Companies doing their business with the help of internet because to grow the business information technology is used for effectively and quickly process the information. The employee of the company uses Email system and voice over internet protocol to communicate with their clients and customers. For online payment company uses EDI that is electronic data interchange, we can transmit data with the help of EDI. To process the bulk of data and for storing it servers are used. Employee uses some wireless device, computers and laptops to communicate process or manage the data. If any of these information technology stops working then disaster occurs for the company...
Disaster in information technology means that if any part of the organization is damaged due to occurrence of any type of disaster it may be manmade or may be natural disaster due to which the processing, creating, maintaining and communication of data is stops working because the IT infrastructure components stops supporting them. This badly affects the working of organizations and if they don’t have disaster recovery plan then it is not possible for them to reopen the business for them again because they cannot recover the lost data.
IT systems need connectivity, software, hardware and data. If any component is missing then the whole system may not run. So strategy of recovery should be developed to minimize the loss of following system components:
• Computer room environment (secure computer room with climate control, conditioned and backup power supply, etc.)
• Hardware (networks, servers, desktop and laptop computers, wireless devices and peripherals)
• Connectivity to a service provider (fiber, cable, wireless, etc.)
• Software applications (electronic data interchange, electronic mail, enterprise resource management, office productivity, etc.)
• Data and restoration
Types of disasters and services ready to respond to such disaster:
The types of disasters and the services ready to respond to such disaster are –
Natural Disaster:
Natural disasters like hurricanes and floods can happen unexpectedly at any time. It is important to take special preventive steps to protect the organization in the event of occurrence of natural disaster. So Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) recommended some instruction to minimize the loss from the natural disaster. Most of the organizations keep records in form of hardcopy and electronically which are essential for operations and some organizations also store productive inventory and raw material. In the event of natural disaster organizations have to face the loss of important files, records and other things. To get back in normal operation organization take time and due to this they lose their customers also.
Response of natural disaster:
To reduce the loss, organizations have to determine the important data, materials, record and file. The steps to respond while any natural disaster such as earthquake, flood, fire and hurricane is occurring are as following:-
• Move computers away from large window and raise them above the flood level.
• Move easily broken things and heavy object to low shelves.
• In the event of earthquake secure the moving and falling equipments.
• Store the important documents in off-site location to secure them.
• Install the fire extinguisher it may helpful in case of fire.
• Cover the electric equipment and protect the important document in case of hurricane.
• Regularly backing up the customer list, payment details, payroll records and other electronic files and store it in secure off-site location.
Man made Disaster:
Manmade disasters are the disaster which is not occurs naturally this disaster occur by the human which can range from operating error to intentional attempt to cause damage. In this most of disaster occurs by mistake of the employee of the organization and mistakes can cause serious damages like power outage, data loss and malicious attacks. Hackers can hack the system and compromise the data or render it unusable. The prevention of manmade disaster is easier then prevention of natural disaster because the response and planning of manmade and natural disaster id different. Terrorism is also the man made disaster and it is the biggest disaster under this category because it causes so much harm or damage including death.
Response of man made disaster:
To reduce the loss, organizations have to use surveillance and mitigation planning which help to avoid the damages and minimize them from the manmade disaster. The steps to respond the manmade disasters are as following:-
• Scan the whole computer if found any virus in a file and remove the viruses.
• Install the generator it will help when power outage is occurs.
• Regularly update the antivirus, download and install the new patches of the antivirus.
• When found any malicious activity then block the traffic immediately.
• Hire security guards and install the camera in the organization this will help to avoid the terrorist activity and guard will respond to this activity.
• Regularly backing up the customer list, payment details, payroll records and other electronic files and store it in secure off-site location.
• Use good antivirus and good firewall which may prevent from the malicious activity and also scan the incoming attachments.
• If any type of failure occurs in the infrastructure then use backups.
• Activate security alert network.
There are many organizational business applications and some of them cannot tolerate the downtime. There is a solution for that which is very expensive and only big organizations can afford that. The solution is that they have to utilize a dual data center which is competent of handling the needs in data processing. The other solutions which are not so expensive and any business can use it are as following:-
• Always use latest version operating system and regularly update the virus protection software.
• Understand what data and systems are critical to business continuity.
• Install the generator it will help when power outage is occurs.
• Regularly backing up the customer list, payment details, payroll records and other electronic files and store it in secure off-site location.
• Identify and fix single points of failure in your network, business processes, and people.
• Make a disaster recovery plan which include –
Risk and threat analysis
Leadership and succession plan
Emergency response plan
Internal and external communications requirements
Human resources responsibilities
Facilities management
Availability of information and communications technology
Cooperation with first responders, public officials, vendors, partners, and customers
• Conduct awareness and training program of disaster response for employees
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