6 Business Continuity Planning
This chapter covers
- Business Continuity (BC)
- The Business Continuity Plan (BCP)
- Business Impact Analysis (BIA)
- Testing the Business Continuity Plan
Adverse events such as natural disasters, cyber-attacks, and other unforeseen circumstances can significantly disrupt an organization's operations. The occurrence of these events is an unavoidable reality. When they do occur, it is imperative that critical services continue and business operations are maintained, even during recovery efforts.
The proactive approach to identifying essential functions and maintaining operational resilience and continuity is called Business Continuity (BC). It involves a comprehensive assessment of the organization to identify essential services, i.e., those functions that are critical to maintaining business operations during and after a disruption. Business Continuity also includes developing plans and procedures to help the organization continue operating with minimal interruption during incidents such as cyberattacks, natural disasters, or system failures.
This chapter explains how to plan for business continuity by using a business impact analysis (BIA) to identify essential services and then creating a business continuity plan (BCP). Since cybersecurity professionals play a critical role in maintaining the integrity and availability of essential systems, they must understand the key metrics and the lifecycle behind the development and maintenance of a BCP.