You’ve probably realised by now that I have not updated my Ambar Hamid blog since late November 2007.

No, I have not forgotten about you…….. although I admit time constraints did play a minor role in this

Now let me explain…

During the first week of December, my hosting company suffered a major security breach on their internal computer systems. Rumours had it that the hackers gained complete access to their customers’ personal account details including credit card numbers, names, address etc.

You can imagine the sheer damage the company would have to face if illegal transactions were made on each of the customers cards or worst still: identity frauds.

They immediately imposed a strict emergency rule and that was to immediately stop customers’ access from login into their hosting accounts.

Now I understand why they did this but I didn’t agree on many points.

1) People were left stranded from accessing their sites for many days and weeks. Now, imagine if you run an ecommerce site churning away more than £500,000 a month and suddenly your business could not operate because you were not allowed access.

Imagine also if you had a key to your house and suddenly someone from somewhere refused your entry. I know this sounds ridiculous but it’s a good metaphor to describe the situation.

2) New access codes would only be sent via post. Bear in mind that when this happened, we had Royal Mail strikes that would result in further delay in post deliveries.

3) People had to wait hours on end to speak to their customer services. I did make a call and I was number 57 on the call list. Thirty minutes later, I was on number 56 and I hung up.

4) Emails sent were not replied nor entertained.

Customers were getting nervous. The internet forums were inundated with new discussion threads. In fact, if you did a search on Fasthosts on either Google or Yahoo, you’d still be able to access numerous news articles.

Here is the link to the news articles as reported on BBC and related sites:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7131431.stm

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/05/fasthost_passwords_update/

I received my access codes just before Christmas and I quickly switched all my sites to a new hosting company. Honestly, it wasn’t that hard of a decision to make…

So, what can we learn from this story?

Look, running a business is not always smooth sailing. There are its ups and downs. You will never know what’s coming next. It’s filled with uncertainties.

The question that you need to ask yourself is….Am I ready?

Let’s think about this for a minute…

If a major crisis occurs to your business then will you be prepared for it?

Will you have any contingency plans to bring your business back to normality without affecting your customers?

Are you ready physically and psychologically?

What about financially?

It’s difficult isn’t it?

You see, a business is a system. Just like anything in life.

Imagine if you were about to come down with a fever. Your body defence system would give you all sorts of signals warning you ahead of time so you can take precautionary measures.

Similarly in business, a system will act as a ‘silent alarm to alert you on any shortcomings.

It’s clear that the damage has been done to Fasthosts. They’ve now lost their credibility and the majority of their customers’ trust. They could have easily avoided the mishap if only if they had managed it properly in the first place.

Look, even the world’s billionaire – Warren Buffet agrees,

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

In short, Im all for good crisis management

Please share your thoughts and ideas. It will be great to hear from you.

Talk soon,

Ambar Hamid