Business Continuity: Building resilience to survive disaster

Why would 60 per cent of small businesses shut down six months after a cyber-attack and what role would Business Continuity Model (BCM) and Disaster Recovery Plan (DSP) play to ensure that businesses survive?

As annual number of data breaches increased from 157 million to 783 million between 2005 and 2014, the negative impact of the breaches keep telling on companies without BCM.

Planning not to fail by ensuring a functional BCM posed a challenge to company chief executives at the Nigerian Capital Market Information Security Forum (NCMISF) which held recently at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) Lagos.

When disaster strikes, business owners usually have the challenge of early recovery or bouncing back within hours. While some take longer than expected to reopen operations, others may close shop because of business processes or system failure caused by invasion of company’s data bank, accident, infrastructural disruption, epidemic, natural disaster, attack etc.

To ensure that business organizations continue to function, irrespective of operational challenges, the NSE held the Nigerian capital market information security forum (NCMISF), themed “Does your business have the resilience to survive a disaster? The forum also made professional case for business continuity management.

The forum emphasized that there is the need for the board of directors of organizations to establish Business Continuity Plan (BCP) as a hedge against developments that could affect operational continuity. NSE’s Executive Director, Market Operations and Technology, Ade Bajomo, said that statistics show that 60 per cent of small businesses will shut down within 6 months of a cyber-attack. According to him, in the United States alone, annual number of data breaches increased from 157 million to 783 million between 2005 and 2014 and it is estimated that the cost to the organizations per breach has also increased by 23 per cent.

“Business continuity which is the capability of the organization to continue delivery of products or services at acceptable predefined levels following a disruptive incident is now considered a societal security issue, essential to protect a society or economy,” Bajomo said.

He said that NSE has a BCM which is periodically tested and also has BCM cloud to which companies could subscribe for their continuity initiatives. “We have well-articulated programme tested with stakeholders,” he said, adding that the continuity plan is imperative as it has remained functional and has kept the Exchange running

“Here availability is the key, the trade engine must be on, the day the engine is not on, the whole world will know,” Bajomo said.

Bajomo advised CEOs not to put their recovery model and back up in the same geographical area as the business domain as this would frustrate recovery effort in time of need.

Bajomo said that as technology evolves and businesses become more prone to attacks, it is evident that business continuity can no longer be treated as an afterthought or a surplus cash flow item. “It should become an integral part of operational planning and operational cost.

The need for business continuity planning has grown rapidly in today’s fast paced, volatile business climate and as such organizations cannot afford the risk of not having a continuity plan in place” Favor Femi-Oyewole, of the CISO-NSE, said that many companies find it difficult to set up a business continuity model, but when disaster strikes, such companies have the challenge of bouncing back immediately and spend more human and material resources to set up systems and processes that ensure resilience in times of crisis.

In the face of crisis, companies that fail to establish BCM lose confidence of their stakeholders, suffer equity price decline, spend more on cost, damage control, rebuilding business confidence and in the establishment of continuity model to ensure further disaster never disrupts organizational operations.

She said that BCM helps organization know end to end of their operational models, enables business owners to reduce the amount of money to be used to put their business back in form anytime operative disruption occurs. Femi-Oyewole said that business continuity does not start and end with establishing sustainable models, but such models should be tested periodically to identify challenges and possibly push for a higher BCM budget to enhance sustainability.

The chief executive of FBG Technologies and Solutions, organizing partner organization with the NSE on NCMISF Mr. Rex, Mafiana, said that the greatest challenge of achieving a sound business continuity model rests on securing the support of the management who usually endorses the budget for support systems.

He said that business continuity management is concerned with resoluteness of business organizations and putting a check on anything that will disrupt the business operations. Enunciating why business owners need to take business continuity model serous, Mafiano said that the benefits cut cross the organization, the business owners, the employees, its publics, investors amongst others.

He said that BCM not only helps to maintain sound continuity of operations and service delivery, but builds customers confidence, and also helps to build confidence within the organization and the business circle.

According to Mafiana, BCM also help to reduce the risk of financial loss during crisis that disrupts operations, builds potentially competitive advantage, helping to preserve a brand value as well as ensure continuity, security and order fulfillments, among other benefits. Mr. Tosin Beredugo, Deputy General Manager, Infrastucture Services and Enterprise Security of the NSE, revealing what usually prompts BCM initiatives , said power loss, fire, transport problem, strike by staff, water crisis, snow , epidemic , system hacking, among other factors, could bring an organization to its foundation where there is no business continuity model in place.

He said that having identified issues that could disrupt operations of companies, organization irrespective of the size should be concerned with plans to mitigate the impact of disaster in its operations.

He urged CEO to be concerned with establishing a reliable back up plan for their organizations, hence it’s the survival of the system and processes that gives birth to the realization of the company’ objectives. Bederugo in his presentation revealed that business continuity planning, should be supported by regular interruption tests, which would be triggered anytime occurrence that would disrupt operations occurs. This, he said, would help mitigate loss through down hours and negative impact on the reputation of the organization.

He counselled CEO of companies to buy into BCM through having better understanding of it, not just as commitment to fulfill regulatory requirements, but a mover towards consolidating the future and sustainability of the organization. Mrs. Oluyemi Obadore BCM NSE, speaking on “the Good, the bad and the ugly of BCM’ said business continuity plan entails people of different departments, different roles and different designations, with one leader coming together for one goal.

Sad that the disaster recovery plans also ensures that the ITs, peoples and processes are up and running as soon as disaster strikes. “The one that made Business continuity plan a reals issue was the September 11, the twin attack on the twin tower at the World Trade Centre” It cost $3.2 Billion to replace technology,$1.7 billion to restore server and $1.5bn to restore other services on IT” Giving instance of BCM need, she said that a mere power outage, caused by malfunctioning of a fuse outage led to cancellation of over 700 Delta airline flight in the USA around June ,with huge cost on the company and its equity price.

She said that the NSE has had its fair share of trade disruption occasioned by private order on the trade engine which the system dictated and cut off.

However, due to formidable BCM on ground at the NSE and leadership quality of its team leader, the issue was resolved internally before the private order was extricated by the system and normal trade sustained. Challenges when they happen in organisations, affect operational continuity, employment, service delivery, supply chain, earnings, equity price and also projections for the year. BCM looks at the long term impacts of crisis on the business, how management reacts and the communication model to be executed by the right person to nip the crisis in the bud