https://www.impresscomputers.com/why-work-with-us/
Sherman: Welcome back to Biz Talk with Sherman. I’m your host Sherman on from Hotelling Insurance services sharing your story in a show me world excited to have our next expert on here from it and computer science Roland Parker your tech your biz welcome back to the show Roland.
Roland Parker: Hey Sherman. Great to be back on the show. All right.
Sherman: Now, one thing that we’ve talked about a little bit is this cybersecurity incident response plan. So what is that?
Roland Parker: So cybersecurity incident response plan is really just sitting down with your IT guy and developing a plan should something happen, whether it’s as minor as an email being exposed or where your credentials are compromised to a full fledged cybersecurity attack where everything is shut down and it’s just a matter of going through developing that plan and actually saying, should this happen, what are our next steps? Because the chances are something’s going to happen at 2:00 in the morning when you get to work at 8:00, the next 8:00 that morning, you find that everybody’s running around like crazy, your pants are on fire. And that’s not the situation you want to be in. You want to have that plan. So you say, okay, step A, this is our checklist. We’ve we’ve gone through this and we’re going to follow these steps. It’s done in a very organized, methodical way. Nobody’s running around. You know, the sky is falling. They just follow that plan. And it’s just a matter of going through what are the different scenarios that could happen. And if that happens, what should we be doing? That plan may be, you know, the first steps might be, okay, we need to start recovering from backups. You may need to get a hold of your insurance agent and say, okay, we’ve got a cybersecurity insurance. Do we need to actually go through and make sure that we do some forensic work? If we’re restoring our data, can we restore everything completely? How soon can we be back up and running? But if you don’t have a plan, the chances are there’s going to be pandemonium, pandemonium and things are going to get missed. You could end up with lost data or you could end up with an insurance claim that doesn’t get fulfilled correctly because you weren’t able to do the forensic work that they required.
Sherman: Now, for those businesses that are a little bit small or they don’t feel like they’re really in the IT world, do they really need to have a cybersecurity incident response plan?
Roland Parker: Absolutely. Every single business is going to get hit at some point or another. Now, it may be minor, it may be major, but there’s two advantages to having a cybersecurity incident response plan. The first one is, you know, at some point you’re going to get hit, so you develop that plan. But the second thing is simply by developing that plan with your IT professional, what you’re doing is going over the possible scenarios where you could get hit and by then trying to eliminate those possible chances of getting hit, you’re actually making yourself more secure. So when you’re you’re you have a plan should something happen. But secondly, by going through that, you’re actually making yourself more secure by battening down the hatches before something happens.
Sherman: Now, when it comes to natural disasters, having like a disaster recovery plan, how does this differ?
Roland Parker: Well, the difference with that is that you’re now saying, okay, we cannot get to our server now, it’s not too due to cybersecurity. We saw the freeze in 2020. We saw Hurricane Harvey in 2017. There’s so many different scenarios where disaster happens. It could be very localized. It could just be a fire in your building or it could be something like theft. Somebody breaks and steals your server and your backup to you. That’s a disaster. So it’s not a bigger scale disaster, but to your business, it’s still the same procedure. And it’s a matter of saying, should something happen if we cannot get to our data, how are we going to continue to operate? And part of that plan is, you know, can we put something in the cloud? How can we operate with our employees if they can’t get to the office? And if you start thinking about those things in plan in place beforehand, again, you’ve got two great scenarios. The one is, should something happen, you’ve got a plan and you’re not running around with your pants on fire. The second thing is by thinking about it in advance, you’re essentially putting things in place, having your stuff in the cloud, having a possibility for your employees to work from home, all of those things you can’t do. If disaster strikes and you haven’t made the plan, you’re going to get caught with your pants down. You never want that to happen. So think about those things in advance. You’ve got to develop your insulin security response plan. You’ve got to have your disaster recovery plan. And the twofold benefits of that are, one, you’re prepared should something happen. And two, it’s less likely to happen if you’ve got the the correct backups and procedures in place.
Sherman: So it sounds like this might be a little bit different of a conversation than a lot of those businesses out there that maybe have outsourced some IT service. Sounds like cybersecurity incident response plan or discovery recovery plan is more of a conversation and more of a strategy than it is. Hey, I need to buy this or I need to have this in regards to like the cloud. Correct.
Roland Parker: So it’s not just, well, I’m going to need it support at some stage. You really want to be sitting down with your IT professional coming up with a plan. Let’s make sure that we’re protected. Let’s make sure we’ve got a backup in place. Let’s make sure our cybersecurity is secure and we should have a plan should something happen. This is done at a strategic level with management.
Sherman: Wonderful. Well, now, Roland, if people are listening and they have some follow up questions on how this can apply to them or maybe their clients, how can they reach out to you and your team there at impress computers?
Roland Parker: They can get a hold of us at (281) 647-9977 or reach us on the web at https://www.impresscomputers.com/why-work-with-us/
Sherman: Wonderful really appreciate you coming on the show your tech your biz with Roland Parker. Take a quick commercial break here from a word from our sponsors and come right back with more Biz Talk.