Business Continuity Planning A Comprehensive Approach
Business Continuity Planning A Comprehensive Approach
To cite this article: Virginia Cerullo & Michael J. Cerullo (2004) Business Continuity
Planning: A Comprehensive Approach, Information Systems Management, 21:3, 70-78, DOI:
10.1201/1078/44432.21.3.20040601/82480.11
BUSINESS CONTINUITY
PLANNING:
A COMPREHENSIVE
APPROACH
Virginia Cerullo and Michael J. Cerullo
The risks of business interruption expand as companies become more dependent on informa-
tion technology (IT) infrastructure. A comprehensive approach to business continuity planning
seeks to mitigate against all major business interruptions of business systems. This article
analyzes recent national and international surveys to develop insights about the current status
of business continuity plans, including perceptions about internal and external information
security threats.
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T here is no
threats. and alternate team members and their specific
duties, including executive management roles;
single BASIC COMPONENTS OF A BUSINESS notification procedures and alternate meeting
site locations; work-around processes to keep
recommended CONTINUITY PLAN
the function operational while damaged re-
plan for A BCP is designed to avoid or mitigate risks; to
sources are being restored to a “business as usu-
reduce the impact of a crisis (i.e., disaster con-
business al” condition; a contact list of all personnel and
dition); and to reduce the time to restore con- the functions they are qualified to perform;
continuity; ditions to a state of “business as usual.”There is identification of all internal and external ven-
instead, every no single recommended plan for business con- dors and each vendor’s primary and alternate
organization tinuity; instead, every organization needs to de- contacts; and report forms (expenses, activi-
needs to velop a comprehensive BCP based on its ties, etc.). A DCRP is therefore an integral part
unique situation. A BCP should also be dynam- of a BCP.
develop a
ic, evolving as the business environment
comprehensive
changes and its dependency on advanced tech- Training and Testing
BCP based on nology changes. Training and testing includes developing a test
its unique The business continuity planning process methodology, simultaneous testing and train-
ing of the disaster recovery team, followed by
situation. should address three interdependent objec-
BCP revision and simultaneous testing and
tives:
training again. As a major component of the
1. Identify major risks of business interruption. BCP, testing is essential to determine whether
2. Develop a plan to mitigate or reduce the the BCP is adequate to address critical risks. In
impact of the identified risk. addition to ensuring that the disaster recovery
3. Train employees and test the plan to ensure team members — both primary and alternates
that it is effective. — know what to do, testing under increasingly
realistic conditions helps develop confidence
The three basic components of a BCP to and avoid panic during a disaster event.
achieve these objectives are described below.4 Senior management backing of a BCP initia-
tive ensures organizational commitment and
Business Impact Analysis (BIA) adequate funding for business continuity plan-
The business impact analysis (BIA) identifies ning. Yet even today, many executives view the
critical functions the business must perform to BCP as a way to spend money with little, if any,
stay in business (i.e., make money, provide return on the investment. Table 1 identifies
some potentially useful Web resources for busi-
mandated services); identifies risks to critical
ness continuity planning; some of these sites
business functions and rates those risks accord-
provide specific examples that may be useful to
ing to probability of occurrence and impact on companies either developing or reevaluating
the business; recommends avoidance, mitiga- their business continuity strategy. The detailed
tion, or absorption of the risk; and identifies BCP outline developed by Paul Kirvan, pub-
ways to avoid or mitigate the risk. lished in the Contingency Planning and Man-
In today’s business environment, identify- agement journal, is also a useful resource.5
ing risks has become a watchword. Recently, Several recent surveys also provide some in-
many leading firms have adopted an enterprise- sight into the status of business continuity plan-
wide risk assessment strategy and have estab- ning in companies throughout the world. The
findings published in the Ernst & Young Global
lished a framework, or database, of risks
Information Security 2002 Survey,6 based on re-
identified for their companies. Business conti- sponses from 459 CIOs and IT directors from
nuity planners should be participants in any medium- to large-sized companies worldwide,
strategic risk assessment process and help es- reveal that only 53 percent of these companies
tablish a risk awareness environment. had a BCP. Of these companies with an in-place
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BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING
Modi ed from: Michael Barrier. “Preparing for the Worst,” Internal Auditor, December 2001, p. 60.
BCP, many had also not gone through the ex- For those with in-place BCPs, these survey find-
pected activities to develop a comprehensive ings on actual and potential causes of business
plan. For example, more than 40 percent of the interruptions can be used to help direct man-
companies claiming to have a BCP had not car- agement attention to areas of a BCP that need
ried out a business impact analysis (BIA) and enhancement.
prioritized their critical business processes. In
addition, 21 percent of the survey respondents INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL CAUSES
had not tested their plans and less than 50 per-
OF BUSINESS INTERRUPTIONS
cent of the responding firms had not estab-
The CPM and Strohl Survey 2002 found that 50
lished recovery timelines with the business,
percent of the responding continuity planning
which could mean a wide expectation gap be-
professionals were most concerned with acci-
tween what the business needs and what the
dental failures (i.e., internal causes, such as
plan provides for.7
power outages, equipment failures, software
A survey of business continuity planning
errors, and operational errors). The threat of
professionals conducted in mid-2002 revealed
natural disasters (i.e., earthquakes, floods, and
that 38 percent of the 855 responding compa-
hurricanes) ranked as the second-greatest
nies had activated their BCPs (CPM and Strohl
cause of concern with 29 percent. Intentional
Survey, 2002). This has led Brian Turley, Presi-
externally caused disasters (i.e., such as hack-
dent of Strohl Systems, to conclude that:
ers, terrorism, acts of war) ranked third with
“It is no longer a matter of ‘if’ you have 21 percent.10
to activate your plan, but ‘when’ you The existence of multiple causes of busi-
will have to activate your plan.”8 ness interruptions is also documented in the
Business Continuity Benchmark survey results
“Managers of a company may be morally
published by CPM/KPMG in 2002.11 Based on
and ethically bound to make decisions
624 respondents, the results shown in Figure 1
and plans that will ensure that the busi-
provide comparisons over four years for business
ness continues to operate.”9
interruptions due to both internal and external
The next section provides a review of re- causes: human error, power outage, service pro-
cent empirical data concerning the internal vider failure, communications failure, natural di-
and external causes of business interruptions. saster, facilities moves, hardware failure, and
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FIGURE 2 Causes for Unavailability of Critical Business Systems (Source: Ernst & Young,
Global Information Security Survey, 2002.)
Hardware/software failure
Telecommunications failure
Third-party failure
(e.g., IT service provider)
Operational errors
(e.g., wrong software loaded)
Malicious technical acts by outsiders
(e.g., hacking, viruses, worms)
Other
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
The Ernst & Young Survey 2003 found that computer crime among survey respondents
senior managers still focus more on the publi- was denial-of-service ($65,643,000). Although
cized external attacks than potential internal at- not the most expensive, virus incidents were
tacks. As shown in Figure 3, when respondents the most frequently cited forms of attack.17
were asked to rate the relative intensity of The BCB 2002 Survey, designed after the
threats expected over the next 12 months, em- 9/11 terrorist attack in the United States, added
ployee misconduct with information systems a question to determine the extent to which
was rated as a much lower threat than a major companies had been affected by, or at risk of,
virus or worm. threats of (1) information security breaches
and (2) terrorist activities. More than two
thirds of companies surveyed still did not re-
External Causes
gard either malicious activity as a threat to their
In the 1980s and early 1990s, many firms estab-
company. While it may be understandable that
lished a DCRP primarily to address natural di- companies could not imagine an event similar
sasters. In fact, many waited until a natural to those of 9/11 happening to their company, it
disaster actually occurred to their company be- is surprising that less than a third of the compa-
fore developing a DCRP. Unfortunately, too few nies did not perceive at that time a threat from
firms have updated their business continuity an information security breach. In contrast, the
strategy to recognize man-made external disaster recovery coordinator at the Johns Hop-
threats. A major challenge today is to manage kins Hospital, Bill Rider, has commented:
the growing threat from these external risks
due to recent changes in the IT environment. “While we continue to be at risk of
As seen in Figure 3, for example, the highest physical terrorist attacks, I think the risk
threat perceived over the next 12 months was of an electronic terrorist attack via deni-
a major virus or worm attack. als of service, worms, etc. is becoming
Based on responses from 530 computer se- much greater, given our ever-growing
curity practitioners in U.S. corporations and dependence on the electronic infra-
government agencies, the findings of the 2003 structure.”18
CSI/FBI Computer Crime and Security Survey The Information Security Surveys conduct-
reveal that 56 percent of respondents reported ed by Ernst & Young over three years (2001,
that unauthorized use and theft of proprietary 2002, and 2003) provide some additional in-
information caused the greatest financial loss sight into managers’ perceptions of these secu-
($70,195,900). The second-most expensive rity risks and their firms’ capabilities to manage
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FIGURE 3 Perceptions of Threat Levels 2003 (Source: Ernst & Young, Global Information
Security Survey, 2003.)
Mean
Low Med. High
Relative Intensity of Threats over the Next 12 Months 1 2 3 4 5
Major virus or worms
Employee misconduct involving information systems
Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack
Loss of customer data privacy/confidentiality
Amateur hackers or "script kiddies"
Theft of proprietary information or intellectual property
Consultants/vendors who have access to info systems
Former employee misconduct involving info systems
Natural disasters
Business partner(s) misconduct involving info systems
Competitor espionage
Political "hacktivism" or cyber protest
Cyber-terrorism: foreign-based
Cyber-terrorism: domestic-based
Non-nuclear terrorist attack
Cyber-war
Foreign government espionage
them. In the Ernst & Young Survey 2001, security Benny D. Taylor (Disaster Recovery Insti-
breaches by external parties were the biggest tute International) predicted in early 2002 that
concern, inhibiting development of E-com- an increased dependence on E-business would
merce for 66 percent of respondents; only also increase the need for spending on disaster
33 percent of respondents were confident that recovery to reduce the risk of short-term inter-
they could detect a hacking attack.19 In the ruptions; he estimated these costs to be from
Ernst & Young Survey 2002, a somewhat higher an average of 3 percent to 7 percent of data
40 percent were confident they would detect a center budgets. Published estimates of the
systems attack, but another 40 percent of re- costs of systems downtime for company Web
sponding firms did not even investigate infor- sites include the following:23
mation security incidents.20 In the 2003 survey,
❚ Downtime is costing major Internet players
90 percent of respondents said that informa-
an estimated $8000 per hour (Forrester
tion security was of high importance for
Research).
achieving their overall objectives. However,
❚ Downtime costs $1400 per minute on aver-
more than 34 percent still rated their organiza-
age (Oracle).
tions as less than adequate in their ability to de-
❚ Typical medium-sized business downtime
termine whether their systems are currently
costs average $78,000 per hour; these sites
under attack, and more than 33 percent of re-
typically lose more than $1 million annually
spondents reported an inadequate capability to
due to downtime (see Table 2) (IDC).
respond to information security incidents.21
While external disasters have the potential These types of published costs emphasize the
for unlimited destruction, the damage from vi- importance of identifying business environ-
ruses and other computer threats can often be ments that are increasingly exposed to external
quantified. For example, Computer Economics IT-related risks; an example of a questionnaire
(Carlsbad, California) estimates that corpora- to assist in identifying these technology risks to
tions spent more than $12 billion in 2001 to corporations can be found online at the Contin-
clean up virus damage. The Code Red virus gencyPlanning.com Web site.24 Every year, the
alone was estimated to have caused $2.6 billion list of sophisticated external threats to IT envi-
in damages and infected 300,000 computers.22 ronments becomes longer. Therefore, informa-
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FIGURE 4 Integration of the BCP (Source: 2002 CPM/KPMG Business Continuity Benchmark
Survey, Witter Publishing Corporation, 2002.)
2000 2002
Corporate/
General Management
Risk Management
Facilities
Management
Information Technology/
Disaster Recovery
Information Security
Other
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
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4. The basic components are modified from: 17. 2003 CSI/FBI Computer Crime and Security
Glenn, John. “BCP 103: Business Continuity Survey, pp. 3–4.
Defined,” www.ContingencyPlanning.com/ 18. Ernst & Young, 2002., p. 3
article_index.cfm?article=380. 19. Ernst & Young, 2001, p. 6.
5. Kirvan, Paul.“Essential Ingredients of a BC Plan,” 20. Ernst & Young, 2002, pp. 7–8.
Continuity Planning & Management, April 21. Ernst & Young, Global Information Security
2003, pp. 16–17. Survey 2003 (Issues at a Glance).
6. Ernst & Young LLP. Global Information Security 22. Carl Herberger,“Integrating Business Continuity
Survey 2002. and Information Systems,” www.
7. Ernst & Young, 2002, p. 11. ContingencyPlanning.com.
8. “Study Reports on Plan Activation, Testing,” 23. Benny D. Taylor. “Evaluating and Selecting the
Contingency Planning & Management Most Appropriate Continuity Strategy for Your
(September/October 2002), Vol. VII, No. 6, p. Organization,” Disaster Recovery Institute
12. International, February 2002.
9. Emergency Response Planning, http://www. 24. Anthony Scrimenti.“Corporate Technology Risk
erplan.com/index2.htm. Assessment: A Questionnaire,” www.
10. “Study Reports on Plan Activation, Testing,” ContingencyPlanning.com/article_index.
Contingency Planning & Management cfm?article=422.
(Sept./Oct. 2002), p. 12. 25. Ernst & Young, 2002, p. 3.
11. Hagg, Andy. “Benchmark Report: BCP in 2002,” 26. Hagg, Andy, p. 9.
Contingency Planning & Management (July/ 27. Matt Migliore. “Business Continuity and
August 2002), p. 8. Information Security,” Contingency Planning &
12. Ernst & Young, 2003, p. 7. Management, July/August 2003, pp. 26–27.
13. Ernst & Young, 2002, p. 11 28. Ibid.
14. Ibid, p. 8. 29. Ernst & Young, 2001, p. i.
15. Cited in The Economist, October 24, 2002,“The 30. Ernst & Young, 2002, p. 11.
Weakest Link.” 31. “Study Reports on Plan Activation, Testing,”
16. 2003 CSI/FBI Computer Crime and Security Contingency Planning & Management,
Survey, p. 4. Sept./Oct. 2002, p. 12.
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