The goal of Business Continuity Planning (BCP) is to put in place preventative and recovery systems to handle possible cyber-attacks on an organization as well as ensure process continuity after a cyber-attack. BCP’s secondary aim is to guarantee operational continuity throughout the disaster recovery process.
By improving disaster preparedness and coordination, you can minimize the risks of scenarios such as earthquakes and industrial calamities. Planning for asset and personnel protection during a crisis ensures a quick return to normal operations in the event of a catastrophe. In general, basic business continuity boils down to keeping critical functions operational during a crisis while also minimizing downtime as much as possible. A business continuity plan takes into account a variety of unanticipated events, such as disasters, fires, disease outbreaks, cyber assaults, and other external dangers.
Importance of Business Continuity
At a time when downtime is harmful to any company, business continuity is critical for addressing client management, retention, and operational security. A plethora of reasons for downtime exist, but cyber-attacks and severe weather events are two of the most widespread problems that can bring down a company in a relatively short period.
Business continuity planning (BCP) is a critical part of any organization’s defense against cyber-attacks. By following the five steps below, organizations can create a plan that will help them quickly recover from a cyber-attack and resume normal operations.
1. Conduct Business Impact Analysis & Risk Assessment
The first step in creating a business continuity plan is to conduct a business impact analysis (BIA). This analysis will help you identify which parts of your business are most critical to your operations and what would happen if those systems were unavailable. You’ll also need to assess your risk of being attacked, including the likelihood of an attack and the potential damage it could cause.
2. Develop Recovery Strategies
Once you have identified your critical systems and assessed your risk, you’ll need to develop recovery strategies. These strategies should include plans for restoring the systems that are most important to your business and minimizing the amount of data loss. You’ll also need to identify which staff members will be responsible for implementing the recovery plan and ensure that they are properly trained.
3. Solution Implementation
Once you have developed your recovery strategies, it’s time to implement them. This will involve installing the necessary software and hardware and configuring it to meet your organization’s needs. It’s important to test these solutions before you put them into production to make sure they will work as intended.
4. Testing & Acceptance
Before you can rely on your business continuity plan, you need to test it. This should include both functional and disaster recovery tests to make sure the plan will actually work in a real-world situation. You will also need to get approval from all of the stakeholders before you can put the plan into action.
5. Routine Maintenance
Once your business continuity plan is in place, it’s important to keep it up-to-date. This includes regularly reviewing and updating your risk assessment, as well as testing and revising your recovery strategies. You should also ensure that all of your staff are kept up-to-date on the latest security threats and how to protect your organization from them.
By following these five steps, organizations can create a business continuity plan that will help them quickly recover from a cyber-attack and resume normal operations.