Disaster Recovery Business Continuity

Security intensifies as the United States prepares for the decade anniversary of the September 11 attacks, a date al-Qaeda has cited as a potential opportunity to strike again.
Securing airports, train stations, nuclear plants and major sporting arenas around America the security ramp-up underscores a shift in policing focus since the attacks in 2001 from awareness of large scale sophisticated plots to smaller operations carried out by individuals or affiliated groups. "Throughout the city, whether it's the ports or the airports or venues or whatever, you will see an increase in awareness, an increase in resources at strategic places," said Mark Eisenman, assistant chief over the homeland security command for the police department in Houston.

Some of the first information discovered after Osama bin death in May indicated that, as recently as February 2010, al-Qaeda considered plans to attack the US on the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attack. But counter terror officials say they believe that planning never got beyond the initial phase and they have no recent intelligence pointing to an active plot.

But American’s aren’t going to be complacent with increased law enforcement presence, bomb sniffing dogs and random baggage searches they’re preparing for the worst.

The September 11 attacks had a devastating effect on the USA economy not to mention the horrendous personal devastation the disaster caused. So ensure that you’re doing the most you can to protect your business should disaster strike with a business continuity and disaster recovery plan from Elite.

Well this surely is the most unavoidable topic of late, it seems everywhere we turn we are being inundated with statistics, updates and predictions over our IT infrastructure – proving that now, more than ever, businesses must be making disaster recovery plans and backing up their systems.

Cybercrime costs the UK more than £27billion a year, new figures show, with attacks on computer systems, industrial espionage and theft of company secrets costing businesses alone at least £21 billion.

Security minister Baroness Neville-Jones said: "I don't myself believe that the successful combating of this kind of crime is going to lie primarily through prosecutions.

"I think it's going to be through much better defences and disruption - screwing up their network. It doesn't have to be an offensive capability, but it's perfectly possible as we know, just as an intruder can screw up a company's network, the reverse can happen.

"If you look at terrorism, if we'd relied on prosecution, we would have had lots of incidents by now. We have to rely to a very significant extent on actually disrupting the activity while in course."

By externally backing up your data, and making a full and complete business continuity plan should the worst happen will guarantee your business remains to live on as you’re left picking up the pieces.

Elitetele.com can provide you with a bespoke business continuity solution, don’t let yourself become scared of cyber criminals. It’s a scary world out there, but not if you’re prepared.

We couldn’t think of a better subject to carry on from our earlier post, which revealed that one third of all Internet users caught a computer virus last year.

Well, we were a tad worried for the future health of our telecoms, but no fear– Foreign Secretary William Hague has appealed to the governments to come together and agree a set of rules to prevent ‘cyber war’ between states.

Hague stated as he addressed the Munich Security Conference, that as recently as last month the UK had come under attack from a "hostile state intelligence agency" seeking to infiltrate the Foreign Office IT system.

We urge you to seriously consider investing in a business continuity and disaster recovery plan, as Hague disclosed that increasing reliance on computer networks had created new vulnerabilities.

"It has opened up new channels for hostile governments to probe our defences and attempt to steal our confidential information or intellectual property. It has promoted fears of future 'cyber war'.”

Although we don’t mean to thrust the element of fear to far into your minds – actually, yes, yes we do – we should realise how relying so heavily on our telecoms and business broadband can leave us open to possible threats.

Although necessary for the health of our business to continue working with our broadband speeds and services, we need to cater for them should anything go wrong.

Call Elitetele.com today for a disaster recovery plan, and ensure your business stays in business should the worst happen.

When someone mentions cyber attack, what is it you instantly think of? Do you think of a nerdy 30-year-old sat eating Rice Krispies in his underpants hacking into your computer from Albania, or do you think of robotic cyborg aliens from the future travelling back in time to unleash unforeseen violence on innocent computers? (Because I think the second one is not too far from the truth).

But, joking aside, cyber attacks are something we should become increasingly wary of, a new study says.

The report by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development details that such co-ordinated attacks on computer systems could have ‘catastrophic’ effects, and easily become a, ‘full-scale global shock.’

It further warned that contingency plans and essential disaster recovery plans to recover systems should be put in place if the worst should happen, and that cyber-security policies should, "encompass the needs of all citizens and not just central government facilities."

The report said: "What should concern policy-makers are combinations of events - two different cyber-events occurring at the same time, or a cyber-event taking place during some other form of disaster or attack."

“In that eventuality, 'perfect storm' conditions could exist."



 

 

 

Cyber attacks are generally thought of as anything that targets vulnerable computers, causing them to malfunction and can disrupt businesses, financial and medical institutions and government agencies.

Mentioned in the report were examples of these large-scale attacks, for example one effect may be triggered by "a very large-scale solar flare (bursts of energy from the sun) which physically destroys key communications components such as satellites, cellular base stations and switches."

The last major event was in 1859, when, nothing much existed at all. However, the next is expected in 2012-2013.

Those technology innovators are forever trying to find things for us to worry about. However, if you do find yourself wanting to flea your computer at the drop of a hat and convert your five bedroom semi detached into a cave, we can put your mind at ease.

A further report by the OECD mentioned that the likelihood of these catastrophic attacks are predicted to be very rare, and stated; "few single foreseeable cyber-related events have the capacity to become a full-scale global shock.”

Google are bravely offering hackers who successfully find security flaws within any of their websites cash prizes over $3,000.

The ‘experimental’ program which follows previous success with the Chrome browser will aim to give the Internet giants a chance to repair any vulnerable areas before future hackers cause serious damage, ahead of the expansion Google is undertaking. Hackers have been encouraged to find holes within sites such as Gmail, YouTube and Blogger and any site that holds “highly sensitive authenticated user data or accounts.”

In a statement from the company they said “We believe handling vulnerabilities responsibly is a two-way street. It’s our job to fix serious bugs within a reasonable time frame, and we in turn request advance, private notice of any issues that are uncovered.”



Although a possible breach in security could bring embarrassment to other sites, Google have even promised hackers who penetrate their safety system will be allowed to disclose their achievements, after the problem has been fixed of course!

The eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland has wrought havoc on the world. Schools are short-staffed due to teachers being stuck abroad, businesses are suffering because workers can’t travel internationally and phone systems and internet sites are suffering because there’s too much traffic. Take the P&O Ferries website for instance. So many people are trying to book a ferry home that the website has crashed!

It’s a similar scene for most people. The recent winter – a mere couple of months ago – the UK was covered by snow and everything began to suffer. Most companies believed the snow to be the end of bad luck on that scale but another act of God has struck and rather than wait for the third event, they’d be well advised to get disaster recovery now. With disaster recovery, you could get load balanced hosting for your website, an intelligent queuing system for your calls and help running your business while half your staff are missing. Don’t leave it too late again!

You would never have believed it – perhaps the biggest and most iconic name in telecoms…without a business continuity plan or a disaster recovery plan? It doesn’t seem possible. And yet, BT’s fire and flood yesterday at North Paddington is still causing problems as BT try desperately to restore connectivity. Obviously, if the company had a plan for disaster recovery and business continuity, it wasn’t that good of a plan! When you’re a big company like BT, nothing could be worse for business. Disaster recovery – it even covers acts of God!

Anyone who lives in the UK will have had the same problems the last few months: snow. Causing chaos the length and breadth of the country, we heard horror stories of people stuck in cars and the majority of people gave up on getting to work until the snow cleared.  In the Summer there’s always chance of fires when there’s been no rain for days and kids start messing around, bored after endless days of doing nothing. Spring can bring floods, Autumn can herald gale force winds. Although a relatively mild climate we have in the UK, each season can bring with it dangers. Which is why it’s always a good idea to have inclement weather and the like covered by business continuity and disaster recovery plans. If your business could suffer because of staff being snowed in or phone lines being brought down by winds or fires or any number of problems, then for the sake of business continuity, you need to plan ahead. Then you can go ahead and enjoy the weather without worrying!