Business Continuity Planning in the New Digital Era
White PaperBusiness Continuity Planning Matters
Business continuity planning in the new digital era and a continuing volatile global environment is more critical to the organization than ever before. Threats to an organization’s business continuity have escalated and multiplied. According to a report by the Business Continuity Institute (BCI), in association with the British Standards Institution (BSI), IT-related threats pose the greatest concern.
Reinforcing this finding, the annual BCI 2017 Horizon Scan Report put IT-related threats above others such as industrial disputes, natural disasters, and security incidents. When you consider the destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy when it slammed the Northeast Coast of the US, causing destruction along the Jersey Shore; Long Island, New York; and New York City, and costing $62 billion in damages in the US alone, it emphasizes how concerned businesses are about IT-related threats, especially considering that Sandy crippled and closed tens of thousands of businesses (BCI, 2017).
The study reported that 77% of business leaders feared the possibility of an unplanned IT and telecoms outage, while 73% were concerned about a cyberattack or data breach. Long-term trends were also identified by the report: 73% see the use of the internet for malicious attacks as a major threat, one that needs to be monitored closely.