Section: BS in Information Technology - 4A

Day: Thursday
Time: 5:00-8:00
BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN
Case #1
➢ In 2018, a ransomware attack hobbled the City of Atlanta. The disruption
to their computer systems impacted city services including police and court
records, parking, and utilities. Workers were forced to complete
paperwork by hand.

- In the end, the cyberattack cost the City of Atlanta $17 million — even
though the ransom was only $52,000.
Case #2
➢ The City of Atlanta was caught off guard, with out-of-date software and a
number of other IT vulnerabilities.
A story about a German telecom business, however, shows what happens
when a plan goes right. When workers discovered a fire inching closer to
one of their crucial facilities, they engaged their incident management
system to notify and mobilize employees and emergency responders.

- The German company’s fast reaction time — facilitated in part by a solid

business continuity plan — along with a redundant network design had the
facility back in service in just hours.
WHAT IS BUSINESS CONTINUITY?
• Business continuity is a company’s ability to maintain or quickly resume its
functions and practices during and after a disaster has occurred.
• This is done by having plans, scenarios and procedures in place that aim to
prevent these kinds of disruptions and unpredictable events.
• These events range from environmental disruptions, network outages, cyber-
attacks and… global pandemics.
• "the capability of an organization to continue the delivery of products or
services at pre-defined acceptable levels following a disruptive
incident”, and business continuity planning (or business continuity and
resiliency planning) is the process of creating systems of prevention and
recovery to deal with potential threats to a company.
WHAT IS BUSINESS CONTINUITY?
• In addition to prevention, the goal is to enable ongoing operations before and
during execution of disaster recovery.
• Business continuity is the intended outcome of proper execution of both business
continuity planning and disaster recovery.
• An organization's resistance to failure is "the ability ... to withstand changes in
its environment and still function". Often called resilience, it is a capability that
enables organizations to either endure environmental changes without having
to permanently adapt, or the organization is forced to adapt a new way of
working that better suits the new environmental conditions.
WHAT IS RESILIENCE?
• Resilience is what gives people the psychological strength to cope with stress
and hardship.1 It is the mental reservoir of strength that people are able to call
on in times of need to carry them through without falling apart.
• Resilience can help protect you from various mental health conditions, such as
depression and anxiety. Resilience can also help offset factors that increase the
risk of mental health conditions, such as being bullied or previous trauma.
• Psychologists believe that resilient individuals are better able to handle
adversity and rebuild their lives after a struggle. People who remain calm in
the face of disaster have what psychologists call resilience.
WHAT IS A BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN?
• A business continuity plan details processes and procedures that will help keep
operations up and running — or restore them as quickly as possible — in the
event of a major disaster, whether it be a physical disaster (e.g., extreme
weather event) or a technological one (e.g., cyberattack).
• A particular business continuity plan is just a document which will properly
outline the process with which the business will continue performing when there
is a disruption in the service of the company.
• A business continuity plan is not a disaster recovery plan. Disaster recovery
planning is part of a business continuity program, but the latter has a much
broader scope.
WHAT IS A BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN?
• Business continuity planning is the process of creating systems of prevention and
recovery to deal with threats or disasters. These are in place within a business
so the company stays up and running during a potential problem and
employees and clients are protected.
• For example, all the data backups, equipment, supplies, and other site locations
for the business will also be included in the particular business continuity plan.
There is also some contact information provided for the emergency responders
of the company.
WHY BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING IS IMPORTANT?
• When you do Business Continuity Planning, you safeguard your business from
different types of crisis, so successful channelization of your business does not
hamper.
• Different types of crisis from which BCP will safeguard your business-
▪ Sabotage
▪Power and energy disruptions
▪ Cyber Attacks
▪Communication failure
▪ Natural Disasters
▪Transportation issues
▪ Hazardous material spills
▪Service sector failure
▪ Sabotage
10 BENEFITS OF BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING
1. It has the potential to save lives.
• I’m not talking about the life of your company—it’s about the lives of your
employees. Fire drills, evacuation drills… if you can’t get people out of the
building, who cares how many recovery plans you have?
• Take the time to create a strong emergency and evacuation plan that prepares
people in advance; it will save lives when needed. Not only is this the most
important benefit of any BC plan (if you don’t have the people, you can’t
recover), it’s also a good way to show you care about the people you employ.
10 BENEFITS OF BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING
2. It builds confidence among your customers.
• Companies that are transparent about their ongoing business continuity efforts
are communicating something very powerful to their customers: We are putting
the right pieces and parts in place so we can be there for you—no matter what.
• The fact that you’re showing a high level of commitment to business continuity
builds confidence among customers, as well as other outside parties you do
business with.
10 BENEFITS OF BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING
3. It builds confidence among your employees.
• Internally, employees who are well-versed in the company’s continuity plans
gain confidence, too—they know what they need to do should a crisis arise.
• But an unexpected benefit of business continuity planning is that employees are
also more adept at handling daily, smaller disruptions.
• They automatically assess the levels of risk associated with new activities, and
are better able to maneuver business operations quickly and smoothly.
10 BENEFITS OF BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING
4. It ensures compliance with industry standards.
• If you’ve adopted a set of business continuity standards you can rest assured
that your business is compliant with industry mandates.
• Even if you don’t have regulations to adhere to, compliance with standards
provides proof to stakeholders that you’re running your business responsibly.
• It also gives you a blueprint that virtually guarantees the success of your
program, and makes it easier to execute.
10 BENEFITS OF BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING
5. It preserves your brand value and your reputation.
• Companies that aren’t prepared to handle disruptions risk appearing
incompetent to the public should an event arise, possibly stumbling over next
steps and mishandling communication.
• Your BC program is the engine behind a smooth recovery, and preserves your
carefully crafted brand value and the stellar reputation you’ve worked hard to
achieve.
10 BENEFITS OF BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING
6. It cultivates a resilient organizational culture.
• Several of the companies we work with have noticed an increased emphasis on
resilience and recovery related to everyday tasks as a result of strengthening
their business continuity programs.
• Employees are applying business continuity concepts automatically, whenever
they develop a new product or service; or they are quicker to adapt when a
process goes awry.
• The concept of continuity starts to apply in everything they do, particularly if
there’s strong management support for the program.
10 BENEFITS OF BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING
7. It provides valuable business data.
• Business continuity activities produce tons of data—critical business units, critical
tasks, recovery time objectives, financial impacts of a disruption, etc. It’s like
having an encyclopedia of valuable data about your company’s operations.
• Smart companies make use of that data in other ways, like the Arizona utility
company that uses its data for process improvement, and to plan strategic
activities that will help move the business forward. (Not to mention that said
company also has a top-notch continuity program and could recover from any
disruption in minutes.)
10 BENEFITS OF BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING
8. It helps mitigate your financial risk.
• Among the benefits of business continuity planning is the mitigation of not only
business risk, but also financial risk.
• By creating a more resilient network or putting the right backup processes and
procedures in place, you’re lessening the risk of a data breach, for example, or
a substantial power or data loss, or systems failures.
• The financial losses associated with such events—even minor ones—can be
avoided with a good BC program in place.
10 BENEFITS OF BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING
9. It protects your supply chain.
• If you’re familiar with the Business Impact Analysis, you know that it details the
critical operations that are necessary to recover.
• Armed with that information and the plans to accompany it, every critical link in
your supply chain will be protected in the event of a disruption, enabling you
to continue delivering goods or services as promised.
10 BENEFITS OF BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING
10. It gives you a competitive advantage.
• Even if you have a strong business continuity program, your competitors likely
do not.
• Use that to your advantage. In today’s world, it’s a differentiator to be able to
respond, recover, and resume business operations should a disruption occur,
making you more attractive to potential business partners and customers.
3 IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN
#1. High Availability
• One of the most important things that people need to do to create proper
business continuity plans is to make sure that they are providing properly for
the processes and the capability of the company.
• This is done to make sure that the business has some access to all the
applications whether or not there are some local failures. This is certainly a
very important thing to keep in mind for the creators of the plan.
• Some failures in the business process might take place. Also, there might be
some failures in the hardware as well as the software options, and the
companies need to be completely prepared for it.
3 IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN
#2. Continuous Operations
• This is another one of the most important things that people need to keep in
mind when they are creating the business continuity plan for the company. The
company must be able to run when there is a disruption in the company
services.
• So, people need to make sure that they are completely safeguarding the
capability of the company when there is a crisis. Apart from that, they also
need to make sure that they have some maintenance options and backups
planned in case there is a need for it.
3 IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN
#3. Disaster Recovery
• Here we are going to outline another one of the requirements of the business
continuity plans in the best way. To be honest, disasters are some things that the
company will not be able to avoid at any cost.
• There are so many different things that a company can do to make sure that
they have a proper disaster recovery plan set up. This is to ensure that the
company can recover properly in case there are any complications in the
services.
TOP THREATS TO BUSINESS CONTINUITY
#1. Global pandemics.
• Pandemics can throw a wrench in your business plans from all angles and
directions. With citizens forced to stay home and do as much work from there
as possible, to increased demand for certain items, and decreased supply due
to manufacturer shut-downs or disruptions across the supply chain.
• One of the most important plans to put in place if you fear a global pandemic
is how your people will communicate with each other and conduct necessary
business offsite. It’s also important to have options when it comes to supply in
case your supply chain is disrupted.
TOP THREATS TO BUSINESS CONTINUITY
#2. Natural disasters.
• A natural disaster refers to anything weather related — tornados, hurricanes,
tsunamis, etc. — or other natural phenomena like earthquakes, wildfires, and
volcanic eruptions. Some of these types of disasters are difficult to predict and
can onset in seconds.
• They could cause grave damage to physical structures and anything inside, as
well as disrupt supply chains through affected areas.
TOP THREATS TO BUSINESS CONTINUITY
#3. Utility outages.
• A loss of power generation, communication lines, or water shutoffs can cause
severe disruption to day-to-day operations, potentially damaging physical
assets, and losing productivity and service.
TOP THREATS TO BUSINESS CONTINUITY
#4. Cybersecurity.
• A cyberattack is any computer-based attack on a technical asset. Examples of
cyberattacks include ransomware attacks, data theft, SQL injections, and
distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.
• At best, your technical infrastructure will be at limited functionality until the
issue is resolved. At worst, if you don’t have a data backup, you could
potentially lose access to all your business data.
4 CHARACTERISTICS GUIDING YOUR CONTINUITY
PLANNING
#1. Comprehensive.
• You may never be able to plan for every single possible disruption — or the
combinations thereof — but it is worth trying. Don’t assume your first plan is
going to work. You’ll need to make sure you have backup plans, and backup
plans for your backup plans. Consider every single factor that could play a
role, and assume that everything will go wrong at some point.
4 CHARACTERISTICS GUIDING YOUR CONTINUITY
PLANNING
#2. Realistic.
• You don’t want to get into a disaster situation and find that your best laid plans
actually cannot be carried out as planned. Be realistic about the plan you’ve
laid out and make sure that it has as many contingency plans built in as
possible.
4 CHARACTERISTICS GUIDING YOUR CONTINUITY
PLANNING
#3. Efficient.
• Business is complex, so we won’t sit here and say your business continuity plan
needs to be simple. But it needs to be able to be executed efficiently and with
the resources you have at hand. The extra stress and expectations in a time of
disaster or disruption can make even regular tasks more difficult to accomplish.
Make sure this is accounted for in your plan.
4 CHARACTERISTICS GUIDING YOUR CONTINUITY
PLANNING
#4. Adaptable.
• Nothing on paper could ever compare to the curveballs that nature or other
unexpected forces may throw at us. Leave lots of room in your plan to adapt to
the moment, as circumstances change — sometimes minute to minute. The plan
should account for constant monitoring of the situation and provide a good
foundation from which to pivot to addressing the issue at hand.
STEPS TO FOLLOW TO DO EFFECTIVE BUSINESS
CONTINUITY PLANNING
Making a business continuity plan revolves around the following steps-
• Investigation of different types of organizations dangers and possible threats
• Rundown of the essential procedures required to continue the business
activities
• Easy accessibility of management or administration contact details
• Clarification of where workforce ought to go if there is a risk, disaster or
threat occurs
• Details about the data backups and business site backup
• A joint effort among all aspects of the business
• Training and testing of continuity team
 CONCLUSION
Nothing is ever certain. Maybe you’ll never encounter a major disruption to your
business. But the chances are just as good — if not better — that you’ll have your
fair share of challenges.
Being fully aware of your level of risk and what needs to be done to keep the
business moving is where you want to start. That alone will give you a competitive
edge and help mitigate any financial risk involved.
Then, creating your whole plan will help you rest easier at night. Once everyone in
your business is fully comfortable with and trained on implementing this plan, you
will have the peace of mind to know that if disaster strikes, not all will be lost.
REFERENCES:
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_continuity_planning
• https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/business-continuity-plan/#what-is-a-
business-continuity-plan
• https://change.walkme.com/business-continuity-planning-process/
• https://bcmmetrics.com/benefits-business-continuity-planning/
• https://www.marketing91.com/business-continuity-planning/
• https://www.gradwell.com/blog/business-continuity-planning-examples-for-smes/