A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is a contingency plan that covers a range of internal and external threats that a company can be exposed to. It helps determine the prevention and recovery methods that a company must make in order to keep an operational status during any type of disaster. There are ten items that a Business Continuity Plan needs to include. They are:
1. Analysis of Potential Threats. Disasters can be any type of natural occurrence such as a flood, fire, hurricane, or tornado that could destroy the infrastructure. It could also be pandemic-causing the people to be unable to perform duties. A cyberterrorism attack could bring down a company’s network; however, have no effect of the hardware or the personnel. Lastly, a power outage could cause temporary issues with utilizing equipment but not long lasting issues.
2. Areas of Responsibility. Assignment of duties during and following a disaster need to be established. It is a chain of command that will prevent bickering amongst the people concerning decision-making. Training of personnel should be addressed as well so there are no questions concerning duties before, during, and after the disaster.
3. Emergency contact Info. Personnel need to have a plan, personally, that they will follow in the event of a disaster. Phone numbers need to be up-to-date in single file that makes it easy to look up specific numbers for essential personnel, both internally and externally – like police, fire, and medical.
4. Recovery items. Members of the Disaster Recovery Team (DRT) need to be appointed and a list of tasks should be established and equipment set aside for the DRT specifically. They are responsible for reestablishing operations after a disaster.
5. Off-site Backup of Important Data. Backups should be stored in a location away from the servers and in a place that in not susceptible to fire or flood.
6. Backup Power Arrangement. Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) should be in place and all equipment should be plugged into them to avoid a loss in operations and to ensure a proper shutdown in the event of a long-term power outage.
7. Alternative communications strategy. If phones and networks are down, cell phone numbers to personnel for status updates should be kept on hand. Two-way radios are also another