What happened when we were burgled…

I thought this might be a useful nudge for all of you that run a business...something terrible happened to us, but let's see if we can draw some positives from it and share the benefits. At around 1am Tuesday morning, I was awoken by a swift elbow to the ribs (otherwise known as my loving wife), gently informing me that my mobile had been buzzing off the bedside table. Once my eyes un-crossed themselves in the hazy fog that was 1am, I could see that I had a missed call from "Pete" (our landlord at the LTF studio). This could never really be good news, getting a call from our office landlord in the middle of the night could only really mean one thing (with the exception of Pete having sat on his phone and mid-dialed). Yes, you guessed it - we'd been burgled. Upon speaking to Pete, I discover that 4 units, including ours, had been smashed open, ransacked and computers etc taken. Both Pete and a local tradesman were in the process of boarding up all the holes, whilst finishing up with the police so there was little I could have done had I driven down there, so I decided I would instead focus on our data security (more on this later) until such time as I could get down to the office and meet the Forensics teams and begin the "piecing back together" exercise. There's no denying that the experience has been horrific. The feelings of anger, confusion, shock and violation come in waves. Crossed with the mounting stresses of a usual business day, and ladened more-so with the added job of protecting customer data. All told, I think things could have been worse. We lost a few laptops, and some Apple desktops, and there was some minor mess created. The front door had to be replaced too, of course (having been pounded open with a huge sledge hammer). But on the plus side, all our data was synchronised with "the cloud" and so in that sense was safe (or at least, copied). So, to clarify (and for your piece of mind as our customer): - All customer data is safe - We immediately took steps to protect anything that may have been accessible on the stolen machines - If we felt you needed to take action too, you will have had an email from us this morning However, the real reason I wanted to get this down "on paper", was not for sympathy or to rant about it or to scare you, but to offer some insight to you guys as to what I think we'd done RIGHT prior to the Burglary, and what I would do DIFFERENTLY. This gives you a chance to learn from our situation, BEFORE it happens to you!!! **So, what had we done RIGHT before the burglary, that really helped the situation?** We had a solution for continual synchronisation of files from all devices up to "the cloud". In our case, an online application known as SugarSync. Install it on each machine, and all devices and the cloud continually sync with one another, so that all work is backed up and available to all in the team. Many of us work on laptops as well as desktops, and the majority of these had been taken home for the night We stored the majority of our important internal documents, contracts etc on a web-based drive, as opposed to on physical drives in the office **And what you can do DIFFERENTLY to help prevent the burglars targeting your business?** There are many different devices, equipment and ideas that we have come across which help with security. Here are just a few for you to consider: -I.P motion detector cameras with night-vision, which is then streamed to another remote device. We figure, these guys will probably come back (because they know the kit will be replaced, right?), and so we probably can't stop them getting in, but we can capture as much evidence as possible whilst they are in there. -We wouldn't actually have ANY desktop machines at all, but instead all work from powerful laptops docked into screens and keyboards. Each taking the laptops themselves home at night, or locking them in a safe. -Have a very secure, organised method of storing all the various passwords for software, accounts, drives, etc etc etc - so that the job of resetting almost 300 passwords was made a LOT easier and faster. -Ensure that you have a clear and organised documentation of all equipment, its serial numbers and the proof of purchase for each device. (Whilst we did have all this, it took a lot of digging to pull it all together, as we hadn't been organised with it until now). -Ensure that machines have a "Find My..." application activated so that if the thieves take the machines online, we can give the location to the police instantly. Also a really good thing to consider is a Watermark Pen for all your IT equipment, ipads, mobiles, etc.  The police supply them and then you mark everything with your postcode.  Then if the police recover the equipment anywhere in the country they look for the watermark and return to you. -We would recommend that you rethink what you post online in terms of photographs and information that may allude to setup or equipment in the offices. Hopefully there won't be a next time, but if there IS, we hope to have done everything possible to: - Deter them in the first place - Slow them down as much as possible - Capture as much evidence as possible - Remove as much temptation as possible - Be as organised with data and backups as possible So that we can: - Get over it quick - Be back up and running quick - Rest assured that it's all safe -Aid the police better in apprehending them Anyway, I hope the above points will give you food for thought, and that if you haven't already you will take IMMEDIATE steps to action, so that you can be in a far stronger position than we were, if this awful violation were to happen to you and your business in the near future.