THE TOP FIVE THINGS IN IT THAT CAN SHUT DOWN YOUR BUSINESS By Thomas H. Douglas, JMARK MIBA Endorsed Partner For decades, the most significant and most valuable assets of most banks were physical: buildings, currency, and infrastructure. Today, the most valuable assets for the majority of institutions are digital. These include account data, customer information, intellectual property (plans, templates, standard operating procedures, etc.), correspondence, documents, spreadsheets, and certainly the data that lives in your core applications. Unfortunately, this means every bank could lose millions with the wrong keystroke. Here are the top five easily-made IT mistakes with the power to shut down your bank — and the opportunities they present to improve your business when handled well: Threat #1: Poor backup and restoration, business continuity, and disaster recovery practices. Each of these requires a unique set of strategies and practices. Backup and recovery are about recovering lost data from day to day, including data that gets deleted or is lost due to drive failure. Business continuity addresses major system failures, such as a server environment or a storage area network failure, where the objective is to get the bank operating again quickly. The challenges in business continuity are mainly technological. Disaster recovery addresses the loss of an entire location or facility due to any disaster (whether natural or human-made) where the objective is also to get the bank operating again. Other non-technical challenges, such as building damage, personnel loss, or other factors, may also play a part during disaster recovery. Opportunity: Good recovery plans should include all conceivable scenarios, from natural disasters to ransomware attacks. A well-made business continuity and disaster recovery plan will encompass daily backup and restoration practices as well. During the process of putting together your continuity plan, you 14 | The Show-Me Banker Magazine
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODQxMjUw