With the news today of Russian troops moving into the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk I thought I would share some thoughts with readers of the PlanB Consulting newsletter, on some risks to consider and to plan for.

The risk to consider are:
1. If you still have employees in the region, have you planned to evacuate them safely or if you employ Russian employees in other jurisdictions you may need to consider their safety in light of the fact Russia is seen as the transgressor.

2. The NCSC has already warned of an increase in cyber attacks. These attacks could be on the national infrastructure, defence companies, oil and gas infrastructure providers, financial instructions and government. There could also be an increase in the number of attacks on companies and organisations as many of the ransomware gangs appear to be based in Russia.

3. Consider the impact on your supply chain if the goods and services you require are provided by Russian companies, supplied from Russia or pass through Russia. Do you require raw materials supplied from Russia that could lead to a shortage of supply and hence the price going up?

4. The oil and gas price could go up further impacting supply chain, cost of transport and products that use oil and gas as raw materials.

5. Is your organisation funded or dependent on Russian finance, investment or funded by Russian financial institutions that could be affected by sanctions?

6. There could be anti-war protests and these could be aimed at defence companies or those within the defence space.

7. There could be an increase in disinformation on social media with troll farms seeking to undermine western unity and sow division.

8. You will need to understand any new sanctions that are imposed and make sure that they are not violated accidentally.

9. Could these events have an impact on China and its supply chain and the supply of Chinese goods?

During incidents we should also be thinking about opportunities, if any,  these events may present. I always feel it is the job of the business continuity manager, if nobody else is doing it, to consider world events, identify the risk to your organisation and then take appropriate mitigating measures.