Confidence in IT disaster recovery processes increases
Better resources and technologies lift business confidence in backup and disaster recovery: Acronis survey.
KPMG gives businesses advice on cloud adoption
Three areas that need to be looked at to ensure safe cloud usage.
Moremi: A Legend in Risk Management
New film highlights valuable lessons that risk managers can learn from ancient African stories.
Local Government Association provides UK authorities with London 2012 advice
The Local Government Association (LGA) has issued advice for local authorities on how to prepare for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Nimbus Launches E-Class flash memory system for mission-critical enterprise and cloud infrastructure
Scales to 500 TB with no single point of failure.
This issue includes:
• BrightTALK Cloud Infrastructure Summit
• Vocal and Needhams partner to deliver business continuity exercises for Priority Alert Clients
• Google releases ‘Google Public Alerts’
• New BCI Forum launched: in British Columbia
Read Business continuity briefs
‘Your Ten Step Guide to Becoming Games Ready’
A business continuity planning guide has been published by SunGard to help UK businesses prepare for London 2012.
Insurance: preparing, managing, and responding to catastrophic event claims
Insurance is an important aspect of business continuity; and good planning and preparation in this area can make the difference between business survival and failure.
US terror hot spots identified
US National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism report studies US terrorist incidents from 1970 to 2008.
World IPv6 launch day: 6 June 2012
Many major ISPs, home networking equipment manufacturers, and web companies around the world are collectively working to permanently enable IPv6 for their products and services by 6 June 2012: World IPv6 launch day.
World Economic Forum launches ‘Risk and Responsibility in a Hyperconnected World: Principles and Guidelines’
Principles aim to provide organizations with a model for organizational cyber resilience.
London 2012 kicks off free preparation sessions for businesses
Workshops and drop-in sessions commence during the first week of February.
Research confirms the effectiveness of simple hygiene measures in combatting pandemic influenza
Pairing masks and hand washing can drastically slow the spread of pandemic flu.
New report for NIST outlines key features of next-generation public safety communications
Creation of a next-generation public safety communications network requires leadership from a single non-profit organization devoted to this purpose, according to a report released by a federal advisory committee.
Read article
•Date: 1st February 2012 • US •Type: Article • Topic: Crisis communications
IBM launches new software to help organization control the influx of mobile devices to the workplace
Take control of ‘bring your own device’ threats.
This issue includes:
• Christchurch firms face crunch as cover ends
• NOAA declares Los Angeles StormReady and TsunamiReady
• A tale of two crises
• Backup monitoring and automated recoverability testing with the new Watchdog console
Read Business continuity briefs
COSO issues risk appetite thought paper
‘Enterprise Risk Management - Understanding and Communicating Risk Appetite.’
UK businesses urged to plan for network traffic load during the Olympics
Intergence offers five tips for protecting mission critical applications.
‘Cyber Security Strategies: Achieving Cyber Resilience’
New guidance document from the Information Security Forum.
UK Climate Change Risk Assessment
700 potential impacts of climate change in a UK context examined.
Disaster prevention to be at the heart of UN work for the next five years
Pressing the world for a push on disaster prevention, UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon has rolled out a ‘Five Year Action Agenda.’
This issue includes:
• ContinuitySA launches IT Service Continuity training course
• UN launches online database to help businesses adapt to climate change
• Insider Threat Control: Using a SIEM signature to detect potential precursors to IT Sabotage
• NIST publishes draft implementation guidance for continuously monitoring an organization's IT system security
• Philadelphia Technology Park partners with Recovery Networks
Read Business continuity briefs
Technology and business continuity in 2012
2012 will see a new wave of business continuity solutions based on virtualization and cloud technologies, says Paddy Falls.
Napolitano presents ‘National Strategy for Global Supply Chain Security’
Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, has presented the US National Strategy for Global Supply Chain Security at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
PwC highlights cyber attack realities in Davos
On 25th January 2012 PwC hosted ‘a real time cyber crisis’ at the World Economic Forum.
European Commission publishes new data protection proposals
Non-compliance penalties can be as high as 2 percent of the global annual turnover of a company.
NIST issues guidelines for managing cloud security and privacy
‘Guidelines on Security and Privacy in Public Cloud Computing’ (NIST Special Publication 800-144).
Read article
•Date: 25th January 2012 • US •Type: Article • Topic: Cloud computing
Brazil to open Centre of Excellence for Disaster Risk Reduction
One of the Centre’s main tasks is to support Brazil’s efforts to strengthen disaster risk reduction and to support policies for disaster risk reduction through a mechanism called the National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction.
SunGard Availability Services to offer Workforce Continuity Services to Ontario businesses
Strategic partnership with NAV CANADA will allow SunGard to expand its footprint in Canada.
This issue includes:
• 22nd World Conference on Disaster Management
• New Mako Networks 6500 model keeps businesses connected and processing payments
• BUMI launches cloud disaster recovery solution for downtime-intolerant businesses
• BCI China Conference
Read Business continuity briefs
Survey highlights inability of companies to test London 2012 business continuity plans
Organizations don’t feel that they have enough information to properly test plans.
Google to close Message Continuity service
Existing contracts will not be renewed for Microsoft Exchange business continuity service.
The six ‘gotchas’ of disaster recovery
There are many factors that can complicate the recovery process if businesses aren't careful. Here are six of the biggest issues that organizations may face as they plan for continuity.
2012 business continuity horizon scan
The Business Continuity Institute has published survey findings on the top threats to business continuity in 2012.
‘Crisis Response and Disaster Resilience 2030: Forging Strategic Action in an Age of Uncertainty’
FEMA has released a new document which looks at the future role of emergency and disaster management in the US.
SharePoint users develop insecure habits
Survey finds almost half of SharePoint users disregard the security within SharePoint, and copy sensitive or confidential documents to insecure hard drives, USB keys or even email it to a third party.
The Great Central US Shakeout
February 12, 2012 at 10:15AM CST.
This issue includes:
• BCI Australasian Chapter schedules series of free business continuity workshops
• Onyx Group to expand South Yorkshire datacentre and workplace recovery offering
• StorageCraft Europe releases ShadowControl ImageManager 5
• UN publishes disaster stats
Read Business continuity briefs
Calling the shots…
Does true business continuity play second fiddle to IT recovery?
NFPA 1600 Technical Committee schedules Report on Comments meeting
The NFPA 1600 revision is currently in the Report on Comments stage, which closes on 2nd March 2012.
Maplecroft ‘Risk Atlas’ identifies next political risk hotspots
After a year of heightened global political unrest, a major new report – the Political Risk Atlas 2012, released by risk analysis firm Maplecroft, has identified some of the most significant political risks for business and investors in 2012 and beyond.
PwC asks: Are black swans turning grey?
New PwC paper says that companies are not prepared for the new risk landscape.
Ability of G20 Nations to withstand cyber attacks benchmarked
A benchmarking study has found that the United Kingdom and the United States lead the rest of the G20 countries in their ability to withstand cyber attacks.
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•Date: 17th January 2012 • Various •Type: Article • Topic: Critical infrastructure protection
South Africa: top 10 business continuity issues for 2012
ContinuitySA has identified what it believes are the main risks facing South African business in 2012.
Deadline nears for first BCI Diploma course
Closing date for 30 week distance learning diploma is Friday 20th January.
Seven key considerations when evaluating emergency and mass notification systems
The need to diligently evaluate vendors is critical to ensure that services will meet an organization’s specific requirements:SunGard Availability Services provides a checklist to help in this area.
The Business Continuity Institute announces inaugural North America business continuity awards
The BCI will be hosting the first annual BCI Awards - North America at DRJ Spring World 2012.
Global Risks 2012
Annual World Economic Forum report highlights a shift of concern from environmental risks to socioeconomic risks.
Many organizations lack confidence in London 2012 business continuity plans
Voice continuity revealed as weak spot in contingency planning.
Twenty critical controls for effective cyber defence
New guidance document from the UK Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure.
Twelve cloud predictions for 2012
Cloud computing trends.
Widening gap between IT and business departments poses grave operational and security risks for mobile and online services
According to IDC Financial Insights research.
This issue includes:
• Vocal collaborates with the Tower Place Messaging Group to deliver real time alerts on the Olympic Route Network
• Warnings: What Works, What Doesn't and Why
• COSO releases Internal Control - Integrated Framework for public comment
• One in five employers see theft by employees as top threat
Read Business continuity briefs
Supply chain business continuity management guidance published by BSI
‘PD 25222:2011 Business continuity management. Guidance on supply chain continuity.’
Disaster recovery planning in European organizations
Survey looks at the current state of play and highlights seven key enablers of effective disaster recovery.
Telecommunications risk management report
Study shows inconsistent adoption of telecommunications risk mitigation practices across enterprises.
Cost of 2011 natural disasters up 280 percent increase from 2010
Global economies face record $435bn natural disaster legacy from 2011, according to Aon Benfield annual catastrophe study.
New business continuity advice from Greater London Authority
The Greater London Authority has published a five-step guide to business continuity management.
It’s time to change your mindset…
Business continuity planners who feel that they lack top-level support should stop blaming senior managers: the problem probably lies closer to home. By John M. Stagl.
The consequences of high-impact low-probability events highlighted in new Chatham House report
A one week disruption is the maximum tolerance of the 'just-in-time' global economy.
Supply chain horizon scanning: Strait of Hormuz related issues should be monitored
If Iran follows through on its threat to close the Strait of Hormuz it would have a major impact on global supply chains.
ICM to be rebranded as ‘Phoenix’
UK business continuity provider will be renamed and integrated with Phoenix IT Services.
This issue includes:
• eBRP announces global seminar series
• Disaster recovery in small and medium sized businesses
• Your Recipe for Cloud Backup Success
• What Did We Learn From 2011's Natural Disasters?
• Bangalore International Airport Limited achieves BS 25999 certification
Read Business continuity briefs
2012’s top stories…
Continuity Central makes five predictions for the big issues that may impact the business continuity profession in 2012.
2012 IT security predictions: blanket encryption or apocalypse now
2011 was the year of the third-party trust compromise, and the year of the bring your own device mobile revolution. Both of these will have their parts to play in 2012.
Cloud data trends for 2012
Seven predictions from TwinStrata for hot trends to watch for in the cloud data space.
New ISO standard provides incident response guidance
ISO has announced the availability of ISO 22320:2011; a tool that all types of organizations can use to improve their capabilities in handling incident response in any crisis.
CERT Resilient Enterprise Management team issues technical note
‘Using Defined Processes as a Context for Resilience Measures’ describes how implementation-level processes can help organizations define measures of operational resilience.
‘Flood risk and insurance - a roadmap to 2013 and beyond’
The UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has published an update about ongoing work on flood risk, insurance and resilience.
This issue includes:
• OSHA provides advice for protecting workers during winter storms
• Mitigate the risks of large snow loads
• Major disaster declared for Alaska
• Assistance available following flash flooding across Victoria
• HipLink announces two new advanced messaging applications
Read Business continuity briefs
Industrial control systems: recommendations for improving security
Latest ENISA report describes the current situation concerning industrial control systems security and proposes seven recommendations for improving it.
2012 UK Business Continuity Awards open for entries
Deadline is 17th February 2012; two new awards introduced.
European Commission proposes changes to EU Civil Protection legislation: aims to provide more effective disaster management
New legislation places a much greater emphasis on disaster prevention and risk management.
Advances in self-healing technologies offer potential for greater resilience in electronic systems
In many mission critical applications electrical failures can cause very real business continuity problems; a new technological advance promises to help enhance the resilience of such systems.
This issue includes:
• Philippines sit reps
• Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery in Financial Services 2012
• RIMS Business Continuity Management Workshop
• Cloud backup for SMBs and enterprises: new guide
Read Business continuity briefs
The challenges in a changing world: adopting an integrated approach to risk mitigation
In this paper Robert Hall looks at attitudes to risk within businesses and explains why the balance may be too far on the side of risk avoidance. Business continuity managers may have played a role in creating this imbalance.
Read article
•Date: 16th December 2011 • Region: World •Type: Article • Topic: BC general
Physical contamination: a forgotten downtime threat
Unaddressed contamination is a major issue in the data centre/center sector...
Information security trends for 2012
Cryptzone’s predictions for the top security trends for the coming year.
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•Date: 16th December 2011 • Region: World •Type: Article • Topic: ISM
BCI updates business continuity dictionary
Dictionary of Business Continuity Management Terms Version 2.
Department of Homeland Security publishes contingency plan for potential funding interruption
‘Procedures Relating to a Federal Funding Hiatus.’
Researchers looking to improve cloud security
Scientists at the Weizmann Institute and MIT are getting closer to the ability to remove the need to decrypt data to make it usable.
Resolve to be Ready in 2012
FEMA kicks off new campaign to encourage American businesses to prepare for disasters.
Hybrid cloud backup expected to be an emerging trend in 2012
Asigra Inc. has listed what it sees as the key 2012 market and technology trends in cloud backup.
BSI provides new standards briefing
Two new international standards for business continuity are expected to be published in 2012: find out what this means for you.
UK enterprise data protection survey
80 percent of UK enterprise data storage managers surveyed believe that senior management underestimates the importance of data protection.
SunGard offers CIOs cloud proof of concept survey
60 day trial for CIOs to experience resilience and flexibility of SunGard’s shared private cloud.
This issue includes:
• UK ahead of Germany in adoption of virtualization for business critical applications
• TAMP Systems updates business continuity software offering
• Research exposes security risks of mismanaged user access
• Zenith RMM rebrands as ‘Continuum’
• First Kuwait BCI forum takes place
• Upcoming events
Read Business continuity briefs
Survey looks at business continuity and the cloud
23 percent of respondents have incorporated cloud services into their business continuity and disaster recovery strategies; and 28 percent will do so within 24 months.
Results of cloud provider informal stress tests published
Only six of the 16 major cloud storage providers tested provided the minimum level of performance, stability, availability and scalability that organizations need to take advantage of the cloud for primary storage, data protection and disaster recovery.
Guidance from ENISA on new security and continuity rules for telecoms companies
How to implement the new telecoms legislation on security and integrity ('Art 13a').
The 2012 threat landscape
2012 will pose unprecedented challenges and risks for organizations worldwide...
The growing issue of homegrown terrorism in the United States
Over the past decade, attacks and plots by homegrown US terrorists have increased, the work of extremists from across the political spectrum, says an analysis by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) based at the University of Maryland.
Top tips for fantastic business continuity desktop exercises
Charley Newnham presents nineteen tips for running a successful business continuity exercise.
Social media and business continuity
The one thing you can’t do about social media is ignore it. By Mike Jacobs.
Survey provides a global snapshot of business continuity and disaster recovery practices
The latest global business survey from Regus has interviewed over 12,000 senior business people in 85 countries about business continuity and IT disaster recovery in their organization.
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•Date: 9th December 2011 • Region: World •Type: Article • Topic: Business continuity statistics
State of Resilience 2011
New Vision Solutions report looks at IT systems resiliency practices and expected changes going forward.
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•Date: 9th December 2011 • Region: World •Type: Article • Topic: ICT continuity
‘Business Continuity in the Payment Card Industry’
The Smart Payment Association (SPA) has published a whitepaper which looks at specific business continuity issues in the payment card industry.
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•Date: 9th December 2011 • World •Type: Article • Topic: Financial sector BC
Demand for dedicated workplace recovery in the UK increases rapidly
SunGard Availability Services sees demand for dedicated workplace recovery increase by 370 percent in the past year.
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•Date: 9th December 2011 • UK •Type: Article • Topic: Business continuity markets
Victorian Coalition Government releases final Comrie report on 2010-11 floods
Report gives 93 recommendations for improvements and outlines the need for reform in four key areas.
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•Date: 9th December 2011 • Australia •Type: Article • Topic: Disaster recovery general
Australians get new ‘DisasterWatch’ smartphone app
Government service gives the 4.5 million Australians who currently own smartphones another way of receiving emergency warnings and finding disaster related information.
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•Date: 9th December 2011 • Australia •Type: Article • Topic: Emergency planning
European Commission vice-president warns businesses about cloud computing
‘Businesses will have to pay utmost attention to security of information and privacy by design.’
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•Date: 8th December 2011 • Region: Europe/UK •Type: Article • Topic: Cloud computing
PwC warns of a ‘ticking timebomb’ in the supply chain
Chemical, energy and auto industries in ‘red alert’ over the future disruption of rare earth metals supply.
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•Date: 8th December 2011 • Region: World •Type: Article • Topic: Operational risk
The 2011 Lloyd’s Risk Index
The risk perceptions of business leaders are in sharp contrast to those raised in the inaugural survey in 2009...
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•Date: 8th December 2011 • Region: World •Type: Article • Topic: Enterprise risk management
2011 a record year for US weather-based disasters
NOAA has reported that, to the end of November, 2011 has seen 12 separate billion dollar weather/climate disasters in the UnIted States, with an aggregate damage total of approximately $52 billion.
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•Date: 8th December 2011 • Region: US •Type: Article • Topic: Disaster recovery general
Winter Readiness Survey looks at how prepared councils in England & Wales are for winter 2011-12
Councils have continued to improve their resilience for this year's winter gritting season, a recent Local Government Association survey of winter readiness has found.
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•Date: 8th December 2011 • Region:UK •Type: Article • Topic: Emergency planning
This issue includes:
• Fighting cyber threats: plugging the gaps
• New UK standard aims to help bribery risk management
• Top ten cyber security trends for financial services in 2012
• ContinuitySA upgrades recovery facilities
• FEMA outlines preparedness and response lessons learned from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee
Read Business continuity briefs
PPD-8 takes a step forward
National Preparedness System Description published by FEMA.
Read article
•Date: 7th December 2011 • Region: US •Type: Article • Topic: Emergency planning
How to detect and stop corporate espionage
The key to successfully preventing espionage is to not just focus on information security. By Michael Podszywalow, MBA, CISSP, CISM, CISA, CEH.
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•Date: 2nd December 2011 • Region: World •Type: Article • Topic: ISM
Comment on the UK Cyber Security Strategy
Amichai Shulman gives some personal reflections on the new Cyber Security Strategy’s strengths and weaknesses.
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•Date: 2nd December 2011 • Region: UK •Type: Article • Topic: Critical infrastructure protection
UK university offering new Business Continuity Diploma
30-week course is being run by Buckinghamshire New University in partnership with the Business Continuity Institute.
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•Date: 2nd December 2011 • Region: UK •Type: Article • Topic: BC general
Future ICT...
ICT trends that business continuity managers need to be aware of.
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•Date: 2nd December 2011 • Region: World •Type: Article • Topic: ICT continuity
Near misses and direct hits
Don't ignore the small day-to-day incidents which take place in your organization: they may be the early warning signs of something much bigger. By Jim Preen.
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•Date: 1st December 2011 • Region: UK/World •Type: Article • Topic: BC general
Many business continuity and disaster recovery strategies are out of date: survey
Over 50 percent of organizations responding to a recent survey had not updated business continuity or disaster recovery strategies in the past two years.
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•Date: 1st December 2011 • Region: UK •Type: Article • Topic: Business continuity statistics
IT disaster recovery predictions for 2012
The disaster recovery market will see a disruptive shift over the next year.
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•Date: 30th November 2011 • Region: World •Type: Article • Topic: ICT continuity
Maintaining retail business-as-usual
Retailers face some unique weather-related business continuity challenges, according to the latest KPMG/Synovate Retail Think Tank meeting.
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•Date: 30th November 2011 • Region: UK/World •Type: Article • Topic: Retail business continuity
Active 2011 hurricane season ends
NOAA publishes summary: season produced a total of 19 tropical storms of which seven became hurricanes, including three major hurricanes.
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•Date: 30th November 2011 • Region: US •Type: Article • Topic: Disaster recovery
Phoenix IT Group considering ICM rebranding
Phoenix IT Group, the parent of ICM, the UK business continuity company, is starting a process to bring the Group’s companies together under one trading brand.
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•Date: 30th November 2011 • Region: UK •Type: Article • Topic: BC companies
HP to ‘transform server market’ with single platform for mission-critical computing
HP has announced ‘Odyssey’; a project to redefine the future of mission-critical computing with a development roadmap that will unify UNIX and x86 server architecture.
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•Date: 30th November 2011 • Region: World •Type: Article • Topic: ICT continuity
This issue includes:
• National multi-sectoral pandemic preparedness planning workshop in Ghana
• Deloitte study looks into technology, media and telecom companies companies’ approach to information security
• VirtualSharp Software unveils ReliableDR 3.0
• Researchers find some smartphone models more vulnerable to attack than others
• NIST improves tool for hardening software against cyber attack
Read Business continuity briefs
The UK Cyber Security Strategy
The UK government has set out a roadmap for improving the UK cyber security through to 2015.
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•Date: 29th November 2011 • Region: UK •Type: Article • Topic: Critical infrastructure protection
RTO, MTPD and putting the cart before the horse
How to calculate, rather than guess, your recovery time objectives: by Rainer Hübert, MBCI.
What is a resilient organization?
Your thoughts so far...
Business continuity and risk – what is in scope?
Are we right in our approach to risk assessments to be only looking at the physical / IT related / reputational risks and ignoring the much larger questions out there such as the financial instability in the markets?
The European Disaster Recovery Survey 2011
Systems failure resulted on average in two lost working days for the businesses in the survey.
Cyprus and Luxembourg failing in protection of critical infrastructure
Two EU countries do not live up to European standards in identifying their critical infrastructure, says the European Commission.
Insect cyborgs may help in future damage assessments
Research conducted at the University of Michigan College of Engineering may lead to the use of insects to monitor hazardous situations before sending in humans. This could have significant advantages in disaster recovery situations and in conducting damage assessments.
New ISO standard to prepare for emergencies at nuclear facilities
‘ISO 11320:2011, Nuclear criticality safety – Emergency preparedness and response.’
2012 security predictions
Andy Kemshall reflects on the last twelve months and gives his forecast of the top security trends for the year ahead.
The DigiNotar, Comodo and RSA breaches: what have we learned?
Enterprises need to move past the shock and begin formulating their own compromise recovery and business continuity plans.
Managing the risks of information leakage
Information leakage can slip under the conventional information security safety net: Bernardo Patrão highlights the problem and discusses techniques that help reduce the risk of damaging information leakage impacts.
Playing Jenga in the data centre
Power issues are a growing cause of data centre-related disaster recovery invocations. Andrew Des’Ascoyne explains why this is the case.
New NIST tool helps organizations meet HIPAA requirements
Free HIPAA Security Rule Toolkit is intended to be a resource that covered entities can use to support their risk assessment processes.
This issue includes:
• Lieberman warns about Firefox silent background updates plans
• US National Flood Insurance Program extended to December 16th, 2011
• Results of the Business Continuity Institute GMC elections
• London BANG November and January evenings
Read Business continuity briefs
Many organizations struggling with disaster recovery
Iron Mountain survey finds that 68 percent of respondents see disaster recovery as their biggest data challenge.
‘Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation’
An assessment on how climate related disaster risk is likely to change in the future.
Using good governance to control cloud risks
Mike Small, CEng, FBCS, CITP, explains how to go about identifying the risks that cloud usage presents and provides a helpful and thought-provoking checklist of ten questions which you should ask your cloud provider.
Survey looks into backup and recovery challenges of virtual servers
ESG Research indicates increased need for protection as proliferation of virtualization continues.
Emerging risks: Flash Mobs
US retailers need to consider and prepare for the risks of Flash Mobs during the 2011 holiday shopping season, says Marsh.
Water-related risks not being given the attention they deserve
Over half of companies report exposure to water-related risks such as flooding, scarcity, and reputational damage; but management of these risks trails climate change on the boardroom agenda.
Expected business continuity impacts of London 2012 surveyed
Transport is the biggest concern followed by staff unavailability.
Human error is the biggest cause of IT disasters: survey
Plan B has conducted a survey to analyse the key factors that cause major SME IT incidents and service failures.
Security trends for 2012
User-centric attacks, hyperconnected social engineering, shoulder surfing, USB jacking and Cloud confusion are among the threats to watch.
This issue includes:
• Adam Continuity Tapeless Backup Forum
• UK cloud services adoption growing well
• Doyenz rCloud to offer true business continuity to small and medium businesses across the UK
• FEMA launches ‘Think Tank’
• Upcoming events
Read Business continuity briefs
Beijing meeting agrees to move ISO 22301 forward
After some disagreements within the committee responsible for developing ISO 22301 (the international business continuity standard) a meeting in Beijing has cleared the way to move forward to Final Draft International Standard (FDIS).
Final version of UK Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Strategy 2011 published
Includes general business continuity information and provides details about the assumptions that organizations should make when developing pandemic preparedness strategies.
‘Business Continuity Planning in Severe Weather’: Irish government adviceForfás, Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation have prepared a short document including a practical checklist for businesses to help prepare for severe weather events.
This issue includes:
• Protecting Houston from the next big hurricane
• SunGard Availability Services and University of Texas at Austin partner to create a Cloud Computing Research Center
• Primus to open third data center in Greater Toronto Area
• Emerson Network Power Wins Frost & Sullivan Award for UPS Service in Australia
• Onyx receives prestigious award
Read Business continuity briefs
Preparing a power failure response strategy
Power outages are one of the most common causes of business disruption and a good response strategy requires much thought and planning. In this article Dr. Jim Kennedy explains the steps that should be taken.
New supply chain business continuity management resource freely available
3rd Party Questionnaire (3PQ) provides a common set of basic questions that will enable your organization to obtain the majority of the business continuity management information required from your suppliers.
Business Continuity Institute Awards winners
The 2011 BCI Awards were presented on Wednesday 9th November at a ceremony in London.
New ISO/IEC technical report provides information security control guidelines
A new ISO/IEC technical report (TR) providing technical controls and compliance guidelines for auditors can improve the effectiveness of an organization’s information security system, says ISO.
UNISDR head meets representatives of the Chinese private sector to discuss disaster risk reduction
The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, has been in China for a first round of consultations on disaster risk reduction with entrepreneurs and business people.
ISO 22301 update
International business continuity standard reaches another milestone with the completion of the Enquiry Stage.
The growth of recovery-as-a-service
Gartner says 30 percent of midsize companies will use recovery-as-a-service by 2014.
BSI releases flood risk management standard
‘BS 8533:2011- Assessing and managing flood risk in development.’
Is comprehensive supply chain continuity management possible?
If you have no direct relationship with a supplier can you assess their business continuity capabilities? If you discover that you are dependent on a supplier’s supplier, what can you do to address this dependency? Does the intricacy of the global supply chain mean that comprehensive supply chain continuity management is effectively impossible?
Supply chain resilience
Supply chain continuity management has been much discussed over the past year but many organizations struggle to get beyond the basics. In this article John Robinson provides advice on how to take control of this area
‘Preparedness in the Private Sector – 2011’
Key findings from a new Conference Board report.
Project Office publishes final update on the Market-wide Exercise 2011
87 participants taking part in UK financial sector exercise on 22nd November.
Cyber Atlantic 2011
On 3rd November the US and the EU conducted a joint cyber attack exercise: Cyber Atlantic 2011.
Cabinet Office continues Civil Contingencies Act Enhancement Programme consultation
Phase 2 final consultation on revised chapters of Emergency Preparedness.
This issue includes:
• What is the average total compensation for a US-based BC professional?
• Adam Continuity Tapeless Backup Forum
• Microsoft publishes free disaster preparedness guide
• New Bocada product provides insight into data protection operations of virtual environments
• SunGard Availability Services awarded Cisco Master Managed Services and Cloud Provider Certifications with Cisco Powered IaaS designation
Read Business continuity briefs
Supply chain business continuity issues examined
Business Continuity Institute survey finds that 40 percent of supply chain disruption originated below the immediate supplier.
Business continuity and disaster recovery budgets remain stable
Average business continuity and disaster recovery budgets stay at six percent of IT operating and capital budgets: Forrester.
Critical infrastructure providers surveyed
Private sector providers are less aware and engaged in government critical infrastructure protection programs than they were in 2010.
Computer scientist announces software reliability and security breakthrough
Research should lead to much less software related downtime in the future.
Draft Cloud Computing Technology Roadmap: comments requested
NIST documents aim to support both public and private sector cloud usage.
This issue includes:
• New Shadow-Planner communication and mobile capabilities
• Reputation Combat: Protecting Your Company’s Online Reputation
• SunGard Availability Services strengthens European senior management team
• SunGard announces third quarter 2011 results
• Upcoming events
Read Business continuity briefs
14th Annual Global Information Security Survey: Companies rush to adopt new technologies leaving security threats as an after-thought
72 percent of companies see increasing level of risk due to external threats, yet only 12 percent discuss security issues in their regular board meetings.
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•Date: 2nd November 2011 • Region: World •Type: Article • Topic: ISM
UK organizations taking risks with Group Admin accounts
Survey finds that many organizations still issue Group Admin accounts, despite the fact that they pose a significant risk to businesses whilst also contravening best practice and compliance requirements.
Business continuity and disaster recovery are top priorities for next-generation data center design
According to a survey of IT executives.
Executive buy-in? It doesn't end there
Middle management also needs to be sold business continuity if corporate inertia is to be overcome. By Nick Johnson.
Bangkok and Thailand floods: business continuity updates
This page is being updated with information related to the flooding crisis.
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•Date: 28th Oct - 2nd Nov 2011 • Region: SE Asia •Type: Article • Topic: Disaster recovery
NIST releases update to smart grid roadmap
Includes a Risk Management Framework to provide guidance on security practices.
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•Date: 28th October 2011 • Region: US/World •Type: Article • Topic: ISM
Trends in regulatory risk
SunGard has identified ten factors which are shaping financial sector regulatory risk.
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•Date: 28th October 2011 • Region: World •Type: Article • Topic: Financial sector
Guide to transport sector business continuity planning published
Free handbook from the Mineta Transportation Institute helps transportation agencies make continuity of operation and continuity of government plans.
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•Date: 28th October 2011 • Region: US/World •Type: Article • Topic: Transport and logistics BC
This issue includes:
• Data Centre as a Tool for Management
• Providence, Rhode Island, adopts the CEAS program
• New St. Petersburg data centre offers additional BCM and DR options to Russian businesses
• Iron Mountain reports third quarter 2011 financial results
• Urban Crisis Workshop
• Upcoming events
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‘Preparing Your Business For the Games’
The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Ltd (LOCOG) has published business continuity advice to help UK-based businesses plan for the 2012 Olympics.
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•Date: 26th October 2011 • Region: UK •Type: Article • Topic: BC general
Social media risks explored
Social media poses significant risks to European businesses, according to a survey by the Federation of European Risk Management Associations in cooperation with the Institute of Risk Management.
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•Date: 26th October 2011 • Region: Europe/UK •Type: Article • Topic: Operational risk
Short list for the 2011 BCI Awards announced
The Business Continuity Institute has published the short list of people and organizations that are in the running for the 2011 BCI Awards.
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•Date: 26th October 2011 • Region: UK/World •Type: Article • Topic: BC general
Information Security Governance – raising the game
Outlines how adopting a governance-style approach can lift security out of its technical ‘comfort zone’ and into a wider business context.
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•Date: 26th October 2011 • Region: World •Type: Article • Topic: ISM
UK Cabinet Office publishes new guidance on critical infrastructure resiliency
Includes sections on resiliency planning and business continuity management.
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•Date: 25th October 2011 • Region: UK •Type: Article • Topic: Critical intrastructure protection
KPMG survey finds increasing concerns about information technology risk
Audit committee members see IT risk shortcomings posing threats to companies.
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•Date: 25th October 2011 • Region: US/World •Type: Article • Topic: Enterprise risk management
Majority of US small businesses ‘suffer from false sense of cyber security’: survey
The majority of small business owners believe that Internet security is critical to their success and that their companies are safe from cyber security threats: but most fail to take fundamental precautions.
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•Date: 25th October 2011 • Region: US •Type: Article • Topic: ISM
The Duqu virus explored
Highly targeted threat follows in Stuxnet’s footsteps.
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•Date: 21st October 2011 • Region: World •Type: Article • Topic: ISM
ISO officially launches ISO/IEC 27035:2011
New standard entitled ‘Information technology – Security techniques – Information security incident management.’
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•Date: 21st October 2011 • Region: World •Type: Article • Topic: BC standards
NOAA issues US winter forecast
Another La Niña winter but Arctic Oscillation ‘wild card’ could have bigger impact; drought in Southern Plains likely to continue.
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•Date: 21st October 2011 • Region: US •Type: Article • Topic: BC general
Business continuity and bandh days
India-based organizations are using work-from-home as an effective method to deal with the issue of bandh days.
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•Date: 21st October 2011 • Region: India •Type: Article • Topic: BC general
This issue includes:
• Napolitano appoints Mark Weatherford as Deputy Under Secretary for Cybersecurity
• The definitive list of exercise scenarios
• FEMA rewards preparedness achievements
• Recovery Point extends private dark fiber cloud network
• Upcoming events
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Certificate management explored
Calum MacLeod highlights twelve classic mistakes which can result in certificate-related downtime and IT security breaches.
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•Date: 20th October 2011 • Region: World •Type: Article • Topic: ISM
Ten early warning signs of fraud in organizations
Fraud is an increasing enterprise risk but many organizations don't notice the early warning signs that a problem exists. A new checklist provides some help...
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•Date: 20th October 2011 • Region: UK/World •Type: Article • Topic: Enterprise risk management
Australia’s new Crisis Coordination Centre opened
Will improve the government’s capability to respond to large scale natural disasters or acts of terrorism.
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•Date: 19th October 2011 • Region: Australia •Type: Article • Topic: Emergency planning
Cloud Security Alliance publishes guide to Trusted Cloud architecture
Aims to assist cloud risk management.
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•Date: 19th October 2011 • Region: World •Type: Article • Topic: Cloud computing
Enhanced Canadian Disaster Database officially launched
Provides historical data on regional disasters: will help business continuity managers assess local disaster threats.
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•Date: 19th October 2011 • Region: Canada •Type: Article • Topic: BC general
Third annual Conflict Intensity Index
Maplecroft looks at operational risks related to a broad range of conflicts in countries around the world; India now rated ‘extreme risk’.
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•Date: 19th October 2011 • Region: World •Type: Article • Topic: Operational risk
This issue includes:
• Onyx Group receives £42m investment
• Spatial and Temporal Earthquake Clustering
• Avalution’s Consulting Services and Planning Portal, are now available via GSA Schedule 70
• Major disaster declared for Puerto Rico
• Upcoming events
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More than a plan: establishing a disaster recovery program
Glen Bricker overviews ISO 27031 and ITIL IT Service Continuity Management and provides some pointers for choosing between these two ICT guidelines.
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•Date: 18th October 2011 • Region: US/World •Type: Article • Topic: ICT continuity
BCI Asia Business Continuity Awards 2011
The winners of the BCI Asia Business Continuity Awards 2011 were announced at a presentation ceremony on 12th October 2011.
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•Date: 18th October 2011 • Region: Asia Pacific / SE Asia •Type: Article • Topic: BC general
Business continuity and financial turmoil
What is the business continuity professional’s role in preparing organizations for macroeconomic financial crises?
Winners of the BCI Continuity & Resilience Awards India announced
The BCI Continuity & Resilience Awards were held in Mumbai on the 26th September and a list of winners has now been published by the Business Continuity Institute.
US not well prepared for biological terror attacks
According to a report by the Bipartisan WMD Terrorism Research Center.
UK winter – businesses shouldn’t over react to alarmismThe Met Office has warned businesses to ignore ‘colourful headlines’ about the long term weather forecast for the coming winter.
'Containerized Power and Cooling Modules for Data Centers'
A new white paper from APC by Schneider Electric.
CSARN highlights Olympic security threats
What should businesses consider when running resilience scenarios related to London 2012?
This issue includes:
• Emerging manufacturing risks: metal shortages
• Thai Red Cross helps half a million people as flood waters approach Bangkok
• Ipswitch survey highlights importance of forensic log management to network security initiatives
• ICM schedules series of cloud computing information events
• Cloud security: how safe is the cloud?
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Blackberry downtime caused by business continuity failure
RIM’s problems raise some important issues for all business continuity managers.
Cloud-based business continuity strategies expected to increase in 2012
CA survey finds that over a third of organizations expect cloud computing to play an increasingly important role in their business continuity plans over the next year.
Zero-day threats may be exaggerated
Microsoft Security Intelligence Report says that less than one percent of exploits in the first half of 2011 were against zero-day vulnerabilities.
Neverfail launches Virtual Availability Director
Helps provide a single console from where administrators can manage and maintain continuous availability for all their business critical applications.
Cyber threats forecast for 2012
Georgia Tech report highlights the security issues which are expected to cause the most problems to organizations in 2012.
Europe’s vulnerability to natural disasters rising: UNISDR
In 2010, Europe saw an 18.2 percent increase in disaster events.
This issue includes:
• UK councils prepare for potential hard winter
• Acronis survey: many organizations don't integrate backup and disaster recovery
• IP EXPO security research finds that a significant number of businesses might not survive a major security breach
• Full-scale test of Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System
• Iron Mountain wins recognition in Document Manager Awards
• Upcoming events
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First edition of US National Preparedness Goal published
The first deliverable under Presidential Policy Directive (PPD) 8.
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•Date: 11th October 2011 • Region: US •Type: Article • Topic: Emergency planning
Olympic transport issues once again on the agenda as London Assembly questions TfL commissioner
No business in London will be completely unaffected but some will be more affected than others; each individual business needs to work out the impact of the Olympics on operations: commissioner.
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•Date: 11th October 2011 • Region: UK •Type: Article • Topic: BC general
BlackBerry downtime illustrates reputation risks of social media
Downtime notices received badly by thousands of users.
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•Date: 11th October 2011 • Region: UK/Europe •Type: Article • Topic: Crisis communications
Cloud spending will skyrocket in 2012: KPMG
Rapid corporate adoption curve seen; cloud is widely impacting business operations.
‘Cooperative Models for Effective Public Private Partnerships’
A new guide with 36 recommendations for building effective public and private partnerships for resilient IT security has been launched by ENISA.
From here to maternity?
The UK NHS provides an excellent example of what business continuity is about in its most basic form, says Mike Jacobs.
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•Date: 7th October 2011 • Region: UK/World •Type: Article • Topic: BC general
Data loss in virtual environments is a widespread issue
Kroll Ontrack survey finds that 65 percent of organizations are experiencing frequent data loss from virtual environments.
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•Date: 7th October 2011 • Region: World •Type: Article • Topic: BC statistics
ASIS International and SHRM release joint Workplace Violence Prevention and Intervention ANSI standard
Aims to help identify and prevent workplace violence; and to engage in effective incident management and resolution.
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•Date: 7th October 2011 • Region: US/World •Type: Article • Topic: BC general
‘Global protest’ planned for October 15th
Businesses operating in CBDs around the world should be aware of the potential for disruption on October 15th as a variety of protest groups around the world plan a day of ‘global protest.’
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•Date: 7th October 2011 • Region: World •Type: Article • Topic: BC general
Business Continuity Awareness Week 2012 briefing paper published by the Business Continuity Institute
Start planning for Business Continuity Awareness Week 2012...
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•Date: 7th October 2011 • Region: World •Type: Article • Topic: BC general
ANSI-HSSP Tenth Plenary and Workshop examines US Homeland Security Standards progress
‘Achievements from the Past Decade and Charting the Path Forward’, to be held on November 9 in Arlington, VA.
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•Date: 7th October 2011 • Region: US •Type: Article • Topic: Events
Hurricane Irene: an analysis of the use of social media, crowdsourcing and crisis mapping
A new report examines the role that social media, crowdsourcing and crisis mapping played before, during and after Hurricane Irene.
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•Date: 7th October 2011 • Region: US •Type: Article • Topic: Crisis communications
SunGard Availability Services expands Philadelphia Data Center
Hosts SunGard’s Enterprise Cloud Services as well as SunGard’s Recover2Cloud.
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•Date: 7th October 2011 • Region: US •Type: Article • Topic: Data centers/centres
This issue includes:
• US Government Accountability Office reports on cloud security
• UNISDR champion calls for 'holistic' approach to flood risk as typhoons batter Philippines
• ‘Green Unbreakable Cloud Initiative’ enters expansion phase
• Upcoming events
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Researchers develop technique that offers enhanced security for sensitive data in cloud computing
New technique is called the ‘strongly isolated computing environment’ (SICE).
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•Date: 6th October 2011 • Region: US/World •Type: Article • Topic: Cloud computing
Our security paradigm is out of date
According to CSA UK & Ireland President the current focus on complying with the myriad of assurance frameworks is taking focus away from the obligations placed on organizations to identify and manage the risks to their information assets.
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•Date: 6th October 2011 • Region: UK/World •Type: Article • Topic: Cloud computing
Companies need to consider the virtual as well as physical supply chain: FERMA president
Impacts of cloud computing on supply chain risk management among various emerging issues discussed at the opening reception of the 2011 FERMA Risk Management Forum.
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•Date: 5th October 2011 • Region: Europe •Type: Article • Topic: Enterprise risk management
Reviews show that Australia's Emergency Alert system is working well
According to Attorney-General Robert McClelland.
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•Date: 5th October 2011 • Region: Australia •Type: Article • Topic: Emergency planning
US public/private leaders collaborate on ways to fight botnets
A voluntary industry code of conduct to address the detection and mitigation of botnets is needed.
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•Date: 5th October 2011 • Region: US •Type: Article • Topic: ISM
Widespread flooding impacts South-East Asia
Flooding caused by two typhoons is affecting businesses and communities across South-East Asia, including in the Philippines, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Loas and Thailand.
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•Date: 5th October 2011 • Region: SE Asia •Type: Article • Topic: Disaster recovery
This issue includes:
• October is Cyber Security Awareness Month in the US and Canada
• Measuring Operational Resilience: a CERT podcast
• Everbridge releases Hurricane Irene activity statistics
• Australian Government provides grant funding to Business Continuity Institute
• Upcoming events
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Companies are adopting new mobility technologies but not preparing for associated risks to business continuity: AVG survey
There is a lack of understanding of the threats posed by business reliance on mobile phone and social networking use.
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•Date: 4th October 2011 • Region: World •Type: Article • Topic: ICT continuity
Heidelberg issues business continuity advice for printers
New white paper focuses on the unique issues printers face in keeping production running smoothly in the event of unexpected interruptions.
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•Date: 4th October 2011 • Region: US/World •Type: Article • Topic: BC general
Access blocked to IBM business continuity facility due to accident
The access road to IBM’s Sterling Forest Business Continuity and Resiliency Center was closed yesterday (Monday Oct 3) due to an incident.
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•Date: 4th October 2011 • Region: US •Type: Article • Topic: BC markets & companies
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