Here’s a hard truth that every Ontario SMB IT leader knows deep down: It’s not a matter of if an attack happens, it’s a matter of how fast you recover.
Attackers don’t need hours to break into your systems anymore. They need minutes. So why are so many SMBs still taking days or even weeks to recover after an incident?
Because they’re relying on outdated tools, slow backups, and manual response processes that simply can’t keep up with modern cyber threats.
If you want your business to survive a cyber attack without catastrophic damage, you need systems designed for rapid containment, rapid restoration, and rapid decision-making.
Here’s how small businesses can do exactly that.
Enterprises have redundancy, backup teams, internal SOCs, and deep pockets.
SMBs have:
A single day of downtime can cost an SMB thousands (sometimes tens of thousands) in:
Fast recovery isn’t a luxury. It’s survival.
This isn’t magic or marketing fluff, it’s built on three hard capabilities:
The ability to:
This must happen within minutes, not hours.
Restoring from backups isn’t fast unless:
A good BCDR system allows your SMB to run on virtual infrastructure while the main system is rebuilt.
No scrambling. No guessing.
Everyone knows:
Without a plan, even the right tools fail.
Let’s walk through the real sequence, the one we see in Ontario SMBs all the time.
A user:
Attacker foothold achieved.
Attackers:
This happens fast, sometimes within minutes.
This is where most SMBs lose days of operations.
The goal is to stop the attack before Step 3.
That’s where SOC + EDR + BCDR matter most.
If you want to stop an attack quickly and restore operations fast, you need four capabilities:
Traditional antivirus can’t do this. EDR allows you to:
Without EDR, fast recovery is impossible.
Attackers strike at night. Fast recovery requires:
Your IT team alone cannot monitor overnight.
Fast recovery means restoring entire servers, not just files.
BCDR allows:
When systems fail, checklists save hours.
Your IR plan should define:
Most SMBs skip this, and pay for it later.
They restore files, not systems.
Searching for answers wastes time.
By morning, attackers have spread everywhere.
If you can’t see an attack, you can’t stop it.
Confusion = wasted hours.
You can’t prevent every attack. But you can control the damage.
SMBs that recover in minutes survive. SMBs that recover in days suffer.
The difference is preparation, tooling, and process, not luck.
If you want fast, reliable, SMB-focused cyber recovery (and protection that keeps downtime to a minimum) book a consultation with Contego today. We’ll show you exactly how to recover from attacks in minutes, not days.