Cybersecurity Preparedness: How to Recover Fast After an Attack
Welcome to this month’s tech news. Here you will find:
- When a Cyber Attack Hits: What’s your plan?
- Microsoft: What’s new?
- Tech Facts: Did you know?
- Q & A: What everyone’s asking
- Quiz Time: Test your team!
Enjoy the read, and remember to give us a call if you have any IT concerns – we’re here to help!
Is your business ready for a cyber attack?
Preparation turns chaos into calm. Make sure your business is ready.
Cyber attacks rarely make headlines when they hit small and medium-sized businesses — but make no mistake, they’re happening every single day.
Somewhere right now, a business is quietly dealing with the fallout of being locked out of its systems, facing downtime, frustrated staff, and shaken customer trust.
What separates the businesses that bounce back quickly from those that don’t isn’t luck — it’s preparation.
Hackers have become incredibly skilled at sneaking in, stealing data, and causing disruption. Even the best security tools can’t block every attempt. That’s why having a recovery plan is just as important as having strong defences.
A disaster recovery plan acts as your business playbook.
It outlines what happens if the worst occurs:
- Who takes charge
- How to communicate with staff and customers
- The steps to bring systems back online
When your team knows what to do, they can act fast and confidently, instead of wasting precious hours figuring things out under pressure.
Security experts (like us) often run practice scenarios that simulate real attacks — pitting “attackers” against “defenders.” What’s always clear is that the technical side of an attack is only half the battle. The real difference lies in calm leadership, clear communication, and well-tested recovery plans.
Practical steps you can take today
If you’re not sure where to start, here are a few key actions that make a big difference:
- Test your backups regularly 💾
Don’t just assume they’re working — make sure you can restore data quickly and completely. - Keep offline and cloud copies ☁️
Cyber attacks like ransomware can corrupt connected drives, so having an isolated backup is essential. - Map out your critical systems 🗺️
Identify which systems are essential to keep the business running — and prioritise them in your recovery plan. - Run mock “disaster days” 🎯
Simulate what would happen if your main server went down or your email was compromised. See how fast your team can recover. - Secure your admin accounts 🔐
Limit access to only those who need it, and enforce multi-factor authentication (MFA) everywhere possible. - Review your incident response contacts 📞
Keep an up-to-date list of who to call — IT partners, insurers, and key internal staff — and store it somewhere accessible even if your systems are offline. - Update and patch regularly 🧩
Many attacks exploit outdated software. Schedule updates consistently and verify that they’ve been applied.
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The reality is that cyber criminals aren’t going anywhere. But with the right preparation, you can take the fear out of the unknown. Being ready turns a potential crisis into something manageable — protecting your data, your reputation, and your customers’ trust.
If you’d like expert help building or testing your disaster recovery plan, the GZD team is here to assist.
What’s new to Microsoft?
Excel has a new trick: it can read pictures
Excel can now analyse pictures as well as numbers. You can drop an image into a cell, and Excel will help check things like whether it’s clear or blurry. This could be useful if you work with lots of photos or scanned documents and need a quick way to spot problems before sharing them.
Behind the scenes it uses Python (a popular programming language), but you don’t need to be a coder to benefit. The update is starting to roll out for Microsoft 365 users on web, Windows, and Mac.
Did you know?
…You can download to a bird?
A musician and science enthusiast recently tried storing data in a starling. Yes, a bird.
He encoded an image into sound and played it repeatedly to the starling. Later, it appeared to reproduce a similar waveform on its own, equivalent to “176 kilobytes of uncompressed data”.
While it’s more curiosity than breakthrough (after all, your files could literally fly away), the experiment shows just how strange the intersection of biology and technology can get.
Tech Facts:
- Researchers found flaws in McDonald’s McHire job chatbot that could have exposed data from 64 million applicants. One issue? An admin password set to “123456” Combined with a coding bug, it left names, addresses, and even chat messages at risk. The problem was fixed quickly, but it’s a clear TechFacts reminder of why strong passwords and good security practices matter.
- AI takes a lot of power. So much that US data centres look to become the world’s fifth largest electricity users by 2026. Microsoft, racing to fuel its AI growth, is spending $80 billion (£58.7 billion) on energy infrastructure while also pledging to be carbon-negative by 2030. To offset emissions, it’s buying carbon removal credits, including burying millions of tons of waste deep underground.
- In August 1991, astronauts aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis sent the very first email from space, using an Apple Macintosh Portable. With some tweaks to NASA’s comms system, the bulky Mac connected to Apple’s online network, AppleLink. Astronauts Shannon Lucid and James C. Adamson’s message? A cheerful “Hello Earth!” complete with a Terminator 2 reference: “Hasta la vista, baby… we’ll be back!”
Q & A
Q. Do we need to back up data stored in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace?
A: Yes. These services keep things running, but you’re still responsible for your data. Backups protect against accidental deletion or ransomware.
Q: Our passwords are strong. Do we still need multi-factor authentication (MFA)?
A: Absolutely. Even strong passwords can be stolen. MFA adds an extra layer of protection that makes accounts much harder to break into.
Q: Should we worry about old staff accounts once someone leaves?
A: Yes. If ex-staff logins aren’t closed, they’re open doors for attackers. Always remove access right away.
Time for a Tech Quiz!
- Bing is a search engine developed by what company?
- What is another name for a URL saved in a web browser?
- A “Page Not Found” error on a website is also known by what error code?
- Microsoft Word’s native file format uses what file extension?
- What is the standard Windows keyboard shortcut for the Cut command?
See answers below
Until next time,
The GZD team
Quiz answers:
1. Microsoft.
2. A bookmark.
3. 404.
4. .docx.
5. Control + x.
