Some wanted to take a look. Some feared for their lives. Some simply went into action. “It was one of the largest industrial accidents I’ve seen, and there were very few injuries and no fatalities,” Gary Christmann, the city’s chief of emergency management, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “There was a lot of planning and… Continue reading Fire and Fury

As many companies saw during the blackouts, hurricanes and terrorist attacks, the hot site was not the disaster recovery life insurance policy that was promised. The methodology works fine for a contained event that does not affect a large geographic area. However, when there is a wide spread event, such as 9/11, then the hot… Continue reading FICON and Mainframe Disaster Recovery Insourcing

New Castle Hotels owns and operates hotel and resort properties including Marriotts, Hiltons, Sheratons, Holiday Inns, and independent hotels in the United States and Canada. Its customer service depends on keeping track of innumerable details, from the needs and preferences of individual guests to the elaborate plans required for weddings and corporate events. New Castle’s… Continue reading Even SMBs, Remote Offices Can Survive

Most corporate security measures today address the potential for outside intrusion, and according to the Computer Security Institute and FBI joint 2004 Computer Security Survey, corporate losses due to breaches from within the perimeter are increasing at a much greater rate than those from outside the perimeter. This is a reflection of the increased security… Continue reading Data Forensics in Risk Management and Incident Response

CERT I recently completed a three week Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training course. While going through the training program, I had the opportunity to consider many potential community disaster scenarios and incident events. This experience made me acutely aware of the need to utilize my business continuity planning skills to assess my personal disaster… Continue reading CERT: Protecting the Home Front

What is Bioterrorism? Bioterrorism is the intentional use of harmful biological agents to cause widespread illness, fear, panic, or death. The agents of most concern are anthrax, plague, smallpox, tularemia, ebola, and botulism – all hard to detect and potentially life-threatening. Background Although weapons of mass destruction and bioterrorism were presented at conferences and talked… Continue reading Bioterrorism: What is it? What Can Be Done to Prepare?

It’s not simply a matter of finding alternative space. An office must be provisioned with desks, PCs, printers, copiers, phones, network connectivity, and other infrastructure accoutrements, giving users a place and a means to access the data that you’ve so carefully backed up. Many organizations cannot afford the business interruption required to put all these… Continue reading Beyond Data Backup:Contingency Workspace

There are many experienced professionals who have no degrees at all, but provide highly qualified service to their organizations. What are the opportunities available through advanced study leading to a college certificate or degree? Many BCP practitioners have validated their skills through the certification program at DRI International. The certificates offered by DRII are recognized… Continue reading BCP, Emergency Management Education

These mandatory impositions are particularly onerous for the midsized business – the company with perhaps as few as 300 employees and certainly no more than 1,000. These are usually businesses on the up and up. Rapid growth and success often means that their administrative and management practices lag behind their expansion curve. In other words,… Continue reading Avoiding Big Risks for Mid-Sized Businesses

For those who heed the advice to “be prepared,” communications can be the first thing you get back online, even while the local utility companies try to figure where to start the restoration effort. The key to getting your operation back to business as usual, amidst the chaos, is planning ahead with a self-contained back-up… Continue reading All Circuits Are Busy Now