Insights | Attainium

Attainium's Business Continuity and Tabletop Exercise INSIGHTS

Attainium Insights, short, practical observations and examples drawn from real-world tabletop exercises and business continuity planning.

Explore our Resources and Articles

Emergency Notification Systems (ENS)

In any emergency, information is critical. How to deliver that information is something companies continually struggle with -- social media, the cloud, etc. One choice is an emergency notification system, which also could be used as a mass communication medium in non-emergency situations. If you have one, maybe it needs updating. If you don't, here's some information on why you might want one and how to integrate it into your organization and your business continuity planning.

Recovering from a Data Breach or Cyberattack

If your company has never had a data breach, consider yourself lucky. These days, such breaches are nearly inevitable and can cause considerable damage to your bottom line (at a cost of about $214 per compromised record and customer turnover) and your reputation. In order to survive such a breach, it's critical that you know what to do afterward. You can recover, but your best bet is to have a recovery plan and to follow it. These articles can help you determine what you should -- and shouldn't do -- after a breach.

Workplace and Domestic Terrorism

More and more, terrorist threats come from within rather than outside our businesses or our country. Homegrown domestic terrorists have planned and perpetrated acts of violence that we need to be able to defend against. Have you planned how to detect, survive and recover from a terrorist act? No? Well, now is the time. These articles can get you started on planning or updating your current plans.

Employee Issues & Outcomes

We all have seen how issues with some employees have resulted in shootings and other disruptions in the workplace. There have been eight workplace killings so far in 2017. Every employer should be invested in preventing such incidents and also in preventing issues that can land them in court for harassment and other problems. Hiring and firing have their own issues and can lead to problems down the road. Also, tracking employees online might cause issues. These articles provide some hints on how to deal with these issues and, hopefully, to avoid trouble.

September is National Preparedness Month

September, which is unbelievably just around the corner, is National Preparedness Month, which encourages Americans to take steps to prepare for emergencies in their homes, businesses, schools, and communities. This year's theme is "Disasters don't plan ahead. You can." In addition to making sure that your business continuity plan is up-to-date, you can and should encourage your family, friends, and employees to educate themselves about preparedness. Some of this issue's articles can help.

Managing Your Online Reputation

Per this issue's quote, while most people will look you up online, they won't go farther than page one of the results. So if you have negative results on page one, you probably need to do something about them because all that other positive stuff on pages two and following won't matter. You might be able to do some reputation repair yourself or you might need the services of a specialist. But make no mistake about it -- something has to be done. In this issue, we offer articles that talk about how to DIY as well as what online reputation services can do for you.

Business Continuity Plan Management

The state of business continuity is continually evolving, but is your business's plan also evolving? Have you updated it to consider things like ransomware attacks? Have you included sufficient detail on contingency planning? And what plans have you made about service providers? Are you even focusing on the right things in your planning? Perhaps it's time to take a new look at your plan and consider some of the new dangers we face in the digital era as well as some new approaches to planning.

Cyber Issues

As the quote in this issue indicates, cybersecurity is no longer just the purview of the IT department. Everyone in the organization -- from the C-suite down -- is responsible for some aspect of this problem. This issue looks at cybersecurity from various viewpoints and even provides information on adding cyber scenarios to your business continuity exercises. Try it!

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