For a long time, companies have considered the risk of losing the information on their computer equipment and the economic, legal and business risks that this entailed. Today it is still possible to lose relevant information in the SME environment, but we have much more and better technology to prevent information from being lost, i.e. systems that create automatic backups.
In any of the cases, when faced with the loss of information caused by the action of a computer virus, an unexpected computer formatting or any other reason, it is advisable for the SME to have a contingency plan that will help it to face this situation with the minimum possible costs. Let’s see what it consists of.
How to make a contingency plan
The reasons that result in a loss of information can be diverse: fire, electrical failure, computer virus, information theft. etc. In any case, the following must be taken into account and measures must be taken beforehand.
Label the most relevant computers
In the face of a fire or any natural disaster, if it is possible to save information, computers should be properly labeled so that anyone can know which one should take priority, both in terms of its hardware characteristics and its contents. For example, servers should be evacuated before a desktop laptop.
Obtaining backups
Once we have become aware of the loss of information on one or more computers If the hardware is working properly, a procedure should be established to restore the backups made of: operating system, files and folders, programs, etc. in the shortest possible time. Depending on how the backups were made, all or part of them can be recovered; we recommend that you take a look at our backup solutions.
In contingency plans everything is taken into account; which backups have restore priority how long it takes to restore them, how large the data volume of each one should be…
Procurement of replacement equipment
In the event that it is the hardware that is damaged, your company should have a solution so that hours do not pass with the work stopped due to lack of computers. With a good computer maintenance service replacement equipment is available.
Legal actions
The procedure to be followed following a computer problem involving loss of data often involves investigation and legal proceedings, in which computer expertise may be necessary. It sets out guidelines on what should be done in each case.
We recommend that you get advice from our experts regarding contingency plans to recover lost information.