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The answer is yes. As organisations evolve online services, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are becoming a real problem. It is now not a case of if a business will be hit by such attack, but when. The size and frequency of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are on the rise – by over 100% year on year – and even large public and private organisations in the UK and Ireland have been affected. For example, the BBC website suffered a DDoS attack and its iPlayer platform was made unavailable for a period. The website for a Manchester casino was also taken offline by a DDoS attack and the owners were contacted by the cyber criminals, who […]

Cyber security breaches are on the rise and becoming more and more sophisticated. According to the UK Government, four in ten businesses and two in ten charities in the UK have experienced a cyber attack in 2018. These numbers are only likely to increase this year, and your organisation might be the next victim. Although we hope this will not be the case, here are some top tips on how to bounce back from a cyber attack. Call in a professional DR and Cyber Security service provider Unless you have an internal cyber security expert, then you will need professional help from an organisation like Covenco Recovery Services, who will be able to assist you every […]

We often hear the words backup and replication, whether alone or together, these terms play a central role in disaster recovery and business continuity strategies. However, what is the difference between the two? And why do most DR providers encourage their clients to have both? Backup A backup is a process of making a copy of data and storing it offsite. Backup can be done to tape, which requires a tape library and physical storage space, becoming more common is backing up to disk either in the ‘Cloud’ or on a second site. Accessing a backup solution is not expensive for businesses and can be used for making a copy of almost everything within the organisation, […]

“Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) is a highly beneficial solution for organisations who wish to protect their data and ensure its availability in the event of any planned or unplanned downtime.” Gurdip Sohal, Sales Director, Covenco Recovery Services.   Organisations face a multitude of threats every day. From power outages, hardware and software failure, to data corruption and external security breaches, companies need to have a DR solution that can help them reduce downtime and recover business operations as soon as possible. Businesses must have a disaster recovery (DR) solution in place, but building, managing and testing one requires knowledge, time and resources. If a DR solution is not implemented or tested correctly then it […]

There are businesses that cannot afford IT downtime, this means that their operations must always keep running. High Availability solutions are designed specifically for these businesses and have the ability to guarantee 99.999% uptime. But what exactly is, High Availability? It refers to systems and solutions that are durable and able to operate continuously, without failure for a long time. This standard of availability is also referred to as “five 9s” (99.999 %). High Availability works by having redundant components combined with systems which perform regular self-checks to ensure all are working properly. If a component failure is detected, the system will activate and switch to the redundant spare without any downtime. One of the biggest misconceptions of […]

This is the short story about Lisa. Lisa is a sales manager working for a small manufacturing company. Lisa lives quite far away from her office, so a couple of days per week she works from home. As she owns a small flat, Lisa likes to work in her local café. She does this frequently as it is a quiet place where she can concentrate. One morning Lisa goes to the café, orders her latte and takes a seat. She puts her work laptop on the table, switches it on and opens her email. “Lisa” someone shouts from the bar, “your latte is ready”. Lisa gets up and walks away from her table, grabs her latte, […]

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has revolutionised laws that protect ‘personal information’ and altered how businesses and public sector organisations can store and utilise data relating to their customers. Established companies have gone through a complex process of becoming compliant over the last 12-18 months. But what if you have just started a business, maybe GDPR guidance is what you need. We have listed the top ten tips to become GDPR compliant. Data Mapping Knowing how data moves within your organisation is the key to understanding how to protect it. Identifying where data comes from, the type of data, the reason for storing that data and how it is handled and processed will allow you […]

Few businesses plan for disaster, but perhaps we should. When you initially set up your business all your efforts are driven towards success, and while acknowledging that a disaster event is a possibility, most don’t allow that possibility to hold them back or, indeed, plan for it… However, as any business advisor will recommend, it is only prudent to have some sort of back-up plan in place. Disaster recovery and business continuity planning are key elements in any organisation’s day to day business, both processes are equally important because they provide detailed strategies on how the business will continue to operate during and after severe interruptions and disasters. While it isn’t possible to eliminate all risks, […]

Cyber Security Monitoring is a critical element of cyber risk management that enables you to detect cyber-attacks at their beginning and escalate threats for remediation before they can cause damage to your business. Cyber attacks have become the new norm and no matter what the size of your organisation, you must have a proper cyber security strategy in place to monitor activities. If you own or work for an SME, then you are more at risk. SMEs are more vulnerable to cyber-attacks as they often lack the resources to build the necessary IT infrastructure to protect themselves. However, cyber security monitoring is necessary in the digital age, and even SMEs need to have a system in […]

In the latest State of Email Security 2018 Report, conducted by Mimecast, 61% of respondents reported that their organisation had been “hit by an attack where malicious activity was spread from one infected user to other employees via email.” Emails are still the number one vector used by attackers to initiate malware delivery, impersonation and phishing attacks. Over the last year, phishing attacks against organisations have increased, with many companies facing internal threats driven by careless employees, malicious insiders and compromised accounts. If you wish to protect your business, then email security should be part of your core strategy. So, what are the steps that you can take to protect your organisation from phishing and other […]

Business continuity consulting is a cost-effective and reliable service for organisations who are looking to develop a business continuity plan without the burden of employing a business continuity specialist. Many business continuity training opportunities are available for employees taking on this role, but organisations should not underestimate how the lack of professional experience can impact the success of a continuity plan. With a business continuity consulting service, you will be advised by professionals who have the knowledge, skills and experience to build a business continuity plan. They will help you identify risks and threats to your organisation, put in place adequate measures to mitigate them and reduce downtime in case of a disruption. Here are some […]

Anti-virus software, firewalls, and IT security infrastructures can guarantee a certain level of protection, but in order to see if they really work you need to put them under pressure. And what better way to test them than trying to hack them with a penetration test (pen test)? As software and technology evolve, so do cyber threats and hacking techniques. That is why it’s important for companies to perform a penetration test on a regular basis to ensure that systems are suited to protect them from the latest cyber threats. A penetration test helps businesses understand their IT infrastructure vulnerabilities and gives them a realistic view of what a malicious user would be able to accomplish. […]

It has been a busy week at Veeam’s Velocity in Orlando, FL. Veeam’s annual sales kick-off – designed to bring together partners from all over the globe – featured a packed programme with sessions on go-to-market (GTM) strategies and Veeam’s latest product advancements. The highly anticipated live broadcast of Veeam Availability Suite 9.5 Update 4 was revealed on Tuesday 22nd January in a dedicated session at the event, and we must say, the new features did not disappoint. Ratmir Timashev, Co-Founder and Executive Vice President (EVP), WW Sales and Marketing, introduced the session with remarks on the importance of data in today’s markets, how it has grown in the last decade, and how it will continue to grow in the […]

As cold temperatures and snowy weather hit the UK, we ask you: what’s your workplace recovery strategy if your premises become inaccessible? We see many companies fully rely on a working from home (WFH) strategy, as it’s an easy and cost-effective solution, but is it a reliable and risk-free strategy in a disaster situation? In general, there are quite a few risks associated with WFH, but in a disaster situation these could become more detrimental and undermine the company’s ability to recover. Power outages Power outages are common during snow storms and we often see entire areas and neighbourhoods left without power. What if one of those areas is where part/most of your staff lives? Unless […]

In today’s highly competitive market, having business operations disrupted means losing money, clients and reputation. That is why disaster recovery has become an essential element for all organisations, including small-medium enterprises (SMEs). SMEs have started to put in place disaster recovery plans, but limited resources often do not allow them to have an internal disaster recovery expert to manage these plans, and in many cases, this can do more harm than good. Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) is designed to remove this role from inside the company, mitigate against downtime and remove the complexity of companies having to recover critical applications themselves. Here are some key benefits that you should consider: Expertise Disaster Recovery as […]