However, even the most comprehensive business continuity plans (also known as BCPs) can fail under certain circumstances, leaving businesses vulnerable.

For companies in the UK, understanding how to recover from such failures is just another part of the business continuity planning process, especially in an era where cyber threats and natural disasters are on the rise and becoming increasingly more sophisticated.

Understanding Business Continuity Failure

Business continuity failure occurs when a company’s BCP is either insufficient to address a crisis or is entirely non-functional during a critical event. This can lead to extended downtime, financial loss, and damage to the company’s reputation.

But failure isn’t actually the end, instead how a business responds to the failure of its plan can determine how it comes out of the disaster and how it moves forward.

One of the stand-out examples of a business continuity plan gone totally wrong is the 2021 ransomware attack on Ireland’s Health Service Executive (HSE).

Despite having fairly tough cyber security protocols in place, the HSE was wholly unprepared for the sheer scale of the Conti ransomware attack.

The system-wide breach forced the HSE to shut down essential services, from its outpatient clinics to its payroll system, affecting some 146 000 healthcare workers. It took three months to fully restore operations but as a result, the failure showed the need for the HSE to create an even tougher and far more adaptable continuity plan, one that could, going forward, handle even the worst kinds of unexpected threats.

Simple Steps to Bounce Back from Failure

Recovering from a business continuity failure involves more than just getting back to business as usual.

It requires a strategic approach to mitigate the damage, restore operations, and strengthen resilience against future threats. If this is a situation your company currently faces, or if you just want to cover all your bases, this is how to bounce back.

• Assess the Damage Quickly and Thoroughly

The first step in bouncing back is to conduct a thorough assessment of the damage.

This involves identifying what went wrong with the BCP, what systems were affected, and the immediate impact on operations. For the HSE, this meant inspecting over 2 000 IT systems and shutting down more than 85 000 computers to contain the ransomware.

A swift, comprehensive damage assessment enables businesses to prioritise recovery efforts and allocate their resources effectively.

• Communicate Transparently with Stakeholders

Transparent communication with stakeholders, whether they are employees, customers, or partners, is critical during a recovery.

In the case of the Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust, which was hit by the Globe2 ransomware in 2016, the lack of an effective BCP led to the shutdown of hospitals and the disruption of care for over 2 800 patients, with patients, including women in labour, being turned away.

Clear communication about the situation and steps being taken to rectify it would have been essential in maintaining trust and managing expectations during the crisis.

• Take Advantage of Technology for Recovery

Technology can be both a vulnerability and a saviour in business continuity.

When Hurricane Harvey hit Texas in 2017, Gaille Media’s physical office space became unusable.

However, thanks to a forward-thinking BCP that used cloud-based operations, Gaille Media’s team was able to work remotely without any disruption to their services.

Using cloud technology, remote working solutions, and data backups can significantly speed up your recovery times and ensure business continuity even when the physical infrastructure is compromised.

• Revise and Strengthen the BCP

After stabilising operations, it’s important to revisit and revise your BCP.

The shortcomings revealed during a crisis should be addressed, and the plan should then be updated to prevent similar failures in the future.

This continuous improvement approach ensures that your business is better prepared for the next unforeseen event.

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If you take anything from this blog, it’s this: Don’t wait for a crisis to strike.

Contact 24/7 IT Services today to ensure your business is resilient against any challenge by letting us help you with your business continuity plan. We also provide managed IT support and IT security solutions.

The post How to Bounce Back From Business Continuity Failure appeared first on 247 IT Services.

This week, Microsoft 365 admins received warnings from Microsoft about authenticating their outgoing email messages. The announcement comes in response to Google implementing new strict anti-spam rules that are going to affect admins using business Microsoft 365 Outlook accounts to send bulk messages.

In recent years, spam email messages have gotten out of control and email providers have had a hard time preventing the spam from slipping through the cracks.

And like many other email providers, the ongoing issue around unwanted emails had forced Google to now take a harder stance towards the onslaught of spam.

How Spam has Become a Threat to Web Users

There are plenty of reasons why spam emails can be incredibly problematic to those who get them.

In the past, spam was just an overly eager, really annoying marketing technique, but these days spam has become a tool used by hackers and scammers, who use the trust of email recipients to gain personal data.

Spam emails usually contain phishing scams, which are designed to mimic legitimate communication from institutions, or they contain links to malware or viruses. The goal of such emails is to gain certain information from the reader which can then be used to cause harm.

Spam emails can also inundate inboxes to such an extent that it becomes almost impossible to see what is a legitimate message and what is not, causing important emails to go unanswered.

Moreover, having your business email address associated with spam can tarnish your online reputation, impacting your ability to interact effectively with clients.

Microsoft’s Warning to 365 Users

With the new spam rules, website owners and admins are being encouraged to authenticate their domains so that they won’t be rejected by web email providers.

The Microsoft Defender for Office 365 team said “By setting up email authentication for your domain, you can ensure that your messages are less likely to be rejected or marked as spam by email providers like Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, and Outlook.com”.

The team further said that authenticating is vitally important for those who are sending out bulk emails, which might just show up as spam because they are being sent in a large quantity.

Microsoft also used this opportunity to remind users that the 365 service should not be used as a bulk mailing service and said that those doing so were not following the sending limits and as such could be blocked or flagged as high risk.

The company said that those who wish to send bulk emails should rather use their own email servers or make use of a mass mail provider, to ensure that they are able to adhere to the best emailing practices.

Being flagged as spam is a nightmare for businesses as it not only prevents any marketing emails from going through but it can also prevent your day to day business emails from going out to your clients.

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Need help from IT professionals? At 24/7 IT Services, we have a team of IT experts who can help with everything from creating and implementing a business continuity plan that you can rely on to handling your IT security, and we can also give you expert advice about your Microsoft 365 accounts. Contact us today for more information.

The post Microsoft 365 admins Receive Warning about New Spam Email Rules appeared first on 247 IT Services.