Contingency Planning

A big part of security planning is being prepared for the inevitable a failure that stops or hinders operations of business. These can come in many ways, shapes and forms including malicious attacks, mother nature and just plain human mistakes.

Contingency planning has four key part that have their own planning and task requirements.

Business Impact Analysis (BIA) includes:

• Threat Attack Identification and Prioritization
• Business Unit Analysis
• Attack Success Scenario Development
• Potential Damage Assessment 
• Subordinate Plan Coordination

Incident Response Planning (IRP) includes:

• Incident Planning
• Incident Assessment
• Incident Reaction
• Incident Recovery

Disaster Planning Recovery (DRP) includes:

• Plan for Disaster Recovery
• Crisis Management
• Recovery Operations

Business Continuity Planning (BCP) includes:

• Establish Continuity Strategies
• Plan for Continuity of Operations
• Continuity Management

A total contingency plan includes all phases and will kick in during various times and sequence during an identified incident or disaster:

Plan:        IRP -------------------> DRP--------------------> BCP-------------------->DRP

Timeline: Attack Begins                  Post-attack (hours)           Post-attack (days)         Normal operations