Beware of User Error
3 common IT disruptions you aren’t expecting
Storms, floods, wildfires and tornadoes are events that could be disastrous for businesses. But humans are just as big a threat to continuous operations and data protection.
Top 5 Critical Risk Events
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IT failure of business-critical system or application
Extreme weather or natural disaster
Theft of intellectual property
Cyber attacks
(data breach, ransomware, DDoS attack)
Critical infrastructure failure
(power, water, fiber)
Is your business ready for these 3 potential
people-powered disasters?
Ransomware
A virus completely encrypts an organization’s files, and the criminal demands a ransom to unencrypt.
Average Losses per Ransomware Incident
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Government Agencies Are Vulnerable:
City of Baltimore Loses More Than $18 Million
Baltimore couldn’t process payments and suffered other damages after a May 2019 ransomware attack encrypted hard drive data on city computers and prevented access unless a ransom via Bitcoin was paid. Although essential city services remained operational, the attack affected hospitals, factories, airports and ATMs.
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Fiber
Line Cuts
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Fiber-optic cables power the internet, and more than 113,000 miles of them are in the U.S. alone. When a cable is severed, it is usually done accidentally by a heavy-equipment operator, but sometimes vandals are to blame. Line cuts can knock out cellular service, internet access and automated processes such as data backup.
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It Could Happen Anywhere:
2 Unrelated Accidents Cause U.S.-Wide Internet Outage
Comcast, which has more than 29 million business and residential customers, blamed two separate and unrelated fiber cuts in New York and North Carolina for a massive, U.S.-wide outage that lasted about a day in June 2018.
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Power Loss:
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Electricity Unavailable at Homes and Businesses
Many groups are involved in the generation, transmission and distribution of power, so the root cause of an outage is not always immediately known. But a mistake as minor as incompletely closing a substation door can cause a major power outage across a wide geography.
An estimated $150 billion is lost annually in the U.S. due to power outages.
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Animals vs. Humans:
Squirrels Drive Power Companies Nuts
Squirrels often are cited as the No. 1 cause of power loss by utilities. A recent study showed that in a single year, squirrels caused 3,456 outages affecting almost 200,000 customers in the United States by damaging distribution equipment. Utilities take measures to keep squirrels away from equipment, but the animals continue to outsmart humans.
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Be Prepared for All Types of Disasters
Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) can protect your valuable data and business processes no matter who or what causes the disaster.
For more information, visit
www.flexential.com.
Forrester State of Enterprise Risk Management 2019 - http://drj.com/images/surveys_pdf/forrester/2019-Forrester-Survey.pdf
Coveware - https://www.coveware.com/blog/2019/4/15/ransom-amounts-rise-90-in-q1-as-ryuk-ransomware-increases
Engadget - https://www.engadget.com/2019/06/06/baltimore-ransomware-18-million-damages/
Internet Hall of Fame - https://www.internethalloffame.org/blog/2016/04/27/113000-miles-cable-power-us-internet
Wired - https://www.wired.com/story/friday-comcast-outage-cut-fiber/
U.S. Department of Energy’s Smart Grid Investment Grant Program - https://www.smartgrid.gov/about_smartgridgov.html
Inside Sources - https://www.insidesources.com/trumps-executive-order-targets-emps-but-squirrels-biggest-threat-to-the-grid/
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