The Nightmare Scenario: Your Systems Are Down. Now What?

It’s 8:03 Monday morning. An employee can’t access the customer database.

Then someone else says their files won’t open. Email isn’t working.

Another employee asks whether anyone has called IT.

And then someone asks the question nobody wants to hear:

“When was the last time we tested our backups?”

Welcome to the cybersecurity nightmare.

Most cybersecurity conversations focus on preventing something bad from happening. But Cybersecurity Awareness Month should also address another reality:

What happens when prevention isn’t enough?

Could You Still Run Your Business?

Imagine your important systems suddenly became unavailable.

What would stop you from operating? Customer records? Email? Payment systems? Phones? Your website?

Identifying the systems your business absolutely needs is the first step toward understanding what needs to be recovered first.

Then comes another question:

Are they backed up?

And don’t stop there.

When was the backup last tested?

A backup that can’t successfully restore your information may provide little comfort during an actual emergency.

Discovering that during an incident is like finding out your flashlight has dead batteries after the lights go out.

Know Who You’re Going to Call

The middle of a cybersecurity incident is a terrible time to start searching for phone numbers.

Businesses should know in advance who needs to be contacted.

Depending on the situation, that might include your IT or cybersecurity provider, insurance company, attorney, financial institution or management team.

Employees should also understand who is responsible for making decisions.

Who contacts outside experts?

Who documents what happened?

Who communicates internally?

Who handles customer communications if they’re necessary?

Rehearse the Nightmare

You don’t need an elaborate exercise to begin. Gather the appropriate employees and say:

“Our primary systems are unavailable. What happens next?”

Then walk through the answer.

Thirty minutes might uncover gaps you’ve never considered. That’s much better than discovering those gaps during an actual emergency.

CISA’s cybersecurity resilience message includes three straightforward ideas:

Reduce. Replace. Recover.

Recovery deserves just as much attention as prevention.

uRISQ helps SMBs take a structured approach to understanding and managing cybersecurity and privacy responsibilities over time.

So we’ll end our Click or Treat? Cybersecurity Awareness Month series with one final question.

Don’t ask only:“Are we protected?”

Ask: “If the nightmare happens tomorrow, how quickly can we get back to business?”