Contingency Planning - Computer Safety

by Rochelle Balch

Recently I was invited by a client to do a seminar for a group of financial advisors about computer security - contingency planning - for the office. I like to do a lot of “show and tell” when I do seminars, so I had my box of computer parts handy. I started taking them out and setting up and noticed that people were looking at me funny. I like to show a computer hard drive when I talk about hard drive crashes. “Why are they looking at me so weird?” I thought. Then I started with “Contingency Planning: how safe is the computer environment in your office?” They smiled. Later I discovered that they thought I was going to talk about contingency planning - what happens when you die!

Well, almost. What happens when your computer dies? When a critical application stops working? A vengeful employee leaves and destroys data? A storm causes the electricity to go off in the middle of the day? You get a virus and now you’re really stuck. These are all “disasters” in terms of your computer environment. Do you have a Disaster/Recovery plan? Do you feel SAFE? Like most small businesses, probably not. Develop one now.

Here’s a few ideas to help give you that warm and fuzzy computer-safe feeling. 

EVALUATE your staff, including yourself. What do you know about your computer setup? Are there applications that one person knows perhaps a little better than the rest? This is not meant to be a test or used for a performance review; it is to provide you with immediate backup and support in your office in the event of a disaster. You may have a computer genius nearby and not know it. Try to determine each individual’s product knowledge (Windows 98, NT, XP ), Control panel, Explorer, downloading, backups, installations, etc.

CALCULATE your risk. How long can you be down? What information MUST you have? Of course, perform regular (and I really mean regular) backups. No exceptions. How long you can be down will determine how frequent your backups are run. Is your software compliant in regards to licensing? Besides being illegal and considered piracy to install improperly licensed (purchased) software, you have no where to turn in the event of a crisis. If you need emergency help with a critical application, who do you call? Certainly not the vendor - if it’s not legit. Also, ensure that you have virus protection, and keep it current (this area is a whole article in itself). Take a virus threat seriously and treat it accordingly. Priority rules: Get compliant. Do backups.  Be protected.

Get USER BUY-IN. Develop a Disaster/Recovery plan. Set standards for your office, and make sure you have complete user/staff support. Rules and guidelines worthless if everyone is not on the same page.  For example, each workstation should have a UPS battery backup in the event of a power outage; each workstation should have virus protection software; set standards for company software; setup backup policies; set policies for if an employee leaves (planned and unplanned). Penalties for non-compliance can be pretty straight forward: delete unauthorized software, don’t allow any new software or hardware purchases, or in severe cases, employee termination.

EVALUATE your office. Perform your own system audit. Check data security, verify backup procedures, identify your hardware and software, and generally review your policies for office security, like physical security, keys/combinations, asset removal procedures, insurance, email usage and more.

To sum up, picture this: You’re at the beach. You write your name in the cool moist sand. The waves come in. The waves go out. What do you have left? Can you recover it? Be prepared !

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Rochelle Balch, President, RB Balch, is available for marketing/promotional and small business strategy consulting; for motivation seminars/keynotes for personal development, self/team promotion, goal setting, technology, business. Visit www.rochellebalch.com

RB Balch & Associates, Inc.
Computer Consultants. PC Support, troubleshooting, networking, upgrades, databases, programming, web sites, hosting.
Phone: 623-561-9366 1-800-922-5249 1-800-9-BALCH-9 Fax: 623-561-0012
rb@rbbalch.com
www.rbbalch.com
PO BOX 10007, Glendale, AZ 85318