Knowledge Zone

Here you will find articles, archive blogs and case studies that PlanB have used or created over the years. To find information please type a keyword into the search box or click on the relevant tag.

We publish weekly updates from the business continuity world, covering recent news items or reflecting on our travels and experiences with clients.

Charlie addresses topics from a Business Continuity perspective and you might be surprised how much of today’s news relates to BC! Providing valuable insight, Charlie raises critical questions which will surely encourage you to reconsider your Business Continuity plans.

Clarion Housing Association Cyber Incident, June 2022 – A Case Study

In this week’s bulletin, Charlie looks at the recent cyber incident from Clarion and explains how organisations can recover from a cyber incident. Next week, I am conducting a cyber exercise for a housing association, and in preparation, I decided to explore the specific impact of a cyber incident on housing associations. When discussing cyber-attacks, the most frequently

Mind the Resilience Podcast – From Vision to Success: The Story of a Resilience Entrepreneur

This week Charlie was a special guest on Episode 22 of the Mind the Resilience podcast, discussing his passion for business continuity, the challenges faced by organisations during crises and his thoughts on emerging trends.   Here is a sneak preview of the episode: Introduction to Charlie: Discover the story behind his journey in establishing two successful companies

Capita Hack: A Case Study of What Not To Do …

In this week’s bulletin, Charlie discusses Capita’s response to its recent cyber attack and gives an insight into how organisations should communicate with their customers after a potential breach. I have been meaning to write something on Capita since I was aware of their hack about a month ago. Shortly after it happened, I went on holiday, so

Arnold Clark Hack – A Car Crash in Motion?

In today’s bulletin, Charlie gives his thoughts about Arnold Clark’s recent cyber incident and gives an insight into their response, and what we can learn from this.   For the last few weeks, I have been watching the news of the cyber-attack on Arnold Clark and thought that this week, I should write a case study of what

Royal Mail Ransomware Attacks- Some Comments

This week, Charlie discusses the ‘cyber incident’ affecting Royal Mail and gives an insight into his recent ‘Cyber Course for Non-Cyber Roles’.    Twice this week, I delivered a day-long NCSC certified course – ‘Cyber Course for Non-Cyber Roles’ – as an in-house course for an organisation wanting to make sure that those in support roles have general

James Watt of BrewDog – Never go to court?

This week’s bulletin looks at reputation, court cases, and how to manage targeted abuse. Having previously written a case study about James Watt of BrewDog and how he handled allegations of bullying within the organisation, the BBC documentary repeating these allegations and hinting he was using his position for sexual impropriety, I was interested to read that he had won

Should PMs Party?

In the age of camera phones and social media, it has become harder for public figures to hide from the public eye. Charlie discusses how two different Prime Ministers handled leaked pictures from a crisis communications angle, and what lessons BC professionals can learn from this. I have been following the story of Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin

Flu Pandemic Planning 2006 and What Really Happened!

This week, Charlie discusses pandemic plans that were suggested back in 2006, and how they compare to the actions that were taken during the height of the COVID pandemic. I came across the booklet ‘Flu Pandemic Guidelines for Businesses’ produced by Survive when we were moving our office. I thought it might be interesting to look at Survive’s

Rota Power Cuts and an Old Incident Revisited – Auckland Power Outage, 1998

This week, Charlie discusses his experience with power cuts in Johannesburg, and previous famous power cuts, such as in Auckland. I am currently in Johannesburg, South Africa, delivering an MSc module to a client from Glasgow University; the module is on “Work-Based Resilience, Continuity and Crisis Management”. After a day of lecturing, I took a little stroll near

Our Work with Aruba’s Water Suppliers

We have been proudly working with WEB Aruba to help them create crisis management plans and run exercises. Here is their press release on our latest exercise. WEB Aruba organises ‘water rationing plan’ exercise How prepared are we in the event that water production and distribution comes to a stop at WEB? This week, the Crisis Management Department

Dominic Cummings – A crisis management case study

This week I discuss the crisis communications lessons to be learnt from Dominic Cummings’ recent ‘rule-breaking’ incident in lockdown. As the ‘Dominic Cummings Affair’ is coming to an end I thought I would comment on what we can learn about crisis communications from the circus surrounding his visit to Durham, during lockdown. I think it is a perfect

Marks out of 100 for Easyjet’s Cyber Incident Response

Charlie scores Easyjet’s response to their recent cyber attack out of 100. “Thankfully, we now live in a world where it is accepted that data breaches happen, and organisations are more comfortable disclosing that they have been victim to an attack. However, with this welcome move away from victim blaming, organisations are now being judged more on how

Panic buying toilet roll – lesson identified or learned?

This week I look at panic buying and what lessons we can identify from the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak to help prevent this in the future. When I talk to Jacqui Semple, Head of the EPS and Resilience Lead at Angus Council, about incidents and the lessons learned from them, she always corrects me by saying they are ‘lessons

Case study – Dundee and Angus College’s Cyber attack communications review

Following Dundee and Angus College’s recent cyber attack, Charlie looks at why their response is a good example of how to deal with a cyber incident and what we can learn from it. I thought this week we might take a break from talking about the coronavirus (COVID-19), as every man, woman and consultant seems to be posting

Pandemic Planning: What is a Pandemic Operating Regime, and do I need one?

Following the spread of Coronavirus throughout China and surrounding countries, Charlie introduces the idea of a Pandemic Operating Regime and why you should develop one. After returning from Colombia last week and working on the new ISO 22361 standard which will replace ‘PD CEN/TS 17091:2018, Crisis management – Guidance for developing a strategic capability’, I wanted to write

Travelex – A Crisis Communications Review

Charlie looks at the recent Travelex incident and what we can learn from their response. Happy New Year to all our readers, I hope you had a great Christmas! The Travelex incident is one I have only just come across; I think over new year I was too busy celebrating on the Isle of Coll and I wasn’t

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