Atlantic.Net Blog

Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks have been happening for years, but have become steadily more prominent among enterprise IT considerations. This is in large part due to the increasing amount of damage inflicted by DDoS attacks, which is caused by both the increasing power and sophistication of the attacks, and also the critical importance of IT systems availability to enterprises.

A DDoS attack is a coordinated flood of traffic or data sent from many computers and internet connections to a single destination system in order to overwhelm it. The attack can be made against different parts or “levels” of the network, taking up all of the connections, bandwidth, or processing power available. DDoS attacks can cause a general system failure or take down a certain application or service.

There are approximately 2,000 DDoS attacks every day, according to Arbor Networks, and research suggests that roughly one in three downtime incidents are caused by them. The cost of that downtime is severe, but the cost of restoring system functionality can be even higher. Additionally, there are indirect costs, such as to reputation, and lost staff time. The Ponemon Institute estimates that the average cost per incident, not including reputational damage, is over $125,000.

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If you’re talking about innovation and competition in the modern economy, you will inevitably wind up talking about the subject of data. It’s no secret that we rely on data for everything whether it be strategy or tactics. This, of course, leads us to the topic of “big data” which for the past decade has been touted as the difference maker in a business’ ability to gain a better understanding of the complex factors, including customer behaviors, that are contributing to a business’ success or even failure.

Of course, simply collecting the data isn’t the whole story. There are infrastructure concerns that need to be met when implementing large databases. You need somewhere to keep your database. Not only that, but the hardware needs to be up to the task of handling the processing power required to run the database and allow it to be accessible. Many small businesses are turning to Cloud Hosting as the solution that fits their needs best.

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You’ve just started your own business and things are going well. Most likely, you’ve been growing steadily at the local level. This means most of your success has been thanks to word of mouth, existing networks, and direct orders of your product or service. This is relatively sustainable for the short term, but there inevitably comes a time where you exhaust these local networks and need to move on into new markets where you may not already have a foothold.

In the age of an overwhelmingly digital focused economy, gaining these footholds and reaching untapped audiences means developing a web presence. In 2017, it isn’t news to business owners that it’s very difficult, if not almost impossible, to succeed without a web presence of some kind. Staying competitive, reaching consumers who do their research primarily online, and advertising is just some of the reasons why executives agree that every small business needs a website.

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Everyone is familiar with the idiom, “it’s better to be safe than sorry.” It’s a good general rule to operate under, and that is certainly the case when it comes to the safety of your data. Whether it’s the files that make up your website or a database with sensitive information, it’s critical to your operations that there is always some way to restore your data so that you don’t suffer from excessive downtime, or worse, be noncompliant with certain regulatory agencies depending on the industry you operate in. Yes, your backup solutions, or lack thereof, could be putting you at risk of being in violation of some laws.

If your business operates within the healthcare industry and creates electronic medical records, there are specific requirements in place regarding not only the storage of EMRs but also where you back up these records. These requirements can be found in the HIPAA Security Final Rule: the Data Backup and Disaster Recovery Specifications. There are certain backup elements that must meet contingency plan standards.

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