Surviving the Data Protection Horror Show
Whether you’re fending off Michael Myers or ransomware, common-sense solutions are often effective at keeping yourself and your critical data safe.
After a week spent polishing off leftover Halloween candy, binge-watching scary movies, and delaying the inevitable Holiday-season push, I had an odd thought: Protecting your data is a lot like protecting yourself in a horror film. The key ingredient is often just…common sense. Allow me to explain.
For example, if you ever find yourself in a horror movie and you hear a strange noise coming from the attic, don’t investigate. If you’re spending a night with friends at a cabin in the woods, never split up. If you think your house may be haunted, ditch the Ouija board and move. And, as Scream taught us, never, ever say, “I’ll be right back.” You won’t be. Common sense, right?
Nevertheless, countless unsuspecting horror movie victims fall into the same traps (tropes) year after year. They just can’t seem to help themselves. The beautiful minds over in the Geico marketing department nailed it: “If you’re in a horror movie, you make poor decisions.” But it doesn’t have to be this way.
The lesson here: instead of hiding behind those chainsaws, we simply need to jump in the running car and get the heck out of here!
Avoiding Common Cybersecurity Traps (Tropes)
The good news is, when it comes to protecting our data, we’re not living inside a horror movie (we might be living in a simulation, but that’s more Sci-Fi). The truth is, we aren’t unsuspecting victims, and we can help ourselves. The puzzling part is why so many of us don’t.
Recent iland research revealed that despite working diligently to evolve business needs and battle increasing threats to critical data like ransomware, disaster recovery solutions and testing remain somewhat of an afterthought for many organisations. The report, “When Plan B Goes Wrong: Avoiding the Pitfalls of DRaaS” surveyed 150 technical and business decision makers from organisations drawn from a wide cross-section of U.K. enterprises. The objectives were to establish what DR systems organisations currently have in place, how often plans are tested, and whether enterprises are confident in their ability to recover from disaster as swiftly and easily as possible. The results were akin to, well, a horror film — quite unsettling.
Despite two-thirds of those surveyed experiencing an outage within the last 12 months and half of those within 6 months, just over half had a documented, company-wide DR plan in place. Just over half of those surveyed were testing annually, some at even less frequent intervals. Six percent did not test their DR at all.
Like getting dropped off at Camp Crystal Lake or trying to outrun Michael Myers, that’s just downright frightening.
The number of data breaches this year has already exceeded the total for all of 2020, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC). When it’s all said and done, 2021 will be a cybercrime record breaker. However, we also know that companies with a trusted backup and disaster recovery plan in place are far more likely to survive a ransomware attack.
So, what gives? It’s about time we make backup and DR just as mission-critical and common-sense as avoiding the attic or getting the heck out of dodge. Otherwise, we’re just tempting fate.
Keeping Your Critical Data Safe with iland
The increase in cybercrime frequency, sophistication, and impact means security must be a top priority for all our workloads. Luckily, security is a part of the iland origin story. As internal and external threats evolve, so too does our platform approach to protecting data. iland provides the highest levels of security capabilities and features available today, integrated with all services, and ready to adapt to your ever-increasing security requirements.
Security should never be an afterthought. Have flashlight batteries fully charged, trained support team at the ready, and a Ouija board out of sight.
For more information on how to protect your business and avoid making common-sense data protection mistakes, download our free research white paper, titled, “When Plan B Goes Wrong: Avoiding the Pitfalls with DRaaS.” Stay smart and stay safe out there.
