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MI5 DIRECTOR GENERAL WARNS OF TERRORIST THREAT

 

"THE INTERNATIONAL TERRORIST THREAT TO THE UK"

200 cells, 1600 people, 30 plots. Are you doing enough to prepare?

Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, the Director General of the Security Service, gave a speech at Queen Mary College, London on 9 November 2006 in which she warned of the continuing threat of terrorism and described how the Security Service and others were combating it.

She was addressing an invited audience of academics, students and journalists as a guest of Professor Peter Hennessy, Attlee Professor of Contemporary British History on behalf of the Mile End Group. The Group is an arm of the Mile End Institute for the Study of British Government, Intelligence and Society.

Updated NHS Pandemic Flu guidelines

Category Business Continuity Management Briefing BCM - News BCM Pandemic Effects


Better organisation planning and communication needed for employees and Business


The NHS has issued updated guidelines concerning the approach and impact of an Avian Flu Pandemic. World Health Organisation and NHS officials have reviewed the current guidance and produced a simplified guide to the issues and the potential effects.

Bird Flu concerns raised over drug resistance

 

Feeling the Strain


 
A small girl enters the single room of her grandparents'cramped house in a suburb of the Indonesian city of Tangerang and runs behind a motorbike to hide. A scrawny seven-year-old in a pink dress, Mutiara has lost her appetite and proved irritable, fearful and difficult since she fell ill a year ago. But at least she is alive. I sit on a mat on the floor with her youthful mother, Chusuaeni, sipping sweet, milky coffee while a ceiling fan takes futile chops at the humid air. 
 

The rehearsal before the nightmare

Centre for Emergency Preparedness and Response of the Health Protection Agency (HPA) The value of Simulation Exercises 

From a bland, open-plan office in the Wiltshire countryside, distinguished only by a large plasma television screen and a "bat phone" prominently displayed on a table, officials gather regularly to handle the most horrific disasters. This week, their eyes were on the European early warning and response system displayed on the screen, while their ears listened out for the phone, which is linked to a protected government communications network.

Avian Flu, BCM and the risks of a Pandemic part 3

Category Business Continuity Management Briefing BCM - BCM & Risk Management

 

Pandemic Influenza, Avian Influenza and Business Continuity Planning ... cont'd -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Continued from previous page ...

Table 4 below give basic advice on self care both for the patient and the carer.

Table 4: Basic self care advice

What should I do when I or someone in my family gets sick with the flu?
Know how to care for an adult or child who becomes sick with the flu
Stay at home when you are sick
Use separate personal items, such as towels and utensils, if you or family members are ill
Stay in touch with the local and national media as the Department of Health and others will be issuing regular bulletins and advice.

Advice to travellers

The World Health Organization (WHO) does not at present recommend any restrictions on travel to any country currently experiencing outbreaks of avian influenza in poultry flocks, including countries which have also reported cases in humans.

Table 5 below gives general advice to travellers, in particular about contact with poultry.

Table 5: Travel advice and contact with poultry

If you are visiting countries with reported outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza among poultry, you should observe the following measures:
do not visit bird or poultry farms or markets
avoid close contact with live or dead poultry
do not eat raw or poorly-cooked poultry or poultry products, including blood
wash your hands frequently with soap and water
do not attempt to bring any live birds or poultry products back to the UK.

Antiviral drugs

The UK Government is to procure 14.6 million treatment courses of the antiviral, Oseltamivir (Tamiflu) this is enough to treat a quarter of the UK population.

The plan is to use these drugs for treatment purposes only. Thus the logistics to put in place are to ensure anyone who is infected can be given a treatment supply as soon as possible and no later than 48 hours after symptom onset.

Vaccines

The UK's National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC) is one of several organisations worldwide participating in the development of a vaccine to combat the H5N1 strain of the influenza virus.

Whether these will be suitable for use against a new pandemic flu strain depends on how much the pandemic strain may have mutated and changed from the original H5N1 virus strain used to create the vaccine.

If the virus should substantially change, it is unlikely that existing vaccines would be effective, and a new one would have to be developed. Whilst the existence of an H5N1 vaccine could speed up the production of an effective vaccine, work on creating a vaccine could only begin once the new strain has been identified.

The DoH has plans in place to purchase, in advance, the capacity needed to make pandemic flu vaccine. This should ensure that an effective vaccine is available for use in the UK as quickly as possible after a flu pandemic starts. The UK will need approximately 120 million doses to be available as soon as possible.

How to keep up-to-date

The following links are to websites (and website sections) that provide useful and regularly updated information.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)

European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC)

Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO)

World Health Organisation (WHO)

National Travel Health Network

References and Acknowledgements:

UK Department of Health: UK Influenza Pandemic Contingency Plan

UK Health Protection Agency (HPA)

UK Government Cabinet office Guidelines: Contingency Planning for a Possible Influenza Pandemic

USA: Centres for Disease Control CDC)

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For more details on these activities and the general activities of the Continuity Forum please contact us directly on +44 208 993 1599 or visit or website at www.continuityforum.org. Please do contact Sara Mckenna/ or Russell Price /. END


Many workers fear losing jobs if flu pandemic strikes

 

Better organisation planning and communication needed for employees and Business

Nearly 1 in four of working Americans say they probably would lose their job or business if forced to stay home for seven to 10 days during a severe flu pandemic, according to a study by the Harvard School of Public Health. 

The study found that most U.S. citizens would cooperate during the early stages of a pandemic or health emergency. However, after a week to 10 days, financial needs and worries about losing their jobs or businesses would force nearly 25 percent of the survey respondents back to work. More than one-third (35 percent) of the respondents reported that they would still go to work if public health officials told them to stay home but their employers wanted them to report to work. 

Better safe than sorry ... CIO's take the blame?

Briefing BCM - News BCM

CIOs need a well-oiled business continuity plan


The board of directors at Handleman never really considered business continuity to be a priority, until the Warrington-based music distributor was hit by an unexpected flood, which took out a number of servers and rendered its offices temporarily inaccessible.

Mark Bowell, IT support manager at Handleman, admits the firm had historically overlooked business continuity because it was hard to justify serious investment for something that might never be needed. "The problem is that vendors tend to come up with really unrealistic figures and there's a lot of scare-mongering" he says.  "We had a business continuity plan, but it wasn't nearly broad enough."

  When a business continuity plan fails, chances are the blame will land squarely on the IT director's desk, says Simon Mingay, research vice president at analyst Gartner. Mingay argues that chief information officers (CIOs) are increasingly being charged with responsibility for business continuity. but risk failure because they treat the issue as an IT problem. In fact, IT leaders are being given responsibility for business continuity because their skills and experience make them the best person for the job, not because it is a problem that can be solved with technology, says Mingay. "Your average CIO has good project management skills, great risk management and he understands the core business processes at the heart of the organisation" he says. "Who better to take on responsibility for business continuity?"

Mingay says one quick and effective way to make clear the division between IT and business continuity is for the CIO to appoint someone to the business continuity team who is responsible for representing IT.  "Whatever you do, don't go along with your IT T-shirt on, talking about data centres and remote backup that's not what business continuity is about," he says.

Responsibility for business continuity planning at brokerage organisation Close Premium Finance falls to a committee, which is made up of representatives from IT and operations, together with all the main business functions. "It is vital because business continuity plans also cover things such as premises, business assets, employees, training and supplier relationships" says Jonathan Cattle, head of IT and planning with the firm. So, how does the CIO ensure the business continuity plan will get the business and not just its servers back online when disaster strikes?

The most important thing is to do the groundwork before creating a formal plan, says Martin Byrne, who leads Accentures' European business continuity practice. This means a thorough business impact analysis and risk assessment looking at what happens to an organisation if a particular business process cannot be completed for various periods of time. For example, the first job of the business continuity committee at Close Premium Finance was to identify which of the thousands of activities carried out by the firm are most critical. In the event of a disaster, some activities must be restored as quickly as possible, such as customer service and payroll, while other, less critical activities, such as the staff canteen, could be restored over a period of days or weeks.

"We have plans drawn up showing us how to restore the most important activities within an hour, then others within four, 12, 24 or 72 hours" says Cattle. "It is a process that has been refined through experience, as the companys' buildings have been seriously damaged twice by IRA bombs in London. As a CIO/business continuity manager, you will need to speak to business leaders across the company to get this information, although assess the responses in the context of the wider business strategy. "

Realistically, everyone is going to tell you their service is vital, their systems must be up and running in 10 minutes or the business will fail, but not everyone is telling the truth" says Mingay. Only when the impact analysis has been conducted should you begin the next stage, a risk analysis. This means identifying all plausible risks to your business, and the cost to the business of those risks. Once you have identified the risks, consider if it is cost-effective to eliminate or mitigate a risk, rather than planning to recover from a problem later. For example, if you have only one person who can run the payroll system each month, you may want to invest in additional training in case they are taken ill or leave the company.

"For a CIO, getting board backing for investment in business continuity is likely to be the biggest challenge" says Crispin O'Connell, chief ICT officer at Cardiff County Council. "Because you're hopefully never going to use this stuff, there's a view that we're throwing money away by investing in business continuity" says O'Connell.  It's perhaps the biggest grudge spend in any organisation."

"At this stage, you will be left with some risks that cannot be eliminated or reduced. These are the risks a business continuity plan must address. Once you have created a business continuity plan, it is essential to test it thoroughly" says Accenture's Byrne. "Too many firms have an artificial sense of safety because they have a lovely plan on the shelf" he says. "But unless you test the plan, how do you know if your staff will be able to get to the new premises, if the backup tapes work, or if the remote access software works with your new payroll system?"

FORUM STAT - 70% of untested plans fail!

And just because a plan works once does not mean it will work for the rest of time. "Loads of businesses are still coasting along with the business continuity plans they drew up for year 2000," says Mingay.  "The problem is that the world for your partners, customers, employees and the government has moved on since then. There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to continued testing of a business continuity plan it depends on how dynamic your organisation is, and the importance the board places in recovering from a disaster."

He added "In the financial services and retail sectors, companies tend to test business continuity plans at least once a quarter. But in a smaller or less complex company, once a year may suffice. A full-scale test of business continuity plans can be expensive and complex, particularly if it involves partners, suppliers and regulators. But it is possible to conduct smaller tests more frequently. A desk test, where you get the team together and challenge the test by thinking up different scenarios, is quite straightforward" says Byrne.


 For more details on our events, workshops and industry development work, as well as the general activities of the Continuity Forum please contact us directly on +44 208 993 1599 or mail us HERE!

Would businesses be prepared for a second 7/7?

Have the lessons of 7/7 been learnt?


The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require employers to develop procedures to deal appropriately with serious and imminent danger, and to nominate sufficient numbers of competent persons to activate those procedures. Employers should consider all potential dangers, e.g. fire, public disorder etc.

This should therefore include terrorism, bomb threats and electronic attack, such as computer viruses. All emergency procedures have to be written down and effectively communicated to all personnel on the premises. The person who has been designated as the competent person responsible for procedures should be clearly identified and his or her role, responsibilities and authority detailed.

LATEST RESEARCH - 2006 Business Continuity Management Survey

Category Business Continuity Management BCM - RESEARCH - BCM Continuity Forums


Complacency puts UK organisations at risk as emergency planning takes backstage role

We are pleased to announce the findings of the longest running research series in the Industry. Now in its 7th year, this study shows that despite the raised profile of BCM and emergency planning there is still a huge amount to do.

This years' study, undertaken with the Cabinet Office, is the largest yet and shows that organisations are still not planning effectively. Many UK organisations are failing to prepare for disruption, despite evidence outlining the business benefits of disaster planning, says the survey published today by the Chartered Management Institute and supported by the Cabinet Office and Continuity Forum.

Flu pandemic exercise takes shape

 

Winter Willow to test Pandemic preparedness 


A "real time" simulation exercise is being drawn up by the government that will pull in all parts of the public sector to test the country's readiness for a flu pandemic. Exercise "Winter Willow" will take place over at least three weeks from late January and involve officials from cabinet level down to individual health trusts, the police and education authorities across the UK.

There is growing concern over the likely emergence of a lethal new flu strain and this exercise is the most ambitious yet in a series of simulations run in recent months as the UK and other countries begin preparing for the risk of a pandemic triggered by the current H5N1 bird flu strain, which has to date infected 252 people worldwide and killed 148.

Government guide-lines warn that companies and other employers should plan for absenteeism at the peak of the pandemic averaging 15 per cent of their staff, rising to twice that number for small crews of workers. Policymakers hope to minimise the economic disruption of the pandemic and have dismissed calls to make preparations to close borders and stop transport. They are likely to recommend school closures to help reduce infection, however. Whereas previous simulations have typically lasted only one or two days and involved a small number of high-level officials or emergency staff in a single region, Winter Willow is designed to test how the entire public sector would react throughout the duration of a pandemic "wave".

Strategic corporate sectors, such as energy and banking, will also participate and the scenarios tested in the exercise will then be made available to othercompanies so they can run them to test their own preparedness. Speaking at a business seminar in Paris yesterday, David Nabarro, the United Nations' influenza co-ordinator, said that companies internationally had made important strides to prepare for a pandemic in recent months. He stressed though that they now needed to launch joint simulation exercises with the public sector, voluntary organisations and the media. He said: "In my experience, the corporate sector has recognised that this is a serious risk and is therefore investing time, energy and some funding in preparing for business continuity, in preparing for a pandemic, and in considering how it can contribute to collective security in the event a pandemic occurs."

Winter Willow will test draft changes to the department of health's current pandemic preparation plan and should lead to a revised version being issued next spring.

The Continuity Forum team is available to assist companies deliver or support BCM events and workshops. For more details on these activities and the general activities of the Continuity Forum please contact us directly 

For more details on our events, workshops and industry development work, as well as the general activities of the Continuity Forum please contact us directly on +44 208 993 1599 or mail us HERE! 

 


BC Basics a huge hit!

 

New Continuity Forum events get a great response


Over the summer we have successfully lauched a new series of workshop events designed to help develop effective in a practical and accessible way.

The BC Basics workshops are the result of a lot of discussion with organisations in both the public and private sector were we have listened to the problems they have in developing BCM process and designed special workshop sessions to overcome the them.

With participants from all walks of life, covering Local and Central Government, Health, Emergency Services, Management Consultancy, Finance & Insurance, Transportation and Media, the spread of issues and the knowledge shared was extremely good proactive and we'd even go sofar as to say fun!

Avian Flu raises business failure concerns

 

AVIAN FLU PANDEMIC WOULD LEAVE ONE IN FIVE FIRMS UNABLE TO PAY THEIR BILLS


More than a fifth of firms do not have sufficient working capital in place to enable them to survive an outbreak of avian 'flu lasting 12 weeks - the typical length of time which a pandemic lasts.

Some 23 per cent of directors admitted that their business would not be able to survive for three-months if their customer base were disrupted by a pandemic. 60 per cent said that they would and 17 per cent were unsure.

These results come from the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry's London Business Panel survey, consisting of 287 directors whose companies do business in or around the capital.

A third of senior Directors steal data from companies

 

Data theft rife


A Hummingbird/YouGov survey of 1,385 UK employees shows that theft of company information is a widespread problem, with 29% of directors admitting to stealing confidential information when they left for a new job.

Company training manuals are the most popular item in the executive swag bag, followed by procedure manuals, financial information and client reports.

Seizures of radioactive materials fuel 'dirty bomb' fears

 

IAEA show 300 siezures in 3 years


SEIZURES of smuggled radioactive material capable of making a terrorist "dirty bomb" have doubled in the past four years, according to official figures seen by The Times.

Smugglers have been caught trying to traffick dangerous radioactive material more than 300 times since 2002, statistics from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) show.

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