With hurricane season just two weeks away, prudent safety directors should be reviewing their disaster recovery (DR) plans. Hurricane Katrina serves as a dramatic reminder of the need for pre-disaster planning. It also illustrates the importance of accounting for all threats including intentional acts, natural disasters and catastrophic accidents in your planning. Apparently, however, a number of organizations have yet to absorb these lessons.

Neglecting Physical Security

Disaster planning has become more widespread in recent years. But many organizations have focused almost exclusively on improving security for essential computer system infrastructure and mission-critical data. This has had an unfortunate side effect: relative inattention to physical security. According to an article about world-wide business in the magazine Japan Inc., "businesses have gotten so caught up in technological security that they have forgotten the more basic, yet salient, notion of physical security."

For example, funds are being shifted to IT security and away from measures to prevent physical break-ins and to harden facilities against adverse environmental impacts, such as from flooding and windblown debris. This neglect has, according to some observers, left organizations vulnerable to physical security breaches and natural disasters.

Dividing Security Makes Organizations Easier to Conquer

Internal administration is contributing to organizational vulnerability to physical hazards. In many organizations, IT security is run by one department, personnel security by another, physical security by another and network operations by yet another. According to a survey by Pinkerton Consulting and Investigations, only 2% of corporations grouped IT security and building security in the same department, and only 36% supported formal communications between those responsible for building and IT security.

Typically, each of the separate departments has its own budget, priorities and methods. This division of responsibility often disrupts communication and coordination among those responsible for security. This reduces the practical efficacy of even the best-planned DRs and thus undermines the organization's capacity to prevent and react to disruptive events.

The Importance of Balance

"Balance" is the watchword for success in disaster preparedness. First, there must be balance between cyber and physical security. Security managers need a plan that recognizes and protects against threats from all sources--man-made, environmental and catastrophic accidents.

There must also be balance within the planning process itself, specifically between pre- and post-disaster planning. No matter how extensive the existing DR plan, the department responsible for physical security needs to develop a comprehensive disaster prevention and mitigation (DPM) plan to protect people and property, preserve business continuity and guard against organizational liability.

In either case, the DPM plan and the DR plan need to be mutually supportive and not in conflict with one another. The end result needs to be an integrated security program that sets up a course of action to prevent and mitigate disruptive events as well as steps to be taken in the event such an incident occurs.

Conclusion

Next week, in Part 2 of this series, I'll discuss some of the specific things security managers should do to achieve a balanced, comprehensive DPM plan.

Editor's Note: Portions of this article originally appeared in the November 2005 issue of Security Products and in the online version of Credit Union magazine in April 2006. It is scheduled to appear in the July issue of Disaster Recovery Journal.

SWING SET RECALLED

Before your set up your kids' new fort and swing set in the backyard, check first that it's not the recalled model of the Adventure Playsets Wooden Swing Sets distributed by Backyard Ventures Inc. of Amarillo, Texas.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has announced a voluntary recall of the swing set due to a fall hazard posed by detaching frames. CPSC has received 64 reports of the bolt heads twisting off while installing the swing set frame to the fort structure. Fortunately, there have been no injuries reported.

The recalled swing set models, which were sold at Wal-Mart, Menards and Toys "R" Us, include The Durango, Tacoma, Odyssey, Bellvue, Monarch, Grand Teton and Outlook II. If you have any of these models, you're advised to stop using the swing sets immediately and contact Backyard Ventures for repair and bolt replacement instructions.

View this recall online.

POP QUIZ

Which Kills More Women?

Pink Bats used by ML'ers yesterday to raise money for breast cancer.

By Catherine Jones

If you watched a baseball game on TV (or at the ball park) yesterday, you probably saw something you had never seen before at a Major League game: Pink baseball bats. In addition to adding some Mother's Day color, the pink bats raised money to fight breast cancer. Good for baseball.

But here's a trivia question: Which kills more women every year, breast cancer or stroke?

Answer: Stroke

According to the National Stroke Association (NSA), more than 100,000 women die from stroke every year, nearly twice the number of women who die from breast cancer. May is National Stroke Awareness month and the NSA wants to spread the word about how women are uniquely affected by strokes. Here are some other facts:

• While men may suffer more strokes than women, women are more likely than men to die from stroke.
• African American women are significantly more prone to stroke than Caucasian women

According to the NSA, 80% of us - men and women - can prevent strokes from ever happening. How? By:

• Knowing your blood pressure
• Not smoking
• Drinking alcohol only in moderation
• Exercising regularly
• Sticking to a low salt, low fat diet
• And, most importantly, having an annual physical exam and talking to your doctor about your stroke risks.

Source: National Stroke Association.

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