Business continuity
planning and disaster management are the most important aspects from the view
of an organization now after the attack of 9/11 at New York and Washington D.C.
BCP is a preventive measure which that identifies the mission critical business
functions and enact policies, procedures, plans and process to insure the
continuation of these functions in the case of an event of an unforeseen even.
While Disaster recovery
is the process which is implemented after a disaster happens to an
organization, in order to recover the critical functions of the organization so
that it should get back to its normal position.
A brief history of 9/11 attacks
On September 11, 2001,
19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four
airliners and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States.
Two of the planes were flown into the towers of the World Trade Center in New
York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and
the fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Often referred to as 9/11,
the attacks resulted in extensive death and destruction, triggering major U.S.
initiatives to combat terrorism and defining the presidency of George W. Bush.
Over 3,000 people were killed during the attacks in New York City and
Washington, D.C., including more than 400 police officers and firefighters.[1]
Impact of 9/11 attacks on business
9/11 attacks are ranked
2 most costly catastrophe in the world after the Katrina hurricane of 2005. The
impact can be understood by the fact that the opening of New York Stock
Exchange (NYSE) was delayed after the first plane crashed and trading for the whole
day was cancelled after the second plane crashed. In New York City,
about 430,000 job-months and $2.8 billion dollars in wages were lost in the
three months after the attacks. It also affected the tourism industry as the
tourist was not willing to visit USA after the attacks.
BCP and DR after 9/11
After
the attacks of 9/11 the BCP and DRP have emerged as an essential part of
organizations as they help to sustain and recover them from the catastrophe.
Let us see how the 9/11 attacks have changed the implementation of BCP and DR
plans.
The
backup and the main datacenters should be at different places – This is the
most important lesson that the organizations took from these attacks. As most
of the companies were having their main and backup data centers at the same
place. So when the attack occurred both the centers were destroyed and hence
they were not able to recover back their operations as they should have taken
back if the backup center was placed somewhere far from the main location.
Include
people and process together – Prior to 9/11 attacks many firms did not take
their staff members in account while creating their plans. When a disaster
happens, even if you have the best disaster recovery plan but there is no staff
to implement it or to work on it, it is of no use.
Doing
risk assessment – After the effects of 9/11 attacks many organizations were not
able to survive and were closed permanently. Firms realized that they need to
do risk assessments before making the BCP and DR plans so that they can mold it
according to the need and conditions.
Assigning
backup roles – This is also very important concept we have learned from 9/11
attacks that there should be someone to work or act on behalf of another person
who has been assigned some critical role in that organization. There should be
no availability issues in the organization.
Conclusion
Business
continuity planning and disaster recovery planning are the two most important
aspects from the view of an organization. As the world is going more and more
digitized day by day and so are new types of crimes are increasing.
Cyber-crimes graph are on rise now days, so keeping in mind the entire scenario
we should keep ready a disaster recovery plan so that the business may be
continued after the disaster with the minimal possible loss. While having
business continuity plan is a proactive process which helps to grow and
implement our business on a wider scale. It helps to analyze the critical
functions without which an organization cannot run so that one should know how
to secure and maintain those functions.
References
[1].
Disaster planning and business continuity after 9/11. Retrieved from http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240082860/Disaster-planning-and-business-continuity-after-9-11
Last visited on (19-Dec-13)
[2]. Sept.
11 teaches real lessons in disaster recovery and business continuity planning
Retrieved from http://www.techrepublic.com/article/sept-11-teaches-real-lessons-in-disaster-recovery-and-business-continuity-planning
Last visited on (19-Dec-13)
[1] As
described on History.com Can be retrieved from - www.history.com/topics/9-11-attacks last visited on (19-Dec-13)
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