In high risk, high reward research environments facilities staff, environmental health and safety, and risk managers understand the need for pre-incident plans at several levels.
First, nothing can go wrong! Unlike many other business functions, the R&D and manufacturing environments pose distinct challenges. For instance, a company’s next “block buster” drug is in the pipeline, clinical trials could be going on and vivarium’s used for animal testing can all be potentially effected by an unforeseen physical event, whether fire, weather, or man-made. The leading pharmaceutical companies understand the need for proper pre- incident planning based on a standard and use cloud-based software like Blazemark®
Risk Managers who negotiate their property and casualty insurance as well as Workers Compensation need to demonstrate that their company is actively managing risk. While keeping employees safe, the real driver in a research and development environment is “none of the research is insurable”. If something goes wrong, the company’s next billion-dollar block buster drug potentially goes out the door and the competition can then get to market first.
More and more of the forward thinking companies understand that their corporate IT systems are constantly under threat. While we occasionally hear about a “ransomware” attack, or denial of services attack on corporations (one major global pharma IT department was out for weeks earlier this year), there are many other much more significant attacks that occur on a daily basis that are equal or worse to the typical hacking that we normally hear about. Theft of “Intellectual Property Rights” (IPR) which are many companies’ real assets and figure heavily into their valuations are often targeted. Theft of IPR and attacks on corporate IT systems can often times be “state sponsored”, or for a variety of reasons other non-governmental or even non-main stream corporate entities can be trying to hack into corporate systems to gain a competitive advantage looking for trade secrets. For example, other organizations that have a grudge, gripe, or do not like a business using animals will go to great lengths to get information on animal testing locations with a goal of gaining physical entry to a facility.
So, what happens when the above scenarios play out on the corporate IT network? generic amoxil Systems go down or get slow. What happens when your pre-incident plans, emergency operations plans, business continuity plans and everything else that you need in any type of event are on the targeted system? You are out of luck.
The solution to the above as many clients tell us is to keep the pre-incident plans and other emergency information off of the corporate network in an environment that likely surpasses from a security standpoint the companies own internal IT environment. Many companies like using a set of well known software products to run their business. Problem with this approach is all of the bad guys know which products that are likely to be in use and easy to hack (think Microsoft Browsers and other products…not to pick on MS just saying).
If an emergency event occurs and the corporate networks are compromised then all of the emergency planning and everything else that is stored on line for emergency use is of zero value. You need to compartmentalize your emergency plans and keep them in a separate and secure environment like Blazemark so that when things do go wrong, you still have a fighting chance of taking care of the emergency at hand with and minimize the further disruption of the business by keeping the event at the lowest manageable level.
If you need help in creating and or securing your emergency operation and pre-incident plans into one place which is accessible by the click of a finger, contact Blazemark at 800-965-0041 or email info@blazemark.com. The creators of Blazemark pre-planning software, FirePlanningAssociates.com, has extensive experience in preparing pre-incident plans for government and business. This experience also includes incorporating plans into tabletop exercises and full-scale drills where all stakeholders can learn and practice skills in preparation for natural disasters and man-made incidents. Get more information at getBlazemark.com.
Bart Krauss started his public service career in 1979 and has expertise in high-risk security environments, emergency services and information technology. Currently, he is a Principal with Fire Planning Associates who’s lead product is Blazemark, a cloud-based Preplanning System. Bart also serves as President of the Upper Makefield Fire Department in Washngton Crossing Pennsylvania.