Attainium Insights, short, practical observations and examples drawn from real-world tabletop exercises and business continuity planning.
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Proactive education and training are essential to maintaining business continuity and preparing for unexpected events. However, even if an organization has a documented business continuity plan, some employees might not know what's in it, or the strategy might never have been tested. Tabletop Exercises from Attainium can help companies gain the knowledge they need to recover and respond to a variety of situations.
Cyberattacks (including ransomware attacks) have been on the rise for the past several years, causing loss of productivity, damage to reputation, and, of course, impact on the bottom line. More than 50% of businesses surveyed in the Sophos Annual Ransomware Survey in 2020 suffered a significant ransomware attack. Globally, ransomware attacks will cost nearly $20 billion in 2021 alone.
Strong business continuity plans only work when they’re tested. Tabletop exercises help teams validate decision-making, communication paths, and real-world recovery strategies before an actual disruption. These six proven scenarios are ideal for strengthening resilience, practicing response under pressure, and identifying gaps that need improvement.
It's time to look around and see what else we should be doing virtually -- for example, training, testing, and exercising your business continuity plan. More than likely, this plan hasn't been exercised for months (at least), and we all know that an untested plan can't be relied on in a crisis. With people still working at home, it's time to think about virtual tabletop exercises in order to ensure that your plan remains viable and up to date.
Employers and employees alike are wondering… can vaccines be required for workers to return to the office? Seems like an easy answer since the law is clear that COVID-19 vaccination can be required as a condition of employment (with certain caveats). However, as the saying goes, nothing is as simple as it seems.
Tabletop Exercises serve as critical tools for organizations to evaluate their business continuity plans and advance their processes. Like most other training methods, Tabletop Exercises cannot remain stagnant. They must be evaluated and further developed over time to include new considerations and opportunities. By following these five tips, you can improve your next Tabletop Exercise and impart essential skills to all participants.
COVID-19 has been a decisive test of your business continuity plan, and it may still be challenging you today as the pandemic rages. So why would now be an optimal time to develop or revise your plan? For one thing, you likely learned a lot about what worked, what you might have done differently, and what definitely wasn't covered in your plan. For another, especially since we may face similar challenges over the next few months, you need to review your assumptions and decisions and identify any required changes. In reality, COVID-19 may not be the only crisis we face in the year or years ahead.
Disasters come in a wide variety of forms including natural weather events, workplace violence, and cyberattacks. These situations often occur unexpectedly and come with heavy tolls for victims. In fact, more than 40 percent of organizations don't reopen after a disaster, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. A large part of this could be due to inadequate recovery strategies and prolonged downtime costs.
To avoid this situation, organizations are increasingly implementing business continuity plans to detail response and recovery processes to navigate and overcome emergencies. However, simply establishing a Business Continuity Plan might not be enough. A Tabletop Exercise can improve your planning in a number of ways:
