Tag: business continuity

BCP – Business Continuity Plan

The Importance of Having a Solid Business Continuity Plan

South African businesses are operating in an increasingly risky online environment, yet almost half of them still don’t have a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) in place.

In the age of rising cyberattacks and social engineering scams, the risk of downtime has never been greater.

Your business simply can’t operate without a comprehensive plan in place to rescue your operations in the wake of an online attack. Here’s what business owners need to know about business continuity. 

What is a BCP and what should it include?

A business continuity plan is more than a checklist for emergencies. It’s a structured roadmap that ensures critical operations can continue, even when normal conditions are disrupted. 

Whether you’re managing a manufacturing plant, retail chain, or financial services firm, a BCP identifies essential functions, assigns responsibilities, and sets out clear steps to recover quickly after an incident.

Cybersecurity now occupies a key position in continuity planning. 

  • Recent media reports suggest that South African businesses face an average of 2 113 cyberattacks per week, a 14% year-on-year increase. 
  • The fallout from these attacks can cripple operations, lock up data, and erode trust in a matter of hours.

For many businesses, efforts to prevent and recover from cyberattacks have been slowed down by infrastructure and skills gaps. A recent report notes that vulnerabilities in internal systems, combined with instability from hybrid work environments, leave many firms exposed to prolonged outages following a breach. 

Even more concerning is the fact that more than 60% of small businesses that suffer a cyberattack without having a BCP in place will close within six months.

For smaller companies, recovery often depends on whether data has been properly backed up and whether incident-response plans have been tested in advance. 

A strong BCP needs to integrate cybersecurity resilience from the ground up. This includes backup and recovery protocols, real-time threat monitoring, and regular testing. 

Given that only 5% of South African organisations are fully prepared to defend their data against today’s AI-driven cyberattacks, few businesses are likely to maintain continuity after a serious breach.

Beyond risk mitigation, continuity planning builds trust. Clients, partners, and regulators increasingly expect assurance that their data is protected and that your business can withstand disruption without exposing them to risk.

At Soteria, we place a big premium on the overall data defences of your business. That’s why we integrate Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud into every client’s BCP. Here are some of the benefits: 

  • Backup & Recovery: Keep your critical data safe with both local and cloud storage.
  • Disaster Recovery (DR): data failover to the cloud or Azure in just minutes.
  • Cybersecurity: Protect against ransomware, malware, and phishing before they cause major losses. 
  • Management & Monitoring: One console for backups, security, and DR helps simplify your continuity strategy.

By combining practical recovery strategies with robust cybersecurity measures, companies can safeguard operations, protect their reputation, and maintain confidence even when disruptions strike.

Create a comprehensive business continuity plan with secure cloud storage 

Don’t wait for a crisis to test your resilience. Create your business continuity plan today and make cybersecurity the foundation of it. Click the button below to learn more about Cyber Protect Cloud. 

Get Cyber Protect Cloud

Business Continuity with Cloud Backup – Cybersecurity

The Business Continuity Imperative: Ensuring resilience through cloud backup solutions

As South Africa faces a rapidly increasing number of cyberattacks this year, businesses across the country are coming to terms with the fact that their data can and may be compromised in the near future. 

If your organisation is unfortunate enough to fall prey to an online attack, the one thing on everyone’s mind (from management all the way to the IT department) should be continuity of operations. The question for every business is however, how to ensure continuity when the very data that underlies your business processes has been compromised.

Let’s take a look at some recent news about South Africa’s cybersecurity crisis and find out how businesses can secure their data for uninterrupted trading following a cyberattack.

Time to beef up your defences against cyberattacks

The ultimate goal of cybercriminals is to compromise your company’s data and demand a ransom for its return. 

This criminal strategy can be extremely effective if the company loses access to its sensitive files – but a recent backup of every important piece of data safely encrypted in the cloud means that the hackers have lost before negotiations even begin.

Recent cyberattacks against Telkom, the office of the Chief Justice, and even a high tech security provider like Tracker prove yet again that businesses and government departments are not immune from online data theft- in fact, every internet user needs to be on their guard as cybercrime increases. 

Secure cloud backup is the most powerful weapon against cybercriminals, and it can be obtained affordably. Our range of backup solutions that scale up to suit the needs of growing businesses are a case in point. 

Securing sensitive data couldn’t be more important in 2024

Perpetrator Type

Credit: Brett van Niekerk – Durban University of Technology

South Africa faced 230 million cyberthreats in 2022 alone and this figure is likely to be much larger for 2023 and ‘24 when the latest data becomes available.

With over 90% of the threats to local businesses arising from email cybercrime and an ongoing lack of staff training to identify suspicious correspondence, it’s likely that more and more businesses will fall prey to this type of crime. 

This corresponds closely to the findings of a research paper published in 2017 which identified “hactivism” and data loss as major threats to South African businesses.

When a cyberattack does occur, continuity is key. Here are some strategies businesses can implement to prevent losing access to their data.

Cloud storage is a key component of business continuity 

A cyberattack may be the last thing that any manager or company owner wants to think about, but the harsh reality is that thinking about it is crucial – and preferably, ahead of time.

In the minutes and hours following a cyberattack, your first priority will be returning your systems to functionality and recovering lost or corrupted data to ensure business continuity. 

A cybersecurity response plan – which can be meticulously thought out in advance and simply put into action in the worst-case scenario – is key during the damage mitigation phase following the attack.

Secure cloud storage is an essential component of any cybersecurity response plan because encrypted immutable storage means that your data will remain safe in the cloud even if your physical storage is compromised. A solid backup solution and response plan means that a business is able to safeguard its data and ensure business continuity in the event of a cyberattack.

Soteria’s range of secure cloud storage solutions for businesses of all sizes are your first line of defence against data theft. To learn more about our encrypted backup service, visit our website today.