It'll never happen to me....

Except of course, one day it might. Small Business Blog has had a first-hand account this week of how quickly and easily it can be to find your company struggling. A local spate of lead-roof thefts left one building exposed to the elements. Heavy rain flooded the building - not once but twice because the building is listed and the lease holders were unable to repair the roof immediately. Flood damage caused server failure, electrical and phone problems, plus a very unpleasant working environment. Environmental Health visited and closed the office down as it was deemed unsafe to work in. Relocation is underway, but there are obvious delays in getting broadband and other comms reinstated. Worst of all, although back up procedures were reinstated after the first failure no-one checked that they were in place after the second. Customer records, pricing info, stock lists, just about everything has gone. A customer to rang to ask what he'd been charged for a previous order and no-one could tell him...

So the message here is pretty obvious - have you got your company data backed up? Have you checked that regular (once a week?) back ups are actually happening? Could you make your data more secure? How would you cope if something similar happened to you? Visit the Security Guidance Centre and check whether you're following the recommended seven-step process. A look at the security features of Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 R2 might be well worth your time as well.