Modern businesses rely on a vast array of internal and external infrastructure systems, including energy, ventilation, and data networking systems; software systems, both in local data centers and the cloud; and machines, vehicles, and other equipment to support their operations.
How an organization responds in the first 24 hours of an emergency can make the difference between minor issues and full-blown catastrophes. It’s critical to have a thorough, integrated notification system in place to help employees understand when an incident occurs, the scope of the damage, and what steps to take to remediate the issue.
Ransomware is a type of cyber-attack that involves hackers encrypting a victim's data and demanding a ransom in exchange for the decryption key. Ransomware attacks have been on the rise in recent years, with 2021 seeing over 623 million ransomware attacks worldwide.
While there are many different types of disasters that can strike your company’s IT network, nothing is as frightening as a ransomware attack. Ransomware is a general term used for any kind of malicious software, or malware, that disrupts key systems until you pay off a ransom.
In May 2021, the Colonial Pipeline, which transports gasoline and other fuels from Texas to New York, was hit by a ransomware attack. which resulted in the shutdown of the pipeline, caused fuel shortages, and gas prices spiked in several states. The company ultimately paid a ransom of around $4.4 million to the hackers to regain access to its systems.
As much as we might wish otherwise, mission-critical emergencies can and do happen. While the initial focus is on correcting the problem, it's also essential to do a postmortem of what occurred. This means you look at what went wrong and determine if the situation was avoidable or inevitable.
In the IT world, new processes and solutions are released every day that promise to overhaul systems, streamline activities and generally make life easier for the department. But the problem is these disparate plug-and-play patches are often not designed to serve as holistic solutions.
No one wants an emergency to delay or completely halt daily operations. But even with a state-of-the-art IT department, this reality can’t be completely avoided.
You’re an IT service provider with a client account where a critical server that manages payment processing just crashed. You need to get that server operational immediately. And every minute that it’s down can represent thousands in lost revenue for your client.
