When we think about business continuity or disaster recovery we often have visions of what occurred in New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina or more recently Super Storm Sandy in New York City. For some, it is the deadly tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri or the tsunami that hit Japan. What we don’t envision is theft or malicious damage caused by one of our own.

This is exactly what happened recently in Colorado. Our team was speaking with a peer in Colorado when he shared a story with us about something that happened with one of his clients.

The IT Director decided one day that his job was no longer what he wanted to do. This IT Manager controlled everything that occurred inside the corporate network and he also kept everything in his head, failing to keep a logbook or a record of any configurations, key vendors, license information or anything on the network.

Sensing a change in the mood of their IT Director and after several attempts to reach out to him, the management team had no choice but to make a change and let him go. At that same time all working knowledge of the whole IT network left the building. This company had zero knowledge about the inner workings of one of their most valuable assets, the corporate IT network, and they had no control over any of it.

What would happen to your business if a disgruntled employee wreaked havoc on your business network? What damage could they cause? Can they rob your business of valuable customer information? Could they delete everything on the corporate network? How much damage can someone cause? Do you know?

Many businesses do not factor in “the disgruntled employee” aspect into their business continuity and disaster recovery strategy. An employee with the power to cause harm can unleash the same fury as a hurricane or tornado. Maybe not physical damage, but the damage to your corporate data can cripple your business.

A proper business continuity strategy will ensure that each employee has access to only the information they require to do their job. In the event of data loss caused by human error, intentional deletion from a disgruntled employee or some other reason, your business needs the proper recovery solutions in place to prevent serious business damage from occurring.

Back to our colleague in Colorado. They were able to ensure that this company whose IT Director left did not suffer any serious issues. They will recover fine under their care, and with the right business continuity solution in place, this will never be a challenge again.

How is your business continuity and disaster recovery plan coming along? Not sure? Call us, we are here to help you by ensuring you have everything you require to have the right business continuity strategy in place protecting your business from storms, fire, flood and humans.