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Knowing what not to do when creating and implementing your data recovery plan is just as important as knowing how to put together and maintain a correct and reliable procedure. Here is what to avoid when working with data recovery:

What to Avoid in Data Recovery

1. Don’t Underestimate Your Infrastructure

Many organizations have files, databases, and application data in both physical and virtual servers. Therefore, a data recovery procedure that involves a backup every few days is not sufficient, as IT infrastructure is complex. A fundamental understanding of your IT inventory is necessary to ensure each differing level of infrastructure has adequate backup procedures and recovery objectives.

2. Don’t Choose Backup over Recovery

Data recovery is as important, or even more important than your backup as it does not matter how many copies you have if you can not restore the data. Therefore, as much value and effort should be placed in data recovery as in the companies backup procedures.

Additionally, a good backup plan is integral to protecting a company against security threats but companies can only fully survive a ransomware attack when they are able to successfully recover their data from their backups. Therefore, your data recovery should never be undervalued.

3. Don’t Skip Out on Testing

As stated above, a data recovery and backup strategy is only as useful as your ability to restore that data. Therefore, it is important to ensure your strategy works by testing your backups on a regular basis. Your organisation needs to commit to a plan that allows you to evaluate your level of preparedness under different simulated disaster scenarios.

4. Don’t Fall Behind the Times

Avoid using technology that is seen as outdated, unreliable and slow. Your organisation must evolve as technology changes. Regularly ensure your data recovery strategy is up to date with current trends to maintain your protection against threats.

Everything You Need To Know About The Pen Test

Backup Solutions, Cybersecurity & IT Threats, Disaster Recovery / activeimage / 30/10/2018 / ActiveImage, Backup, business, Cybersecurity, disaster recovery, infrastructure, pen test, security, testing

Although you may have implemented the best cyber-crime defenses and have a great IT team, there can still be holes in the infrastructure that cyber-criminals can manipulate to get access to your valuable data. This is why businesses run a penetration (pen) test.

What is a Pen Test?

It is a test to discover any vulnerabilities in the system before hackers find and exploit them. When running a pen test, you would simulate a cyber-attack on your own defenses to make sure the system and your staff are prepared for a real breach. Once completed, an evaluation of the whole system can be written for all staff to understand, and the shortcomings of the system can be addressed.

When To Perform A Pen Test?

The pen test should ideally be implemented before a system goes live, so that any issues can be detected and dealt with before operations commence. However, a pen test should not be carried out on a system that is fairly new, as there will be holes in a system’s early stages that can be missed if a test is performed too soon. It is always best to leave some time after a network or system deployment before testing commences.

The biggest mistake most companies make is to leave things here and not continue to test their systems. Some companies may only use the pen test after a cyber-attack to find and seal the hole in the system that was exploited by the hacker. Other businesses may only ever run a pen test due to laws or rules laid down by a board of directors.

The importance of the pen test can be lost in the everyday goings on of the business, but it is vital for the security of the business to regularly test its system. Cyber-crime is continuously evolving and new methods of attack keep appearing. With regular pen tests and other system evaluation methods, you can ensure your system has flawless security infrastructure.

How often your business can test its system will depend on factors such as company size, budget or infrastructure. However, testing your system once a year is better than only having it tested once or not at all. Remember, being up to date with certain standards doesn’t always mean you’re totally secure, as your system will change and develop vulnerabilities over time. You should do a pen test as often as you can to keep up with these changes.

The best security for your business starts with a great data backup and recovery plan. Contact ActiveImage today to learn more about the solutions we offer and how we can help you secure your data.

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4 Things to Avoid in Data Recovery