Wal-Mart takes the reins in emergency planning

With Florida in the path of the season's first tropical storm, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. ramped up its emergency operations center yesterday for the kind of disaster relief effort that won it praise for responding faster than the government last year after Hurricane Katrina.

Wal-Mart's emergency management director, Jason Jackson, said that last year's successes raised expectations from the private sector in times of disaster. Because of that, he said, the world's largest retailer would coordinate more closely with government agencies, the American Red Cross, and even business rivals.

Three quarters of Financial Instiutions breached

The world's largest financial institutions reported an increase in the number of security attacks over the past year with more than three-quarters of respondents (78 per cent, up from 26 per cent in 2005) confirming a security breach from outside the organisation and almost half (49 per cent, up from 35 per cent in 2005) experiencing at least one internal breach.

These findings are revealed in the 2006 Global Security Survey released by business advisory firm Deloitte. The fourth annual survey consisted of interviews with senior security officers from the world's top 100 global financial institutions and acts as a global benchmark for the state of IT security in the financial sector.

Business Continuity Management BCM - SME - BCM Planning

Are you risking it all for the sake of not backing up?

Results from recent research carried out by Dell and the Federation of Small Businesses show that small businesses are failing to realise the importance of having a robust disaster recovery plan.

With three-quarters of small businesses that took part in the survey choosing to store sensitive company data on PCs as opposed to servers or storage devices, it is alarming to think that 69 per cent of these businesses also believe they are well equipped to recover from disaster, such as loss or theft of data or virus attacks.

Your chance to review and comment on BS25999

The draft stand for the new British Standard BS 25999 titled "Guide of Practice for Business Continuity Management" will commence the public comment stage during early July.

The Standard has been developed from the work of the technical committee formed in August of 2005 and this public consultation on the draft standard marks one of the final steps ahead of the final publication of BS25999 (Part 1).

The public comment stage will last 60 days and once closed all submissions will be reviewed by the committee. There will be a standard form for all submissions on the draft standard which will shortly be available from the BSI. With the degree of interest likely in the draft, and the time required to review all comments the BSI now hopes to publish BS25999-1 in the late Autumn.

Work on Part 2, which importantly establishes the control framework for the standard, will start in July 2006 and the committee expects to publish this in early 2007.

The Continuity Forum will continue working with the BSI committee throughout this period and we'll be running a number of supporting events aimed at helping organizations to understand and manage their transition to the new standard. For more information on this topic please contact us directly.

Bird flu. Peak oil. Terrorism. Hurricanes... and BCM of course

The past few years have been dominated by these and a thousand other apocalyptic headlines. And businesses, from the smallest SME to the largest multinational, are taking notice. After all, there is something about the feeling of impending catastrophe that tends to concentrate the mind.

With questions of business continuity shooting up the agenda, the disaster planners are in high demand.

Category Business Continuity Management BCM - Research - Support

Stark differences in international approach

A survey has revealed stark differences in the things that most concern heads of IT as they formulate effective business continuity strategies. Whereas just 1% of American businesses documented terrorism as a source of IT downtime, SteelEye's 2006 Business Continuity Index shows that European response is much more tuned to a terrorist attack, with 12% of businesses attributing downtime to terrorism.

Risk Management and BCM imperative in new world of risk

The world is a dangerous place, and becoming more so. Executives face a myriad perils, any of which could close their businesses and cause immense pain to investors and staff alike.

To make life even more difficult, the cost of achieving peace of mind through insurance is increasing. This makes understanding and managing risk very important.

Category Business Continuity Management BCM - Security - BCM Planning

Breaches caused by complacency rising 

The fourth annual Computer Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) study reveals that reliance on technology alone will not stamp out computer crime. In fact people are the biggest security threat causing nearly 3 in 5 of incidents and the situation has significantly worsened from last year, when people were responsible for 47% of breaches.  

Recommendations put forward following an independent review of the UK's avian quarantine system were today largely accepted.

An independent review of the UK's avian quarantine system by a team chaired by Nigel Dimmock, emeritus professor of virology at Warwick University last October, put forward 32 recommendations of which 29 have been accepted or accepted in principle. Two require further consideration and one has been rejected (see point 4 in “Notes to Editors for further details).

Ben Bradshaw, minister for animal health and welfare, said: “Professor Dimmock's report was thorough and wide-ranging. It provided us with a challenge, we have now reviewed our procedures and we have presented a response which we think is workable and proportionate.  “I'm sure tightening the system where it is required will reassure the public that our quarantine system would be able to work effectively if imports resume.

Professor Dimmock's review considered, among other aspects, the authorisation of premises for holding birds in quarantine and transit, procedures on importation of birds, the operation of quarantine premises including biosecurity measures and relevant domestic and European legislation.

Based on Professor Dimmock's recommendations, Defra will now:-

-Set up closer veterinary supervision and audit of quarantine by the State Veterinary Service (SVS)

- Create a central SVS IT system of key data linked to quarantine

- Revise guidance for the structure and equipment of quarantine facilities

- Introduce management plans for quarantine operators - Write a bird welfare code for importers and quarantine operators

- Enhance laboratory testing of quarantined birds

The government response is available from the Defra website.

If you would like to know more about how your organisation can get involved and benefit from working with the Continuity Forum, please email us HERE! or call on + 44 (0) 208 993 1599.

Thousands of MasterCard and Visa cardholders affected... 

A UK-based online retailer has been identified as the source of a security breach that has resulted in thousands of MasterCard and Visa holders having their credit cards cancelled this week. 

At least 4,000 UK MasterCard holders are believed to have now been affected by the breach which occurred after hackers gained access to credit card details via the as-yet-unnamed e-tailer. 

"Insiders pose greatest risk" says Soca e-crime fighter...

Employees are still one of the greatest threats to corporate security as new-aged mafia gangs infiltrate companies, the UK's crime-fighting agency has said.

Tony Neate, e-crime liaison for the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), said insider 'plants' are causing significant damage to companies. He said: "We have fraud and ID theft but one of the big threats still comes from the trusted insiders. That is people inside the company who are attacking the systems. "[Organised crime] has changed. You still have traditional organised crime but now they have learned to compromise employees and contractors. [They are] new-aged, maybe have computer degrees and are enterprising themselves. They have a wide circle of associates and new structures."

Business Continuity Management BCM - PR and BCM - Support - Advice

The importance of PR

In the final run in of the premier league there was a crucial crunch game, two London clubs were playing and the result would decide final placings worth millions and vitally a place in European football next season. Definitely a big story for the sports pages, but that wasn't were it ended up. 

Instead, it hit the front page of most of the tabloids and was featured on virtually all broadcast media because 10 of the players of one team fell ill with  “food poisoning " whilst staying a luxury hotel. Skulduggery was claimed, the police called and the media camped outside of the hotel in question.

These Events are now closed. For more on our ongoing Public Sector Events programme please contact us directly or follow the links on the main page.

BUSINESS CONTINUITY MANAGEMENT FOR THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY

FIVE 1-DAY INTERACTIVE WORKSHOPS

The Continuity Forum are pleased to announce that in association with the Better Governance Forum of CIFPA there will be five regional workshop sessions covering BCM for Public Authorities.

Schedule

PROGRAMME

10.00 – 10.30 Registration and Refreshments

10.30 – 10.45 INTRODUCTIONS + WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES

Alan Goldsmith, Civil Resilience Associate, Better Governance Forum
John Sharp, Policy and Development Director, Continuity Forum

10.45 – 11.45 BUSINESS CONTINUITY IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

* Requirements of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004
* The business continuity management cycle
* Steps necessary to achieve an acceptable business continuity process

11.45- 12.30 OVERCOMING THE BARRIERS

* Implementing business continuity in your authority
* Group discussions about the barriers you may face
* Facilitated feedback session

12.30 – 13.15 LUNCH

13.15– 14.15 BUSINESS CONTINUITY - A CASE STUDY

* A presentation by someone who has gone through the process in a public authority
* The presenter will be local to the area

14.15 – 14.45 BUSINESS CONTINUITY PROMOTION

* Requirements of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004
* Timescales
* Guidance on methodology and mechanisms

14.45 – 15.15 OPEN FORUM, SUMMARY AND CLOSE

Please note that this workshop qualifies for 3.5 CPD hours, for CIPFA accreditation and under Law Society number BDZ/CIPF and ILEX accreditation number 400255

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EVENT CLOSED

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If you would like to know more about how your organisation can get involved and benefit from working with the Continuity Forum, please email us HERE! or call on + 44 (0) 208 993 1599.

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Category Business Continuity Articles - Crisis Management and BCM Tall Stories from Peter Power The perils of Celebration

In this rather seasonal installment of Peter Powers' Tall Stories he turns his eye to Christmas and the perils of Retail Therapy. We should be so lucky, ... lucky,lucky, lucky (sorry Kylie) It is the season of goodwill and already shop assistants are queuing up to ring the Samaritans. Just think for a minute what they have to endure. Non stop Noddy Holder telling the world "it's Chhhhhristmas…". (Ed Note: For those blessed with ignorance, Noddy is the lead singer of the Band, Slade, unfortunately for us.) Unlike us they have no chance to run out of the store when they reach saturation point. On an average day these staunch soldiers of high street retailing will have to listen to the same track at least 160 times. So when you next confront a pale, dribbling, incoherent shop assistant enduring a perpetual near death experience, remember to give generously. They need our help at Christmas. Which reminds me of a story the other day about some people who certainly did not appreciate the help they were getting. In central Serbia it is the custom at most outdoor weddings to fire guns into the air when the bride and groom emerge as man and wife. I am grateful to the BBC for publishing this true account - when all did not go according to plan: "Guests at a wedding in central Serbia have apparently shot down a small aircraft by mistake. They were celebrating in the traditional way - firing off shot after shot into the air above the wedding party. Unfortunately, there was a two-seater aircraft flying overhead. One eye-witness told reporters the plane was shot in the left wing. He saw flames coming from the aircraft which a few moments later flew into overhead power-cables. Two men on board are reported to have been seriously injured. Firing weapons is a common way of celebrating here. The Serbian Government has run public health campaigns warning of the obvious dangers." This takes Business Continuity into new areas perhaps? Having to arrange contingency arrangements alongside the best man, bridesmaids and ushers just in case the odd aircraft is brought down by gunfire from excited guests? However, such bizarre stories do not end there. I have also been passed an even more curious (and I think suspicious…) story about an incident in the US quoted by CNN just a few days ago: "Johnson City, Tennessee. A bullet fired in the air during a Ku Klux Klan initiation ceremony came down and struck a participant in the head, critically injuring him, authorities said. Gregory Allen Freeman, 45, was charged with aggravated assault and reckless endangerment in the Saturday night incident that wounded Jeffery S. Murr, 24. About 10 people, including two children, had gathered for the ceremony. The man who was being initiated was blindfolded, tied with a noose to a tree and shot with paintball guns as Freeman fired a pistol in the air to provide the sound of real gunfire, Sheriff Fred Phillips said. A bullet struck Murr on the top of the head and exited at the bottom of his skull, authorities said. Freeman fled the ceremony…" Tied to a tree, blindfolded and shot at with paintball guns and then getting a bullet to drop on your head from probably a mile above you? I really would like to know (a) how can anyone tie a rope or shoot anything when looking through a couple of small eye holes cut through a white sheet and (b) apart from this, did Mr Murr otherwise enjoy his initiation? As for me, I think I'll stick to Morris Dancing which as most of us know, is the traditional weekend pastime for all BC managers in the UK (Ed note: OH NO it isn't!), especially at the end of a frustrating week. Perhaps shop assistants can also join in from now on as nothing relives stress like bashing each other with small sticks, waving hankerchives in the air, attaching tiny bells to your knees, tucking your socks into your trousers and doing all this whilst spinning around in front of the nearest pub door . Something no doubt intended to bewilder anyone intending to migrate to this country and certainly confuse and amuse our much cousins in the US. (Ed note: this is only normal the way OUT of the establishment Peter) The US has been in the news in the last few days for other reasons, not least when President Bush dropped in on his soldiers in Iraq for that altogether more sensible occasion of Thanksgiving. Now this does sound the perfect antidote to Christmas for it delays the onset of Christmas shopping / Noddy Holder / retail suicide rates for a brief period. Even turkeys vote for it as nobody in the US can stand eating them all over again at Christmas. But did you see that picture of the President holding a giant bird for his troops to eat? The homely photo of a smiling Mr Bush apparently proffering a platter with a huge succulent Turkey was intended to be a key image of his presidency. However, now we know a slightly different story. The Turkey was in fact a model / fake that 'just happened' to be on hand for a photo opportunity, presumably arranged by his spin doctors, but someone somewhere must have said something out of turn and now the true story has been told. All this reminds me of one more story about a small child sitting at his father's knee saying his prayers was lately heard to say "…and forgive us our Christmasses as we forgive them that Christmas against us….." Happy Christmas everyone!

Peter is MD of Visor Consultants Limited. He is well known as an authoritative and entertaining presenter, especially on the subject of Crisis Management where he has gained a lot of personal experience, often at the front end of events. Peter wrote the current issued guidebooks on BC and/or Crisis Management, for the DTI, British Institute of Facilities Management and the British Bankers Association. He occasionally speaks on TV and radio and is a founder member of the UK judging panel for BC Awards, a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, Fellow of the Business Continuity Institute, Member of the Institute of Risk Management and a member of the Guild of Freemen of the City of London If you have any Tall Stories that you would like to feature on the Forum Website, please email Russell.price@continuityforum.org or call us on 00 44 (0) 208 993 1599.