The National Disaster Recovery Framework is a guide that enables effective recovery support to disaster-impacted States, Tribes, Territorial and local jurisdictions. It provides a flexible structure that enables disaster recovery managers to operate in a unified and collaborative manner. It also focuses on how best to restore, redevelop and revitalize the health, social, economic, natural and environmental fabric of the community and build a more resilient Nation.

Continue reading National Disaster Recovery Framework

Tags: FDRC, Federal Disaster Recovery Coordinator, FEMA, interagency, National Disaster Recovery Framework, national preparedness, NDR, PPD-8, Presidential Policy Directive-8, Recovery Support Functions

5 REASONS WHY YOU’LL WANT…

The First Ever College Textbook on

Business Continuity and Risk Management –

also a great reference source and self-study guide

for business continuity practitioners and novices!

Continue reading NEW BOOK: Business Continuity and Risk Management: Essentials of Organizational Resilience

Tags: 9781931332545, book, Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery, Engemann, Henderson, Risk Management, textbook, X 978-1931332-54-5

A team of national, regional, state and local agencies and organizations have undertaken an effort to develop, facilitate and evaluate a recurring series of disaster exercises entitled “Formidable Footprint.”

Continue reading Formidable Footprint – A National Community / Neighborhood Exercise Series

Tags: Disaster Resistant Communities, exercise, Formidable Footprint, ONX, scenarios, Testing

When a hurricane makes landfall, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency relies on a couple of metrics to assess its destructive power. First, there is the well-known Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale. Then there is what he calls the “Waffle House Index.”

Continue reading How to Measure a Storm’s Fury One Breakfast at a Time

Tags: Hurricane Irene, preparedness

A decade after 9/11, Louis Barani of the new WTC is designing a situational awareness platform that reflects on the past for future protection

Continue reading Situational awareness: Inside the new World Trade Center

Tags: security, World Trade Center, WTC

The Business Continuity Institute (BCI) has recently signed a landmark agreement with the Disaster Recovery Journal (DRJ), which will strategically align the two business continuity management (BCM) leaders and expand the services and offerings to their members, readers and attendees. For the BCM Community, this is a very significant move as the alliance will mark the beginning of a relationship that will ensure continued global influence across industries and create a platform to broaden and deepen discussions and thought leadership in business continuity and related professions for a more secure and resilient society, domestically and internationally.

Continue reading The Start of a New Era of Business Continuity Management as DRJ Forms a Strategic Alliance with The BCI

Tags: bci, Business Continuity Institute, Disaster Recovery Journal, DRJ, industry

Another Amazon cloud-services outage occurred on Sunday, August 7th, 2011 in a Dublin, Ireland data center due to a lightning strike that hit a transformer near the Dublin data center.

Continue reading Lessons learned from a recent Amazon outage

Tags: Amazon, cloud computing, cloud services, Disaster Recovery, outage, service providers, sla

Imagine what would happen if all the Google engineers turned rogue and held the world’s Gmail accounts to ransom. Or if aliens attacked earth and wiped California off the map.

Continue reading Taken over by aliens? Don’t worry; Google has it covered

Tags: disaster scenarios, Gmail, Google, scenarios

Industrial control systems (ICS) are information systems that control industrial processes, such as manufacturing, product production, handling, and distribution. ICS are used in many industries: electric, water, oil and gas, chemical, pharmaceutical, pulp and paper, food and beverage industries; manufacture of automobiles, aerospace equipment, and other durable goods; and air and rail transportation.

Continue reading Protecting Industrial Control Systems – Key Components of Our Nation’s Critical Infrastructure

Tags: critical infrastructure, Guide to Industrial Control System (ICS) Security, ICS, Industrial control systems, NIST SP 800-82, NIST Special Publication (SP) 800-82

Hurricane Irene and the recent East Coast earthquake are critical reminders of the importance of timely communication among managers and their employees.

Continue reading When Natural Disasters Strike, Touch Base Regularly With Employees

Tags: crisis communication

In the immediate aftermath of a disaster or pandemic, people usually take stock of how unprepared they were for a crisis and are full of good intentions that next time disaster strikes, they will never again be caught unaware. But just a few months after any major crisis, a reality check usually shows that good intentions have given way to what now seems to be more pressing budgetary priorities, and planning momentum for a disaster has subsided. Continue reading A Decade After 9/11, Business Continuity Is Still A Work-In-Progress On Wall Street

Tags: budget, Business Continuity, financial crisis, investment, Wall Street