Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/45522
BUSINESS CONTINUITY: HOW TO IDENTIFY AND MITIGATE YOUR RISKS you are going to need food, water, blankets, etc., for everyone. Build up emergency supplies and don't forget a battery-powered radio, batteries, flashlights, and other necessities. If there are potentially dangerous situations, plan ways that people can work safely from home. The bottom line is that safety and security must be put ahead of everything else. MITIGATE, MITIGATE, MITIGATE Remember that your primary emphasis should be on business continuity and the prevention of business disruption, not on disaster recovery. Disaster recovery should be your contingency plan, in case disaster cannot be averted. Mitigation, therefore, is the area of effort with the highest potential return, but one where people seem to spend the least time and effort. Mitigation is everything you do to prevent a disruption from occurring or to minimize its impact — activities aimed at reducing vulnerability; activities performed in advance to decrease impact, potential loss or damage. It's keeping your virus protection updated, for example, to prevent data loss due to a new virus. It's ensuring that all your client files are on your secure server and not on individual hard drives. It's having staff members trained in CPR and first aid to reduce the impact of a medical emergency. Mitigation activities can be identified by reviewing your list of vulnerabilities to determine what can be done NOW as opposed to waiting for a disruption. This kind of planning is one of the best ways to help ensure that your firm's operations continue uninterrupted. Everything changes, and with today's technology, things change even faster. So you'll probably never have a completed mitigation plan, but it's more of a process than a product. You should have a risk brainstorming session at least annually to determine if new risks have arisen. The more you do this, the better you'll be at anticipating new risks and tracking the results of your mitigation activities. The more time you spend mitigating potential problems before they occur, the less time you will spend trying to manage what could be — or become — devastating consequences later. ILTA www.iltanet.org Risky Business 71 read the digital version online now