical systems are constantly available, even when primary resources go down.

Understanding risks for an effective business disaster recovery plan

Creating effective disaster recovery protocols is impossible without having a deep understanding of the potential risks. A risk assessment is needed to identify the most likely threats and their impact on the business.

A risk assessment is typically included within the disaster recovery plan or business continuity plan. An IT-specific risk assessment is often created separately from the larger, business-wide assessment. This helps to measure the unique impact of a disaster on essential technology deployments.

• Identified risks should be prioritized by their likelihood, as well as their impact.
• Risk assessments are typically accompanied by an impact analysis, which provides greater insight into the specific consequences of each disruption.
• Impact is typically measured by the end cost of the disruption as it affects IT and all other business functions (i.e. downtime, revenue disruptions).

Disaster prevention

Steps to prevent a disaster are just as critical as those to recover from one, if not more so. As such, prevention is an important piece of disaster recovery planning: it enables continuity without the need to activate a recovery plan.

Examples of preventative steps:

• Advanced cybersecurity solutions to prevent disruptions from malware, cyberattack, data theft, etc.
• Network/firewall configurations to block dangerous incoming/outgoing traffic
• Access control/permissions to restrict users from accessing sensitive file directories
• Load balancing to prevent network slowdown and server crashes
• Scheduled server maintenance and hardware replacement to prevent unexpected failure

Another critical form of prevention that’s often overlooked is user education. Today’s most destructive events, like ransomware attacks, are often caused by user error or social engineering deception. For example, users may inadvertently open a malicious email attachment or fall victim to a phishing scam that steals their login credentials.

Ongoing employee security training programs can greatly reduce the risk of these events by educating users on safe web/email practices.

Recovery processes

Every disaster requires its own unique process for recovery. As part of the disaster recovery plan, businesses must carefully outline the steps that personnel should follow to carry out the recovery. This could include steps for restoring a backup, reinstalling a critical application or even moving mission-critical operations to a secondary location.

Tips for effective recovery protocols:

• Create specific procedures for each scenario identified in the risk assessment and/or impact analysis.
• Leave nothing to guesswork. Clearly spell out each step with the assumption that it could be carried out by personnel who aren’t deeply familiar with the process.
• When applicable, incorporate diagrams, flow charts or other visuals to make the process easier to follow.

Recovery procedures should also state who is responsible for carrying them out, including any secondary/substitute personnel for scenarios in which the primary recovery team is unavailable.

Objectives of a business disaster recovery plan

The speed and timing of the recovery process should be guided by the objectives set in the disaster recovery plan. Within IT, two of the core objectives pertain to how quickly systems should be recovered to prevent the negative consequences of a prolonged outage. Those two objectives are referred to as:

• Recovery time objective (RTO): The desired maximum amount of time that the recovery process should take. This can be applied toward specific systems or events, such as data loss, network outages, website outages, and so on.
• Recovery point objective (RPO): The desired maximum age of the most recent backup. This objective sets a limit for the age of backups (as well as goals for backup frequency), helping to minimize the amount of data loss when a backup needs to be restored.

For more tips on setting recovery objectives, see our related post: “What is RTO in Disaster Recovery Planning?”

Secondary locations and assets

In the event of catastrophic disasters in which physical business locations become inaccessible, organizations must have a plan for restoring critical operations at a secondary location. This means having access not only to the backup location itself but also equipment and resources for that location.

• If a business does not already have access to a secondary location, it should have a plan for quickly securing one.
• Backup equipment must be made available to the mission-critical personnel that will use the secondary location. Beyond server and network infrastructure, this can include individual computers, desks, chairs and so on.
• The disaster recovery plan should prioritize the personnel that should relocate, and the business should further communicate this with all applicable personnel via the emergency communication methods identified in the plan.

Recommended data backup & recovery

As mentioned above, data backup is an important piece of the disaster-recovery puzzle. When data is lost—for whatever reason and no matter how small or large the loss—businesses must be able to restore it quickly in order to prevent an operational disruption.

While there are numerous BC/DR solutions on the market, there are some key capabilities that today’s businesses should look for when comparing options:

• Dedicated backup devices to process and store the backups
• Hybrid cloud backups (stored locally and in the cloud)
• Ability to perform backups frequently (every few minutes or more frequently)
• Ability to boot backups as virtual machines for instant access to protected files, apps and operating systems
• Numerous recovery options: file-level, rapid rollback, bare metal restore, direct restore, etc.
• Automatic backup integrity checks

In the age of ransomware, cybersecurity experts advise businesses to deploy robust disaster recovery solutions that can quickly recover the entire infrastructure, in addition to individual files and folders.

Solutions like the Datto SIRIS (or ALTO for smaller companies) provide a complete infrastructure backup (physical, virtual, cloud) as often as every five minutes, while also enabling near-instant backup virtualization, locally or in the cloud. (Request Datto SIRIS pricing or ALTO pricing for your small business.)

Disaster recovery testing

Ideally, every system and procedure listed in a disaster recovery plan should be tested on a routine basis. Otherwise, how does a business know if its planning will actually work in a real incident? Disaster recovery testing is essential for ensuring the protocols are effective. It also helps to identify any weaknesses that still need to be resolved.

Examples of disaster recovery testing:

• Testing and validating data backups to ensure that data can be restored without error.
• Running network penetration tests to identify weak spots and confirm that network disruptions can be quickly restored.
• Cybersecurity penetration testing and threat assessments that identify vulnerabilities.
• Mock drills that test the recovery procedures for various disaster scenarios.
• Pre-planned evacuations and other safety drills that test employee procedures for emergencies.

Third-party vendor management

Today’s businesses are increasingly interconnected with other businesses, including vendors, suppliers, distributors and an array of technology services. These partnerships often require providing authorized access to company systems or other integrations that allow a seamless connection between the two company’s systems.

However, these partnerships must be managed carefully to minimize cybersecurity risks. Consider, for example, that the infamous 2013 Target data breach was caused by a third-party vendor’s network credentials being stolen. This incident underscored the importance of vendor management as part of a company’s disaster recovery planning.

Considerations for third-party vendors:

• Which vendors require access to company systems, and how does that access expose the company to risk?
• How can vulnerabilities be eliminated when integrating third-party systems?
• In a disaster caused by a breach to third-party systems, who is responsible for recovery? What is the communication plan?
• What is the role of a third-party vendor, such as an IT company or managed-service provider, for disaster recovery?

Frequently asked questions (FAQ) about disaster recovery for small business

1. What is business disaster recovery?

Disaster recovery is a form of planning that ensures an organization can recover from operational disruption. Often focused on IT infrastructure, disaster recovery establishes procedures and systems that help to maintain business continuity after a disaster, such as data loss, server failure or electrical outage.

2. What is the purpose of disaster recovery?

The goal of disaster recovery is to mitigate the impact of a disaster on a business’s operations. Disaster recovery equips an organization with the tools, protocols and technologies it needs to anticipate disruptions, rapidly restore affected operations and minimize downtime.

3. What are the 4 phases of disaster recovery?

Disaster recovery is often defined by four phases of planning and response: 1) prevention, 2) preparedness, 3) mitigation and 4) recovery. Together, these phases consist of all the strategies leveraged by a business to minimize disruptions to a business. The fundamental goal of each phase is:

• Prevention: Prevent disasters from occurring in the first place
• Preparedness: Ensure the business is adequately prepared if various disasters do occur.
• Mitigation: Reduce the impact of a disaster with swift response immediately following the incident.
• Recovery: Fully recover affected systems and operations; resume business as usual.

4. What are examples of disaster recovery

The most common example of disaster recovery is having data backups that can be restored when files have been lost, deleted or destroyed. Backups are a critical component of disaster recovery, ensuring that a business can quickly restore lost data, applications or operating systems, especially after a server failure or ransomware attack.

5. How does disaster recovery work?

For disaster recovery to work, businesses must develop clear documentation outlining their strategies for preventing and recovering from a disaster. This is known as a disaster recovery plan (DRP). A DRP establishes protocols and systems that work to minimize the risk and impact of various operational disruptions.

6. What is a disaster recovery plan for a small business?

A Disaster Recovery Plan for Small Business is a strategic plan designed to ensure that a company can recover and restore its critical systems and data after a disaster, such as a cyberattack, hardware failure, or natural disaster. This type of plan focuses on minimizing downtime, safeguarding important data, and maintaining business operations during and after an unexpected disruption.

7. Does every business need a disaster recovery plan?

Yes, every business should have a disaster recovery plan (DRP). A DRP is crucial for protecting businesses from unexpected disruptions, such as cyberattacks, natural disasters, or hardware failures.

Conclusion

No business is immune to disaster. And when it occurs, it can cause a catastrophic disruption that puts the entire company at risk. A disaster recovery plan ensures that organizations are thoroughly prepared for every possible scenario. The right planning can significantly reduce the risk of certain incidents, in addition to providing clear steps for recovering systems after a disruption has occurred. Without effective disaster recovery, a small business increases its risk of operational downtime, financial losses and, at worst, permanent closure.

Ready to disaster-proof your small business?

Don’t wait for a devastating outage to test your disaster recovery plan. Secure your operations with advanced data backup and recovery solutions built for small to mid-sized businesses. Request a free demo or schedule a meeting to speak to our business continuity experts at Invenio IT today. Call (646) 395-1170 or email success@invenioIT.com.