Natural Disasters Are Breeding Ground for Cyber Looters

• StorageCraft Supports Cybersecurity Month
• Helps Businesses Avoid a Double Disaster
• Provides Online Resource

DRAPER, Utah--(BUSINESS WIRE)--StorageCraft®, whose mission is to protect all data and ensure its constant availability, uses the boost in cybersecurity awareness, created during Cybersecurity Awareness Month, to help companies avoid additional data risk caused by natural disasters. The company has developed a web-based resource comprising data and advice to help companies prepare for and mitigate against risks created due to natural disasters and prepare for the cyber looters that prey on companies during these events.

The year 2020 not only unleashed a global pandemic with unprecedented economic and operational business challenges, but it also saw a relentless series of natural disasters – many of which added to the already heavy burden on businesses. As of October 2020, a total of 8,200 fires have burned 4 million acres in California, making it the largest wildfire season ever recorded in California. By September, a record of ten named hurricanes and five storms churned in the Atlantic Ocean simultaneously.

If that weren’t hardship enough, the truth is that while businesses struggle to survive through natural disasters, there is a dark force at work looking to reap even more harm. These are the bad actors using these incidents to try and create cyber vulnerability in the form of phishing and ransomware attacks. After all, it’s human nature to click on a link to a charity supporting people impacted by natural disasters; or a link that seems official to local government support. Yet, all too often, they are malicious attempts to gain data entry.

Several factors play a role in whether a business can get up and running again, including strategic planning before a crisis, to help companies recover mission-critical data, applications, and systems quickly and effectively. It also includes a process and plans for company and employee awareness against cyber-attacks while they are at their most vulnerable.

Preparedness is critical; however, recent StorageCraft research shows a concerning lack of awareness around data disaster recovery plans. For example, 68% of respondents believe they have a clear strategy and could quickly recover from a ransomware attack. However, nearly a quarter (23%) do not test their recovery plans, and only 15% of respondents have an IT infrastructure that enables them to recover from a severe data loss within an hour.

Said Shridar Subramanian, CMO, StorageCraft: “According to FEMA, roughly 40 to 60% of small businesses never reopen following a disaster, while 90% of smaller companies fail within a year unless they can resume operations within five days. This doesn’t have to be the case. Advances in data management and protection technologies, particularly in cloud backup and recovery, present simple, powerful, and economical solutions to ensure preparedness and failback in case of disaster. Combined with educating all employees against added risk from cyber thugs during the worst of times, this will help companies protect against the dark forces and avoid a double disaster.”

The StorageCraft Natural Disaster Preparedness resource is available here; and will be updated and expanded internationally over the coming months.

About StorageCraft

For nearly two decades, StorageCraft has been innovating advanced data management, protection, and recovery solutions. Together with our channel partners, we ensure medium and small organizations can always keep their business-critical information safe, accessible, and optimized. Our customers benefit from category-leading intelligent data protection and management solutions converged primary and secondary scale-out storage platform and world-class cloud backup and DRaaS services. Regardless of whether an organization relies on on-premises, cloud-based, or a hybrid IT environment, StorageCraft solves the challenges of exploding data growth while ensuring business continuity through best in class protection and recovery solutions. For more information, visit storagecraft.com.

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