Key scenarios to test your business continuity plan
Having a business continuity plan is essential to keep critical operations afloat in the face of potential disasters or emergencies that affect the normal functioning of the company and, consequently, generate losses.
The purpose is that, in the event of any unforeseen event, the business continuity plan (BCP) is really effective in partially or fully recovering the company's activities. That's why we bring you Four scenarios to test your contingency plan.
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Have you tested your business continuity plan in these four scenarios?
1.) Security breached
This is undoubtedly one of the most critical aspects of a business continuity plan . After Kaspersky reported that 48% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) experienced data breaches, multi-site (decentralized) SMEs are seeking to protect customer data at all costs.
For this reason, companies should conduct a drill to determine their immediate procedures in response to a potential data breach. The drill should also define who will be responsible should such a scenario occur and how those potentially affected will be notified.
2.) Restoration and operation
To deal with an unexpected network service outage or data loss, it is also necessary to run a test to find out how to restore the backup and test the uptime, RTO, and RPO in which the company can access the restored data.
Some organizations even test what they would do in a possible offline scenario where they cannot access information for a tolerable period, but need to continue operating.
3.) Network downtime and power failures
If, due to a local incident, the company is without power for several hours or days, what actions should be taken? It's essential to ensure that the business continuity plan specifies which personnel are available to work remotely and which relevant departments should be supported, if possible, with a backup generator.
4.) Without staff
As part of a preventive strategy to continue business operations, it is imperative that SMEs carry out a simulation to determine what they would do if they do not have the basic staff to handle the company's essential incidents in a time of contingency.
This type of test allows us to know which mechanisms could solve that situation , such as enabling workers from other areas or providing a temporary automation service that guarantees, during the RTO , the provision of the service.
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