It’s very easy to get locked out of critical systems before you know it. An employee flags something that doesn’t look right, a file won’t open or a system won’t load — and all of a sudden, you can’t process transactions, access data or even communicate internally.

Then the clock starts ticking on the financial and reputational damage that could follow.

Often, the assumption is that incidents like this are rare or only happen as a result of a major cyberattack. In fact, data loss and system outages are much more common, and usually much less dramatic.

Human error, such as accidentally deleting files or overwriting data, remains among the leading causes. Hardware failures, software problems and power disruptions can have the same effect. Given Bermuda’s climate, severe weather is another risk.

Nevertheless, too many businesses still treat back-ups as if they were an afterthought. It’s frequently assumed that data is somewhere in the cloud and therefore safe, or that an IT provider has everything in hand.

Even now, others assume that their business is too small to be targeted or that any kind of back-up will do. These can be costly misconceptions, however. Not all cloud services offer comprehensive back-up, nor are all back-up systems configured to ensure full and rapid recovery.

Downtime can quickly translate into lost revenue and seriously strained customer relationships, which once damaged can be very difficult to repair. In a close-knit business community such as Bermuda’s, reputational damage can spread quickly and endure.

There are also regulatory consequences to consider, particularly where customer or personal data are involved, which can result in heavy financial penalties.

A robust back-up strategy ensures that, should something go wrong, your business is able to recover quickly and continue operating. This typically means maintaining multiple copies of critical data, storing them in separate locations and ensuring they’re protected from both accidental loss and malicious activity.

Just as importantly, it means testing these back-ups regularly. Too many organisations only find out that their back-ups are incomplete or unusable after the worst has already happened.

Back-ups also play a vitally important role in protecting against cybersecurity threats such as ransomware. When attackers encrypt data and demand payment, a reliable back-up can be the difference between a temporary disruption and a prolonged crisis.

Without it, businesses can find themselves left with no good options for retrieving their data and getting back up and running. Of course, the longer this takes, the more reputational and financial harm is likely to be done.

Here are some practical steps your business should take to put a proper back-up plan in place, if it hasn’t already done so:

• Identify and prioritise your most critical business data

• Automate regular back-ups to reduce reliance on manual processes

• Store at least one back-up off-site or in the cloud

• Test back-ups regularly to ensure they can be restored

• Restrict and secure access to back-up systems

• Seek expert assistance to develop a clear back-up and recovery plan

Ultimately, a back-up plan is more than just something for your IT team to worry about. It has implications for your entire organisation and is a core part of business resilience.

It ensures that, whatever the cause of disruption or its severity, your business has a clear response and a viable route forward. You can never be sure, after all, when you might be needing them.

• Louise Ralston is the chief operating officer of Cyber Tec Security, a cybersecurity specialist business providing cyber certification-led resilience and adherence to regulatory compliance