But
what are the risks involved, initially you might think that there can’t be
much, with looking forward to catching up on some of those books on the book
shelf you haven’t had time to start, decorating the dining room because the
summer was too hot to even think about it or taking up a new hobby if that’s
your thing.
The
first big downpour of 2014 left my gutters overflowing and my garden turning
into a swimming pool, all of which was unexpected. I didn’t know it was going
to rain that hard and we had already cleared out the gutters a few weeks before
but with those record breaking 40 degree temperatures in Adelaide that had a
big effect on the trees around my house and when the wind picked up they shed
all their dry leaves back on to my roof and into my gutters, hence them
overflowing and my husband getting soaked to his socks clearing them out and
hoping he cleared them before the water got into the roof.
We
hear it all too often on the radio and the news of people like you and I having
their information hacked and money stolen from their bank accounts, and when we
find out it’s happening we go into defence mode and change our passwords and
have a rant to the bank until its fixed. But what if it’s your workplace and
your office holds the information of others or your organisation is closed down
for the day what then? It may not be just you who is affected and it doesn’t
take long for someone on a laptop sat in their own home to leave you with a
wealth of problems which can’t be fixed with a phone call or a password change.
The risk of a cyber-attack isn’t your only threat; losing power to your
premises for a long period of time can be just as harmful if you become out of
contact or are unable to complete your daily tasks.
Having
a disaster recovery plan in place can be a challenging and difficult task but
in the event of a breach or natural event it could possibly be your only hope
of maintaining service and being able to recover as quickly and efficiently as
possible.
So what can I do?
For an
organisation who have not taken a great deal of time to consider their disaster
recovery CQR can assist any business to analyse a business and look at where
experiencing a disruptive event can have an effect on a business through a Business
Impact Analysis, this will provide a risk register, business continuity
and recovery plans and most importantly enable show if the business can recover
within a desired timeframe.
We can
provide an independent review of your IT Service Recovery Plans through an IT
Service Recovery Technical Review,
ensuring that the information therein is adequate to support the recovery
processes and that staff are aware of their roles and responsibilities.
In
having a Vulnerability
Assessment completed
CQR have specialist consultants who can carry out technical vulnerability scans
that will challenge the resiliency of your network architecture. We will
provide you with a vulnerability report outlining the risks and provide
recommendations to manage the identified vulnerabilities.
In
addition to these services CQR can also provide Exercise / Test Facilitation,
Document Development, Review of Business Continuity Gap Analysis against ISO
22301:2012 Business Continuity Standard and Business Continuity Management
System (BCMS) Development. All of these services are done through
partnering with the organisation and developing a scope to ensure that what is
delivered is exactly what is needed in order to prevent the worst
happening.
So before the winter arrives I have my own plan in place
to make sure that my gutters no longer get clogged with leaves and debris and
that I reduce the risk of my garden becoming flooded again, and that will
involve my husband getting back up onto the roof again, but hopefully this time he will
be dryer.
Sarah Taylor
