My New Year’s Business Continuity Resolutions of 2026
In his first bulletin of the year, Charlie discusses his business continuity resolutions that he is taking into 2026. In addition to my usual resolutions of going to the gym, losing weight, and reading more books, I thought I would share some business continuity New Year’s resolutions. As they say, if you write them down,
What Does BCI World Hybrid Tell Us About The State Of The Business Continuity Industry In 2025?
We attended BCI World Hybrid 2025 this week! In today’s bulletin, Charlie shares his experience of the conference and his key takeaways from the event. I came back from BCI World Hybrid yesterday and I thought, as usual, I would share my thoughts on the conference and what it tells us about the business continuity
Lost Data – What Happens To It?
In today’s bulletin, Charlie discusses data loss and gives an insight into how hackers may use our personal data. I have been delivering training for two days this week, teaching my BCT Certificate in Cyber Incident Management course. As part of the training, we were discussing data breaches and the loss of our personal data.
“What’s In a Name?”…Is it a Live-Play Exercise or A SIMEX?
In today’s bulletin, Charlie discusses the difference between live-play exercises and SIMEXs (simulated exercises), and gives an insight into the importance of agreed wording in exercising. I was at the NCSC (National Cyber Security Centre) yesterday as part of a meeting between the organisations that are part of their Cyber Incident Exercising (CIE) scheme, and
How Do You Solve A Problem Like Andrew (Mountbatten Windsor)?
In this week’s bulletin, Charlie discusses the stripped titles of Prince Andrew (now Andrew Mountbatten Windsor), and shares some key lessons that we can apply in our own organisations. Andrew as a name doesn’t work as well as the Sound of Music’s “How do you solve a problem like Maria?”, but the sentiment of the song and
Amazon AWS Outage: Why Your Disaster Recovery Plan Probably Won’t Work
In this week’s bulletin, Charlie looks at how the AWS outage shows that “it does actually happen” despite all our layers of defence and resilience – a stark reminder of the close coupling of systems, where hidden dependencies can align to trigger failure on a global scale. This week, while preparing for an exercise, I
Is the Tactical Plan Dead?
In this week’s bulletin, Charlie reflects on a recent SIMEX exercise and explores whether traditional tactical teams in incident management might be replaced, or better supported, by smaller, focused work groups. I did a SIMEX exercise on Tuesday for a large insurance company. They had a large Gold Team but didn’t have a Silver Team
Beyond Box-Ticking: How SIMEX Can Transform Business Continuity
In this blog – part of a series from PlanB and Databarracks’ business resilience consultants – Gavin Watt explores the value of a SIMEX and the best practices for planning and running one. Exercising is one of the most critical elements in an effective Business Continuity Management System (BCMS). While this is hardly new or
JLR Cyber Breach – My Technical Takeaways
In this week’s bulletin, Charlie looks at Jaguar Land Rover’s recent hack and gives an insight into lessons learned from the event. I have been wanting to write something on JLR for a few weeks, and with them announcing they have got parts of their manufacturing sites up and running, I thought it was a
The Six Horsemen: A New Way Of Looking At Business Continuity Risk
In this week’s bulletin, Charlie discusses how organisations can better prepare themselves by categorising potential risks to their operations, and looks at the importance of being prepared for all types of risk. Business continuity has always had an uneasy relationship with risk. Yes, we recognise that risk is important and needs to guide what we
Sharing Experience: ‘Mentoring and Reverse Mentoring in Action’ – How Will AI Affect The Business Continuity Profession?
It’s the last day of the BCI’s Education Month! In today’s bulletin, Charlie writes about the importance of mentoring in learning about business continuity and shares his experiences of the use of AI in the business continuity profession. It is exciting to be on the cusp of a revolution where, as some say, the change
Cyber Use of AI: Friend or Foe?
In today’s bulletin, Charlie looks at the ways in which cyber attackers and cyber attack defenders are using AI, and how AI can support their goals. I recently discovered that, in a couple of weeks, I was due to be in two places at once – umpiring a large client exercise and delivering a talk
“Concentrate on Preparing to Recover” – Sage Advice From Someone Who Has Managed a Cyber Incident
In today’s bulletin, Charlie discusses Comhairle nan Eilean Siar’s cyber attack back in 2023 and gives an insight into ways organisations can aid recovery after a cyber incident. This week, as some of you may have seen on LinkedIn, I have been in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, speaking to the Council about their
Survey – How Are Resilience Professionals And Others Using AI?
We need your help! In this week’s bulletin, Charlie has provided a short survey on how resilience professionals use AI in their organisations. I thought for this week’s bulletin, I would reach out for your help. As part of the Emergency Planning Society’s Communication Professional Working Group, I have developed a survey on how resilience
Key Takeaways From Check Point’s ‘The State of Cyber Security’ Report
In today’s bulletin, Charlie discusses the recent findings from Check Point’s State of Cyber Security Report and gives an idea of the takeaways from the report. This week, I have been teaching my two-day cyber course, and I felt inspired to write something on cyber. While browsing the internet, I came across Check Point’s report
The Pandora Hack – What Can We Learn From It?
In this week’s bulletin, Charlie discusses the recent Pandora cyber attack and gives an insight into the lessons we can learn from the incident. A couple of events have inspired the bulletin this week. Firstly, my wife, Kim, received an email from Pandora, the jewellery company, informing her of a data breach. This resonated with
“Come What May” – Lucy Easthope: A Must-Read For BC Professionals
In this week’s bulletin, Charlie gives an insight into Lucy Easthope’s book which provides some useful takeaways for dealing with an incident. I have been off for the last couple of weeks and have been trying to do some reading. I have been working through Lucy Easthope’s book, Come What May: Life-Changing Lessons for Coping
Accidental Data Breaches: Lessons From the PSNI and Afghanistan ‘Super Injunction’ Data Leak
In today’s bulletin, Charlie discusses accidental data breaches and gives an insight into the key takeaways from this, so similar breaches don’t occur in our own organisations. Three things came together to inspire me to write on the above subject this week. Firstly, the news of the Afghanistan super injunction and its impact has been
Have Cyber-Attacks Killed People? Updated July 2025
In this week’s bulletin, Charlie discusses whether cyber-attacks have ever directly caused a death, revisiting past and recent incidents. This is almost becoming an annual occurrence: writing a report that examines whether, as per the title, cyber-attacks have directly contributed to the death of a person or people. While there are numerous case studies showing
Guidance on Writing the First External Communication After a Cyber Incident
In today’s bulletin, Charlie provides some useful information on how organisations should approach their communication to customers after a cyber incident. The following is guidance on communicating after a cyber incident. The formats for the initial communications are likely to be a press statement and information on the organisation’s website. 1 – Decide how visible
Good, but Could Be Better: Cyber Comms Lessons from Glasgow City Council’s Cyber Attack – Initial Communications
In this week’s bulletin, Charlie discusses the strengths and weaknesses of Glasgow City Council’s initial communications following a recent cyber attack, highlighting key lessons for crisis and business continuity professionals. As a business continuity professional, I rather enjoy reviewing the crisis communications from an organisation in the few days after a cyber attack. It provides
The Kelly Report – Incident Management Lessons from the Heathrow Substation Fire
In this week’s bulletin, Charlie discusses the Kelly Report from Heathrow substation fire and how they responded to the incident. As business continuity practitioners we should never stop learning and taking lessons where and when we can find them, be that from internal enquiries or wash-ups to reports from major incidents either locally, nationally or
In Praise of Plan Walkthroughs
In this week’s bulletin, Charlie discusses the value of going back to basics with a series of business continuity plan walkthroughs, highlighting how a structured review of plan content helped participants truly understand their roles and responsibilities during an incident. This week, I have been doing a number of plan walkthroughs for a client. The
The Co-op Cyber Attack – A Timeline Case Study
In today’s bulletin, Charlie revisits the recent Co-op cyber attack and provides a useful timeline of events to highlight the progress of the incident. This week, I thought I would go back to cyber, as for the last two weeks I have been delivering my cyber course – firstly as a public course, and secondly as a
The Crisis Communications Iceberg
This week, Charlie looks at key considerations in your communications response to an incident, and highlights the importance of including all staff in the communication. I have been delivering some crisis training this week to a client in the South of England, and I thought I would share some thoughts from that training. Typically when we mention communications in the context