Some organisations find downtime irritating, but ultimately harmless. They experience a productivity drop, send an apologetic email, and are back to normal by the following week. Health and community organisations aren’t usually that lucky.
For them, downtime is a nightmare. Clients miss appointments, referrals aren’t sent, funding opportunities are missed, and trust is lost faster than it can ever be regained. The consequences can follow them for years.
The solution to this problem might be simpler than you think. It just involves looking at an entirely different – and seemingly unrelated – part of your IT strategy.
Why Cyber Security and Business Continuity are Linked
A major mistake that most organisations make is treating security and operational continuity as two entirely separate conversations. It’s easy to see why – after all, not every outage occurs as the result of a data breach. But this belief can come back to haunt them later.
The truth is that cyber threats and downtime are closely intertwined:
Attacks Shut Down Operations
Cyber-attacks threaten more than just your data. In the worst-case scenario, they can result in hours or even days of downtime. Before normal operations can continue you must locate and remove the threat, restore data from backup systems, and conduct an investigation to identify the source of the breach. If ransomware is involved, the situation becomes even more complicated, as these attacks directly target business continuity.
Strong Security Prevents More Than You Think
While a solid cyber defence protects your organisation from breaches, that’s far from the only benefit it offers. Many security best practices will also minimise the impact of natural disasters, random outages, and other issues. Organisations that aren’t aware of these additional advantages tend to underestimate the importance of cyber security, putting them at a greater long-term risk.
Incident Response Decides How Fast You Recover
When something does go wrong, the speed of your recovery is entirely up to you. But many organisations aren’t aware of this. Incident response is seen as a security concern, not a business continuity imperative. Because of this, it’s neglected, and minor issues result in significantly more downtime than is actually necessary.
The correlation is clear: stronger security directly reduces operational disruptions stemming from all causes, not just cyber-attacks. But that comes with a caveat: if your goal is to preserve continuity and protect your data at the same time, some measures are more effective than others.
Read more: Vendor Risk Management: When Your Providers Become a Potential Threat
How to Reduce Downtime and Strengthen Security Simultaneously
While any improvements to your digital defences will lower the risk of a breach, only some will have a tangible impact on other types of operational disruption. By prioritising these first, you can address cyber security and business continuity at the same time. Some to consider include:
Backups
A solid data backup strategy is your first line of defence against almost every kind of organisational disruption imaginable. Fires, floods, ransomware attacks and power outages all prevent your employees from accessing the information they need to complete their work. Backups help mitigate this.
Patch Management
Outdated software increases your risk of slowdowns, crashes, and cyber-attacks. Patches often include crucial performance and security updates that help prevent these outcomes. Where possible, it’s best to automate these to ensure they’re installed on time. In cases where this can’t be done, develop a patch management schedule and stick to it.
Regular Risk Assessments
Your risk factors are constantly shifting as time passes, the organisation grows, and your IT infrastructure changes. Each alteration introduces a new potential issue, be it an incompatibility or hidden vulnerability. Regular risk assessments will help you identify and plan for these challenges before they can disrupt your operations.
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning
Sometimes you can’t prevent the worst from happening. A disaster or breach can still occur even when you have the strongest defences possible. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do. A strong business continuity strategy will allow your team to continue working towards your mission even during an emergency.
While building your business continuity plan, remember to consider:
- Alternative communication channels (depending on the nature of the incident, regular channels could be unavailable)
- Remote work arrangements if the normal office space is disrupted (for instance, after a natural disaster)
- A means of accessing crucial data and workflow software
- How compliance with relevant regulations (such as the Privacy Act) will be maintained in the interim
- How interactions with clients will be facilitated during the emergency period, particularly if normal meeting spaces are temporarily unavailable
- What will be done to restore normal operations (and how quickly this can be accomplished)
Reduce Unplanned Downtime and Protect Your Mission
For health and community organisations, downtime isn’t an inconvenience. It can have severe, long-term implications for your funding, trust, and legal compliance. Fortunately, the right cyber security measures can limit your exposure to many different risk factors at once, minimising operational disruptions and allowing your important work to continue. Instead of treating security as an optional add-on, it’s important to recognise the very real role it has in risk management and act accordingly.
Is your organisation at risk of unexpected downtime? ICTx can find out. We’ll conduct a comprehensive review of your IT environment, locate any issues you haven’t noticed yet, and explain how to resolve them. Get your IT audit today.
FAQs
What is business continuity management?
Business continuity management is the practice of ensuring that your operations can continue even during an emergency. It is closely related to incident response and disaster recovery, in the sense that all three help reduce unnecessary downtime, but tackles it from a different angle.
Why is business continuity important for community and health organisations?
Despite the name, business continuity is crucial for all organisations. It preserves productivity, prevents unnecessary expenses, and even helps you maintain compliance with your legal obligations.
What is the link between cyber security and business continuity?
One mistake many organisations make is assuming that security and continuity are only tangentially related. In reality, the two are directly interconnected. Many cyber security measures will actually help protect your organisation against other types of incidents (such as natural disasters or random outages) in addition to attacks.
Are there any specific security measures that are particularly important for preserving operational continuity?
Some security measures are more effective than others at preserving operational continuity. Some examples include data backups, incident response planning, and patch management.
How do RTO and RPO factor into business continuity?
RTO (Recovery Time Objective) is how long your organisation can go without a system before it starts causing harm to service delivery, funding compliance, or community trust. RPO (Recovery Point Objective) is how much data or work you can afford to lose if something goes wrong, based on how recent your last clean backup is.
You should agree on these numbers with your IT provider early, because “we take backups” isn’t the same as “we can get you back up within the timeframe your organisation needs.” Without clear targets set in advance, most organisations only discover the real numbers during an outage.
What should we consider when developing our business continuity management plan?
When building your business continuity management plan, consider how employees will continue to access data and workflow software. You will also need a plan for alternative communication channels, remote work arrangements (if necessary), and possibly even alternative spaces for client meetings.