Is the UK National Risk Register 2025 Any Use to Business Continuity Practitioners?
In this week’s bulletin, Charlie discusses the usefulness of the UK’s National Risk Register and categorises the risks depending on the area they may affect. A couple of weeks ago, we had a two-day ‘away day’ at PlanB Consulting, looking at our plans for the next year but also reviewing our service delivery to ensure
Backups: What Do You Need to Think About?
Continuing/following on from his bulletin on backups in December, this week Charlie looks at them in more detail and provides some useful points to consider in our own organisations. I did my first bulletin about backups before Christmas and thought I would continue today by sharing what I have learned. I must say thanks to
What Is A Polycrisis and What Is The Impact On Business Continuity Practitioners?
In this week’s bulletin, Charlie discusses what a polycrisis is, what its characteristics are defined as, and its impact on business continuity practitioners and crisis managers. The media and press are increasingly focusing on the new Trump presidency and its potential impact on the world. There is much speculation on what he will do, what
Eight Lessons from the Los Angeles Fires
In this week’s bulletin, Charlie discusses the impact of the devastating fires in Los Angeles and gives an important insight into what we can learn from the event. This week, I was interviewed by Alex Fullick for his ‘Preparing for the Unexpected’ podcast. The title of my talk was ‘Future Risks: Why the World is
Understanding Backups – The Beginning
In today’s bulletin, Charlie discusses backups and looks at some reasons why hackers may be able to access your backups. As many of the readers of this bulletin will know, PlanB Consulting, has recently been bought by Databarracks. The company has four main services: business resilience services (the PlanB bit), disaster recovery as a service,
Gregg Wallace – A Case Study
In this week’s bulletin, Charlie discusses the recent Gregg Wallace scandal and gives an insight into what we can learn from the accusations. The news over the last few days, especially at the weekend, was full of what Gregg Wallace had done, not done, said, and not said. So, for this week’s bulletin, I thought
The Use of AI Pictures in Exercises
In today’s bulletin, Charlie discusses how AI can be used to create a photo and gives an insight into how these photos can be used as part of an exercise. For the last month, I have been in Aruba, followed by a brief visit to Malaysia, so it is good to be back home and
Damage Assessment Traffic Lights
In this week’s bulletin, Charlie discusses the use of a traffic light system to show the status of an incident and looks at the positives of implementing this system. For the last two weeks, I have been working in Aruba on a project with a power and water client. Since we have been collaborating with
Should Senior Managers, Politicians, or Royalty Visit the Scene of Disasters?
In this week’s bulletin, Charlie discusses steps to consider when planning on visiting a disaster site and gives an insight into some examples of well-known visitors at recent disasters. Last weekend, the King of Spain, Felipe VI, Queen Letizia, and the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, visited the scene of the flooding in Paiporta, where
What Does BCI World Hybrid 2024 Tell Us About the State of Business Continuity?
In this week’s bulletin, Charlie gives an insight into how the event went and discusses the main business continuity themes throughout the conference. This week, I have been at the BCI World Hybrid Event in London, and I thought I would share what I thought of the event and also what it says about the
AI and Business Continuity: A Future Imagined
In this week’s bulletin, Charlie discusses the future of AI within the business continuity industry, with a particular focus on Business Impact Analysis and how it has the potential to revolutionise business continuity processes. Over the last couple of weeks, whenever I’ve been in the car, I’ve been listening to the BBC Sounds podcast The
MI5 Director General Ken McCallum Threat Update – What it Means to Us
In this week’s bulletin, Charlie discusses the impact of the role of nation-states in cyber attacks and looks at some of the attacks we have seen in the UK recently. On the 8th of October 2024, MI5 Director General Ken McCallum gave a speech on the threats to the UK, covering the counter-terrorism threat and
Supply Chain Continuity: Lessons Learned from the ISG Insolvency
In today’s bulletin, Charlie looks at the recent collapse of ISG and gives an insight into what we can learn about supply chain management. Nick Sims of Cornwood Consulting inspired this bulletin, by sharing recent insights into supply chain issues at Aston Martin. He mentioned, “In a strategic adjustment, Aston Martin announced it would reduce
What is a SIMEX Exercise and What Are They Good For?
In this week’s bulletin, Charlie looks at the pros and cons of SIMEX (Simulation Exercise) and gives an insight into his experience running a live SIMEX. About three weeks ago, I planned, ran, and reported on the biggest SIMEX I have ever conducted in my whole career. It was a ‘no notice’ exercise, meaning the
Teaching the CBCI Course – What Does it Tell Us About the State of Business Continuity?
In this week’s bulletin, Charlie discusses the BCI’s CBCI Certification course and how it has changed from when it was first developed, and discusses his recent experience teaching a classroom CBCI course in Glasgow. You aren’t meant to forget your first time, but I can’t remember the first time I taught the Business Continuity Institute’s
No-Notice Exercises – I Was Wrong…
In today’s bulletin, Charlie follows up from last week’s bulletin on no-notice exercises and shares some of his experiences of his recent live exercise. On Wednesday, PlanB Consulting conducted the biggest exercise we have ever planned and delivered. It was a no-notice exercise involving five different teams responding to a cyber incident. As per last
Should You Conduct ‘No-Notice’ Exercises?
In this week’s bulletin, Charlie discusses the importance of no-notice exercises and the importance of planning in an exercise. Shortly, I will conduct the largest exercise I have ever carried out. It is a live exercise involving five different teams responding to a cyber incident. The exercise will involve a full role-playing cell, with role
Why We Are Likely to See An Increase in Incidents Over the Coming Years
In today’s bulletin, Charlie looks at some factors which are leading to a global increase in incidents and he gives advice on how we can prepare for these incidents. This week I thought I would share some thoughts I have had for a while on why I believe we are going to see an increase
What Can We Learn About Disinformation From The Recent Riots?
In this week’s bulletin, Charlie discusses the recent riots that have taken place across the UK and looks at the effects that spreading disinformation can cause. According to the BBC, the police are on standby for possible further unrest over this weekend, so I thought I would discuss what we can learn about the importance
CrowdStrike – Should Consultants Ambulance-Chase?
In this week’s bulletin, Charlie discusses the recent CrowdStrike outage and discusses the thoughts that other consultants have had on the incident. When I heard about the CrowdStrike incident, I was in the middle of the kingdom of Fife with my daughter picking up her new puppy. Desperate for the latest, I had her going
10 Reasons Why Your Business Continuity Plan May Not Work in Responding to a Cyber Incident
In this week’s bulletin, Charlie gives an insight into the points that should be addressed within a business continuity plan and the importance of including cyber within the plan. When I am teaching cyber incident management, I always talk about four areas which need to be addressed when responding to a ransomware incident. They are:
Ransomware Victim Experience: RUSI Report
In this week’s bulletin Charlie highlights the key learnings from the RUSI Report. As a teacher of cyber incident management, I quite rarely get to hear first-hand about cyber incidents, and case studies are quite rare. The public sector has done a few, including SEPA, the London Library, and Gloucestershire City Council, but overall, information
What Can We Learn From the Synnovis NHS Lab Cyber Attack?
In this week’s bulletin, Charlie discusses the recent NHS cyber attack and what lesssons we can learn from what happened. Last week I was keen to write a bulletin on the above subject, but I ran out of time. This week I was determined to get it written and out to bulletin readers. The incident
Have Cyber Attacks Killed People? – Updated June 2024
In this week’s bulletin, Charlie continues his bulletin from 2022 on whether cyber attacks have killed people, and looks at the impacts of a cyber attack in the healthcare sector. In August 2022, I wrote the following bulletin ‘Have Cyber Attacks Killed People’ which looked at possible incidents which might have caused deaths. It looked at direct