As some Canadian businesses have recently experienced, unforeseen challenges including weather-related issues, carrier/service provider issues and networking configuration errors can cause network downtime. For organizations that rely on technology — including network and application access — for their day-to-day business, outages are costly and debilitating.
According to last year’s 2024 State of Connectivity report from Ericsson Enterprise Wireless Solutions (formerly Cradlepoint), shared downtime continued to impact Canadian businesses. More than half (53 per cent) of respondents experienced one to two hours of connectivity downtime per week on average over the previous 12 months, resulting from fixed line/fibre network failure. Additionally, 28 per cent of Canadian businesses experienced three to four hours of downtime per week. Those connectivity issues resulted in higher operational costs (45 per cent), operational inefficiencies (41 per cent), and loss of talent (36 per cent), affecting productivity and the ability for organizations to be competitive.
Tips – Failover strategies for businesses
There are, however, ways for business to protect themselves. Failover strategies enable network data to be rerouted on a secondary or back up network if the primary network link fails, enablingorganizations to continue to operate as usual.
Below are three recommended failover strategies from Jason Falovo, Vice President and General Manager, Canada at Ericsson EWS, to enable businesses to stay connected.
Add link/connection diversity: In many cases, an organization’s internet connection relies upon a single wire running to their chosen internet service provider (ISP), which could not only be affected by a provider’s outage, but also by weather or other forces of nature. While adding a second Wide Area Network (WAN) connection can be a simple and fast way to reduce the risk of losing connectivity, that second wire is just as susceptible to risks as the first. Instead, consider adding a satellite or cellular wireless link which offers not only backup, but also diversity to the network. If the wired connection goes down, rapid failover can seamlessly switch to the second connection, minimizing network and service disruption. Another option is to add a wireless connection to an existing router using a 5G or LTE adapter, then relying on its SD-WAN and failover functionality.
Ensure dual-carrier connectivity: It’s no longer practical to rely on just one telecom carrier or internet provider. Relying on a single service provider is another risk point for branch continuity. Network congestion, routing and DNS issues, and core network outages are just some of the potential incidents that can disrupt business operations.
You can reduce the risk of carrier disruptions by using two links with two different wireless carriers. The separate infrastructure adds network diversity, making it highly unlikely that both would be unavailable at the same time. You can set the two connections as a primary and a backup, or use both connections in tandem to increase bandwidth. Wireless WANs also bring greater agility and make easier to open new locations or move existing ones, which can be especially useful for short-term or temporary locations. The simplest way to employ two wireless carriers is to use a 5G or LTE router that supports two modems, providing advanced network awareness and routing capabilities. With routers that have this capability, deployment is easy as adding a second modem and SIM card to the device. A dual modem router has two active radio connections, allowing SIM cards from different carriers to be active at the same time without the downtime of switching between the two.
Add hardware redundancy: Routers can go offline for many reasons, and can often require a site visit to fix, leaving the location isolated until tech support arrives. Redundant or mirrored routers are an effective protection against router downtime. These routers monitor each other, with the backup automatically taking over if the primary router or WAN connection fails, switching back when the primary is restored.
With a primary and backup router IT can safely stage updates, configuration changes, and other periodic maintenance without risking business-critical communications.
Adding different WAN connections or carriers to each router provides additional protection from common business continuity risks. If the backup router has a lower bandwidth connection, traffic policies ensure that essential traffic is prioritized.
In today’s business environment, where organizations and their employees rely heavily on applications housed in the cloud or data centre, down time is not an option. A network failover strategy is critical to ensuring the redundancy needed to keep your business running, even when networks go down.
SafeBreach Analysis: Russian APTs and LummaC2
Posted in Commentary with tags SafeBreach on May 23, 2025 by itnerdThe U.S. government recently issued two critical cybersecurity alerts: AA25-141A and AA25-141B. These alerts highlighted a surge in sophisticated threat activity, from Russian state-sponsored campaigns to the rise of LummaC2 malware. SafeBreach recently published in-depth breakdowns of both alerts, offering insights into the attack chains and how enterprises can validate their defenses against them.
Links to the related blog posts can be found here:
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