Business Survival - Demystifying Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

Need a High Paying Job?

2008-12-02T14:16:00.002-05:00

Of course, most of us would enjoy a nice fat paycheck every two weeks. If so, give CYBERCRIME a try. I was alarmed when I read the article. On-line cyber crime is estimated to be a $276 million dollar business. Whether it is a login, a hack of a web site, or even a credit card number the info is being sold on the WWW every day.

A thorough Business Continuity Plan will help you and your firm close many holes in your defences and help users understand what acceptable behavior when using a company computer is all about.

Click Here ro Read the Article of Cyber Crime

A Public Relations Disaster When 4 Eyes Are Not Enough

2008-10-29T13:06:00.002-04:00

Imagine that after months of getting your first product ready for market you send out an announcement with an error! What will people think?

Well, I just did exactly that. Two of us had reviewed the announcement, but in the end we were too familiar with the text. the word "been" is missing from our announcement.

I just hope and pray, no pray and hope, that everyone who notices it will give us another chance and that years from now we will sit back and laugh about it.

6 eyes are better than 4... having someone who is not familiar with what you are announcing should be your final proof reader. Yes, I have egg on my face..

No Business Continuity Plan! Are You Liable?

2008-10-28T16:49:00.002-04:00

Have a Business Continuity Plan is good business, and it may keep you out of court. I am not a lawyer, but this is one issue you need to understand.

If your firm has contracts with clients, maybe some outside investors, or purchase agreements with vendors, as the principal at your firm you may be liable for terms of the agreement. If your firm suffers a serious/fatal business interruption, you personally may be financially responsible for the terms of the agreement if YOU neglected to have a current and complete Business Continuity Plan in place.

Follow this link to read more! Good Luck, Best to Plan!

Can a venor put you out of business?

2008-10-16T07:00:00.002-04:00

Vendors, are sometimes like spouses. When you are getting along, everything is perfect. But forget a chore (like paying an invoice) and you get the cold shoulder. But can a vendor kill you? ABSOLUTELY. Follow this link to learn more about Supply Chain Continuity

A Dirty Secret

2008-10-02T09:56:00.002-04:00

Extortion makes the paper! Yes, finally a firm has cooperated with the FBI and the extortionist goes to jail. How often does the firm just pay the bad guy because the press they get over the loss of confidential data would kill the company?

Part of a thorough BC/DR Plan will help a firm prevent data loss or server theft as well as how to handle this situation.

Follow this link to read about "The bad guy going to jail"

They Can Always Call My Cell Phhone - NOT!

2008-07-30T15:47:00.002-04:00

Whenever I teach a BC/DR Plan Development Workshop, we always talk about phone system failure or circuit outages. Everyone tells me that it is not a big deal, they can call my cell phone.

Bad answer.

Read here for a real life situation

Executive Password Management 101

2008-07-30T15:33:00.003-04:00

In an earlier post the new regarding the network admin and the City of San Francisco was brought to light. Today's article exposes some of the details regarding this situation.

Every CEO needs to have administrator credentials to EVERY system in the firm. END OF STORY! There is no excuse for flunking Executive Password Management 101.

It is like putting a huge portion of the firm's money into an account that only 1 mid level employee has total control over.

Read about it here

Must Read- Internat Threats Report

2008-07-25T04:22:00.002-04:00

This is a great report and highlights the issue that allowing people to do things because it is convenient can create huge security risks. Please take the time to read this report and really look at your firms security risks.

This is an issue that is covered in the Framework IT BC/DR Plan Development Workshop and in Surivior or Statistic our new Plan Development software.

Read the article here

Jailed City Worker Allegedly Hijacks San Francisco's Computer System

2008-07-18T07:33:00.002-04:00

How does this happen? Lax security and oversight. This is inexcusable but happens for too often. Part of a thorough Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan is a security review and password management. A good password policy will mitigate the possibility of a situation such as this happening.

Read the entire article here

How Did That Happen?

2008-07-17T20:21:00.002-04:00

Ever wonder how that virus got on the server? Well, let's say Jim uses his little thumb drive to grab a gig of files and takes them home for the weekend. Jim is a great employee to work over the weekend!

But Jim's computer at home isn't getting the new anti-virus signature files or the MS OS updates. Jim's home computer is infected. Sunday night Jim puts a gig of infected files on his thumb drive and gets ready to go to work.

Now, Monday morning and Jim loads those files on his machine and shares the thumb drive with his buddies.

So, how do you prevent these things? This is a classic business interruption a disaster in the making.

Is Your Firm's E-mail Managed and Secure?

2008-05-16T06:47:00.002-04:00

I continue to be amazed by the number of forms that have no plan for e-mail management and records retention. Talk about a disaster looking for a place to happen!

A simple law suit that requires your firm to deliver ALL e-mail records on the subject. The lawyers and judge find out that some e-mail has been deleted and that there is e-mail going back years that impact the decision.

GUILTY!

Read this article

Get started now!

Does Your Firm Need A Public Relations Plan

2008-05-13T13:32:00.002-04:00

Your firm does not have a safe work environment STRIKE ONE

Your firm fires the whistleblower who reports the unsafe environment STRIKE TWO

Your firm does nothing and the news reports the indiscretions STRIKE THREE

YOU'RE OUT!

Read more here!

A thorough BC/DR Plan will help communicating with the world presenting your firm's perspective. Get started NOW!

Customers Killed the Vendor

2008-05-12T08:02:00.003-04:00

If you think customer service is an unnecessary evil, just as Dell Computers. It has been estimated that one irate client's blog and recap of his experience with Dell's Customer Service AND Michael Dell has been read over 100,000 times. What is very interesting is that in the last 8 days there has been no close to this masterful client bungling. For a smaller firm this could be fatal! A thorough BC/DR Plan should take situations of this type into consideration with a process to resolve the issue and win a client or 1,000.

Read the Blog Here

Customers Killed the Vendor

2008-05-12T08:02:00.000-04:00

Fill in the Blank?

2008-05-05T06:59:00.004-04:00

A client recently asked me to do a quick review of BC/DR Plan Development Software that has a price of less than $10,000. After some quick searching I found roughly 10 products that fit the bill. Most were template based and while the product does help develop a BC/DR Plan the result is very lacking!

A good software product that is used to develop a BC/DR Plan must challenge the people preparing the plan. The template based offering is too often done by one person and is nothing more than filling in the blanks. If only one person completes the BC/DR Plan, the opportunity for it to be successfully deployed is significantly diminished, and even more the ability to use the BC/DR Plan as a business tool is slim if at all.

Are the fill in the blank offerings better than no plan at all? What happens if a firm almost survives?

Policies are Key

2008-04-28T07:57:00.003-04:00

An important part of a thorough BC/DR Plan is the establishment of good corporate policies. We have started a relationship with Nancy Flynn of E-Policy Institute. Nancy is known around the world for her work helping firms develop enforceable policies designed to protect the firm based on solid business concepts. Thorough and enforceable policies will prevent business interruptions that are very costly. Take a few minutes to visit Nancy's web site www.epolicyinstitute.com to learn from an expert.

Thanks Nancy!

Disaster Prevention: Understanding Disk Drive MTBF

2008-04-25T10:55:00.003-04:00

What does MTBF (mean time between failure) really mean? It is essential that you fully understand how MTBF is calculated especially when it comes to Hard Drives. The calculation is as follows, a 300,000 MTBF simply means that if a manufacturer delivers 1 million drives , one half or 500,000 of them will fail before the 300,000 hour mark is met. The figure of 300,000 hours is based on stress testing since there is no way a drive that has yet to be delivered could run for 34 years????

A thorough and complete BC/DR Plan requires that a company look at the impact drive(s) failure(s) are taken into account.

With a 1TB drive costing less than $300 today we all need to be careful to realize the value of the 1TB of data that drive supports. If there were a line item on your firm's balance sheet titled data, what amount would you place there? Get your plan done...NOW!

Thieves set up data supermarkets

2008-04-24T03:20:00.002-04:00

I'll take 2gb of Social Security Numbers and a disk of credit card information please.

Oh Boy, what is going on? It has long been discussed that the mafias of the world are the the dominate players in acquiring improperly and illegally acquired data but now it is much more in the open and it gets worse. What happens if your personal information is sold 100 times and all of the bad guys use it to get credit cards, loans and the like?

It is time to protect! If you aren't serious about protecting your name and credit you are setting yourself up for "the big hurt".

A thorough BC/DR Plan will help your firm with data security issues and help prevent serious business interruptions.

2 Strikes and You're OUT!

2008-04-21T07:24:00.002-04:00

It's bad enough when your firm has lost some tapes, a laptop or been hacked and people who have trusted you now have to try and protect what your firm could not, their good name. What makes this even worse is the way your firm handles the breach. Rather than standing up, apologizing and offering to help, your firm decides to minimize, turn its back or even bury their head in the sand...a key to becoming a statistic!

Do your job, do it well and if you make a mistake, help those who have been harmed.

Get your BC/DR Plan in place NOW! It will help your firm negate this type of issue and if not minimize the impact.

What Were You Doing at 5:37 this Morning?

2008-04-18T12:43:00.002-04:00

I was sitting at my computer preparing for a morning of meetings. There were several firms interested in starting their BC/DR Plans. When the house started to shake I thought a HUGE truck was rumbling by, but the shaking got worse. OH MY (not my real words but I want to keep the blog G rated) it's an earthquake. Then the the shaking lessened to a vibration, and then a BIG rumble! Things shook and glasses rattled, and then it was over.

Needless to say, my meetings this morning went better than I could have imagined. Everyone asked what I did to be able to "Start an Earthquake"? Both firms are scheduled for their Plan Development Workshop and are committed to getting their BC/DR PLan done ASAP. 2 down and 7,000,000 to go!

Are you ready? Will your firm be a survivor or a statistic?

Spot-A-Spy Employee Profiles To Look For

2008-04-16T05:29:00.003-04:00

Imagine walking into your business one morning and find that all of your data has been stolen. Gone, vanished, some paper is left but all of the data is gone!

What impact would that have on your company?

Is the impact the same as your #1 competitor having all of your data? You may have the data but your #1 competitor has the data as well.

It's time for employers to wake up and understand the risks they are exposing themselves too.

The article is a good one, What are you going to do?

Is Your Web Site Safe?

2008-04-15T05:38:00.002-04:00

Too often we find web sites that are poorly designed and have inadequate security in place. There are a few rules that you might consider. If your web site is simply advertising for your firm, move it to a hosting service and get it off your network, this is especially true if you take electronic payments through your web site.

There are few business disasters more significant than having your clients confidential information stolen from your firm as a result of lax and inadequate security.

Part of a good BC/DR Plan will have your firm look at the location and support provided for your web site to make it a secure as is possible.

The Flood That Could Not Be Seen

2008-04-14T06:45:00.002-04:00

16 year ago this weekend the Great Unseen flood occurred. 16 years ago is a long time ago when it comes to technology. The flood of 1992 shut down all of the businesses in the loop area of Chicago. The Board of Trade lost all communication to the world. No phone, no Internet and their token ring network was just not going to work.

All the buildings were OK, the roads were fine, no one was hurt byut many firms were out of business for a month and then forever.

Very often its what you don't see that puts your business on the curb. A thorough BC/DR Plan WILL make a difference!

Home Computer Users Unaware of Vulnerability

2008-04-11T05:54:00.002-04:00

Home users need to be more aware of the danger they and their family are exposed to as a result of their lack of knowledge when using the internet. PLEASE got to www.staysafeonline.org and do a little research and prepare your family and computers for the new (and old) threats that can cause personal and financial harm.

While safety and precaution may cause some "inconvenience" and require the modification of a few habits, the change is for the good of your family and its future.

Businesses, until you establish and enforce policies regarding the use of company owned tools and resources, you are exposed to the same harm.

Gotta Do It!

RTO Reality or Disaster?

2008-04-10T06:03:00.002-04:00

RTO (recovery time objective) is the amount of time a company has established to resurrect an application after a system failure regardless of the reason for the failure. The time may be measured in seconds, hours or even days and too often is overly aggressive and unattainable.

Imagine a (flood, tornado or other regional disaster) wreaks havoc in your community and many businesses are in DR mode. How many servers (or even workstations) are available in the community for you to purchase? In a city of 1,000,000 people the number is maybe 50 servers and 1,000 workstations at a dozen or more stores. What impact does this have on meeting the RTO? Well, if you have no servers you cannot restore your data and applications. Having a emergency system replacement agreement in place is essential. Knowing that there are 12 servers on the way provides an opportunity for success.

Be careful and realistic as you establish an RTO, it might be the difference between your firm being a survivor and not a statistic!