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Getting Ready for the Unthinkable: Pandemic & Infectious Disease Pandemic Planning

Regina Phelps |
January 21, 2020

UPDATED: Jan. 21, 2020 What is the condition of your pandemic plan these days? Given the current outbreak of the new novel coronavirus that is spreading in Asia, it might be a good time to brush it off! Chinese authorities first identified the new coronavirus – known as 2019nCoV – which has resulted in close…

business continuity

Business Continuity Integration with Supply Chain Management: The Why and How

Betty A. Kildow |
November 14, 2019

I was initially taken aback upon reviewing the results of a recent career survey conducted by a disaster recovery certification organization about “the changing role of the resilience professional.” According to the white paper, supply chain management came in last, behind information technology, information security, compliance, facilities management, physical security, audit, and legal. The question asked…

risk management

Ransomware: Will You Be A Victim or Survivor?

Mike Trpkosh |
November 14, 2019

Are you prepared for a ransomware attack? Rarely a day goes by that I’m not asked about ransomware or end up in a conversation about ransomware. Questions range from “What is ransomware?” to “How can ransomware be avoided?” and everything in between. Depending on which study or report you read, ransomware has maintained the first…

disaster recovery

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Strategy in the Age of IoT

James Zhang |
November 14, 2019

As a technology professional, I like to tinker in home automation and smart devices. I have two WiFi networks at home, Cat6 cables to every room, multiple gigabit switches, and routers, all connected to an Internet service provider (ISP) gigabit fiber network. When my ISP had an unexpected network outage for two days, I was…

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business continuity

Disaster Recovery Lessons Learned: The Seventh Anniversary of Hurricane Sandy

Matthew Hilsenrad | November 19, 2019

During Hurricane Sandy in 2012 the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ were closed for two days and the super storm ended up costing New York State a staggering $32 billion, New York City $19 billion and the U.S. economy an estimated $65 billion. Seven years later, it’s fair to ask what has Hurricane Sandy taught us? Preparing…

business continuity

2020 Vision: Refocusing Your Program for the New Year

TJ Heginbotham | November 14, 2019

It’s almost the end of 2019. I’ll pause to let that sink in if you haven’t looked at the calendar in a while. It’s hard to believe in the next few weeks it will be a sprint to finish our 2019 goals and objectives by the end of the year. Did you exercise more? Read…

crisis management

Leadership in Times of Crisis

Regina Phelps | November 14, 2019

Serious preparation is required to successfully manage in a crisis. Being prepared requires two things from each and every responder: Be in a constant state of readiness. Since you won’t know the precise nature of the crisis in advance (timing, location, or specifics required at the time), people who may be managing a crisis must…

risk management

The Small Venn Diagram Between Science Fiction and BC/DR Planners

Nick Johnson | November 14, 2019

Along with being a passionate business continuity planner, I am a voracious reader. I enjoy all kinds of literature, but my favorite genre is science fiction. I am fascinated by the discussion of people and technology which often forms the foundation of good sci-fi: how a particular technology or concept can radically change the way…

disaster recovery

Tips to Selecting the Right Hybrid DRaaS Solution

Jerome Wendt | November 14, 2019

Every organization would love to press an “easy” button that implements a disaster recovery (DR) solution for its IT environment. Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) can possibly achieve this objective by selecting an all-in-one disaster recovery-as-a-service (AIO DRaaS) solution. However, larger organizations that choose to automate DR in their environments will need a hybrid DRaaS…

business continuity

Using Residual Risk to Understand Program Effectiveness

Michael Herrera | November 14, 2019

The simplest way to determine if a program is executable is to measure the level of residual risk across its critical recovery plans. What is residual risk? Residual risk is the risk that remains after all efforts have been made to identify and eliminate risk (i.e., your mitigating controls). The concept of residual risk has…

risk management

Why Storms and Cyberattacks Might Not Be the Biggest Disasters Your Business Faces

John Beattie | November 14, 2019

Security breaches and ransomware. Wildfires, flooding, and hurricanes. This is what most organizations have in mind when they think about business disruption and plan for business resiliency. All of these events are costly, disruptive, and bring normal operations to a crawl. But business resilience goes far beyond cyberattacks and natural disasters. Power outages, personnel changes,…

disaster recovery

Three Quick Tips to a Successful Disaster Recovery Runbook

Jeff Ton | November 14, 2019

A myriad of scenarios can take a business down, risking damage to reputation, regulatory fines, and data loss. It’s key to have an IT disaster recovery plan, tied to security incident response and your organization’s wider plan for business continuity. But what exactly should a robust DR plan entail? At a minimum, every DR plan should…