Prevent Hacking-Nigeria - Don't wait until it's too late: It is critical for SMBs to not wait until after an attack or disaster to think about what they should have done to protect their information. Not only is downtime costly from a financial perspective, but it could mean the complete demise of the business. SMBs plan should include identification of key systems and data that is intrinsic to the running of the business. Basically, identify your critical resources. Protect information completely: SMBs must implement the appropriate security and backup solutions to archive important files, such as customer records and financial information. Natural disasters, power outages and cyber-attacks can all result in data and financial loss, so SMBs need to make sure important files are saved not only on an external hard drive and/or company network, but in a safe, off-site location.

Get employees involved: SMB employees play a key role in helping to prevent downtime, and should be educated on computer security best practices and what to do if information is accidentally deleted or cannot easily be found in their files. Since SMBs have few resources, all employees should know how to retrieve the businesses' information in times of disaster.

Test frequently: After a disaster hits is the worst time to learn that critical files were not backed up as planned. Test your plan anytime anything changes in your environment.

Review your plan: If frequent testing is not feasible due to resources and bandwidth, SMBs should review their disaster preparedness plan at least on a quarterly basis.

Daily Trust/27/06/2011