Make your school's DR plan a success

Security threats are on the rise and no school is safe. Being proactive rather than reactive is the best way to mitigate an attack, starting with your schools DR plan.

 The sudden rise of sophisticated threats, like the costly ransomware virus, means that schools are currently facing the most highly prolific IT security challenges to date. Like most computer viruses, a ransomware threat often arrives in the form of a phishing email, spam, or even a disguised software update. School emails are often targeted with educational reference materials, CV’s or outstanding invoices from various suppliers and each attachment containing a ransomware virus set to work immediately encrypting the user's files. The computer is then essentially sent into lockdown, demanding a hefty fee for the return of the return of the files.

Today, most schools place a heavy reliance on fully functioning hardware equipment and network systems. So, should this fail, or be sent into sudden lock-down, the daily operation could be brought to a swift halt putting your school at an extremely high risk of a confidential data breach, huge financial loss and most crucially – educational disruption.

Having the right disaster recovery (DR) plans and systems in place is essential if you want to recover as quickly and efficiently as possible. A detailed disaster recovery plan can prevent many of the distresses and headaches experienced in the event of any disaster. At Smarter Interactive we understand it can be a struggle to face the complex challenges of DR, but there are many ways to reduce the destructive aftermath of such attacks. The primary goal of your disaster recovery plan must be to help maintain your school’s continuity, minimise damage, and prevent any loss. Smarter Interactive has put together the top 4 ways to help make your disaster recovery plan successful.

Top 4 ways to make your DR plan successful

1. Time is everything
The speed of your response should be at the forefront of your plan. This is a vital step in ensuring that everyday tasks can continue should the worst happen. When implementing a disaster recovery solution, you must evaluate its ability to respond quickly to any disaster – remember if you want to maintain continuity every second counts!

2. Back up
A robust, reliable remote backup solution will provide your school with a peace of mind by securely backing up your files, emails and databases should you face the threat of a data breach. Having this in your disaster recovery plan will prevent the loss of confidential data and protect the reputation of your school.

3. Train your staff
You must put systems in place to regularly train your staff about the risks associated with disaster recovery and what actions they are expected to take in this situation. Special attention should also be paid to training any new employees who will have a critical role in the disaster recovery process. This is essential should you wish to minimise damage and a high cost impact to your school.

4. Practice, practice, practice
After training your staff why not put your plans into practice, not only for equipment and network recovery, but also the plans that precisely outline what steps each person involved in disaster recovery efforts should undertake. Your school can significantly improve its recovery process as well as minimise the time its normal daily functions are disrupted. It’s vitally important that disaster recovery plans are carefully laid out, practiced and regularly updated in order to be successful.

Smarter Interactive have a wealth of experience working with schools of all sizes across the UK to implement tailored DR solutions. With a team of highly qualified solution specialists and expert engineers, Smarter Interactive is always at hand to help and guide organisations in the event of a disaster. Whether it’s a natural cause, ICT network crashes, human error, power failure or even a catastrophic ransomware virus, a tailored disaster recovery solution from Smarter Interactive will keep your school up and running through incidents of any kind.