Business continuity

  • National insurance for natural disasters: a necessity or "beach house bailout"

    Supporters of national disaster insurance program say it is better to plan ahead than do a bailout after a natural disaster; opponents say it would be a subsidy for owners of coastal mansions and encourage people to live in disaster-prone areas

  • Chile's earthquakeThe city of Concepción moved 10 feet to the west; rebuilding infrastructure will cost $1.2 billion

    Chile's earthquake was the fifth most powerful quake ever measured; the powerful temblor shifts one city to the west -- and rearranges others parts of South America as well; cost of rebuilding Chile's infrastructure estimated at $1.2 billion

  • Wireless communication solutions for emergency situations

    At one time, traditional broadcast networks -- radio and TV -- were adequate for alert services and information dissemination during disasters and emergencies; these means do not allow communication among individuals; modern mobile devices might prove increasingly resilient in emergencies and could be the most accessible platform for the majority of people

  • Counter Terror Expo 2010, April 14-15, National Hall, Olympia, United Kingdom

  • Private security firms eyeing Haiti contracts

    Private security firms eager to gain lucrative security contracts in earthquake-ravaged Haiti; a mid-march conference in Miami would bring together security companies and Haitian officials to examine the market; critics, including some current and former Haitian officials, worry about the trend toward privatizing essential reconstruction services

  • How real is the threat of cyberattack on the United States?

    Some experts compare the economic impact of a major cyberincident to the 2003 Northeast blackout, which cut service to fifty million people in the United States and Canada for up to four days; economists place the cost of that event between $4.5 [billion] and $10 billion -- which they regard as a blip in the $14.2 trillion U.S. economy

  • Gartner: only 6 percent of companies survive longer than two years after losing data

    Gartner Group says that 43 percent of companies were immediately put out of business by a "major loss" of computer records, and another 51 percent permanently closed their doors within two years — leaving a mere six percent "survival" rate; Zenith Infotech says it can help

  • Border Security Expo & Conference, Phoenix, Arizona – April 23 & 24, 2010

  • How to make an organization more resilient

    Small and mid-sized organizations are especially at risk when disaster strikes, since few have the resources or knowledge to develop full-scale continuity plans; CDW-Government offers seven useful tips on how to make organizations more resilient; CDW-G’s experts argue that the most important thing for an organization during a disaster is to ensure the integrity of its data, communications capabilities, and the information technology infrastructure to support both

  • Companies compete for Haiti cleanup contracts

    Cleaning up after the Haiti earthquake, in which some 225,000 homes and at least 25,000 government and office buildings collapsed, is big business; American clean-up companies with political muscle are vying for lucrative contracts

  • ShockWave cyberdrill will see former officials manage cyberattack on U.S.

    Simulated cyberattack to test government response to nation-wide cyberattack on the United States; the purpose of the drill is to see how officials in key government positions would react to a real-time cyberattack, and to evaluate the split-second decisions they may be required to take to deal with it

  • Effectively Countering Terrorism – Prevention, Preparedness, Response – Sussex A

  • Revolutionary water treatment system may make coping with disaster easier

    Researchers develop a revolutionary waste-water treatment device which uses little energy, is transportable, scalable, simple to set-up, simple to operate, comes on-line in record time, and can be monitored remotely; new system cleans influent wastewater within twenty-four hours after set-up to discharge levels that exceed the standards established by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for municipal wastewater

  • Waterfall receives U.S. patent for SCADA solution

    SCADA, or Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, is used, among other things, to monitor and control the U.S. critical infrastructure assets and facilities; Waterfall receives a patent for unidirectional security gateways to be used in SCADA

  • AnalysisObama offers strategic redefinition, expansion of DHS mission

    In July 2002, nearly a year before DHS was created under former president George W. Bush, a handful of advisers hastily drafted in private a 90-page national homeland security strategy; that document was later criticized for being partially responsible -- by overemphasizing terrorism at the expense of natural disasters -- for the Bush administration’s botched response to Hurricane Katrina; in October 2007 the Bush administration updated its homeland security strategy; the Obama administration has now revised and expanded Bush’s 2007 changes; the new strategy states that preventing terrorism remains the cornerstone of homeland security, but it expands the definition of homeland security to include other hazards, among them mass cyberattacks, pandemics, natural disasters, illegal trafficking, and transnational crime

  • Haiti earthquake a reminder that disasters are preventable

    While earthquakes are inevitable in earthquake zones, and hurricanes and tornadoes are inevitable under certain weather conditions -- "there are no inevitable disasters," a University of Colorado expert says; "There is no such thing as a natural disaster"; the scope of death and injury, the magnitude of damage to buildings and infrastructure, are the result not of nature – but of man-made decisions; what we see in Haiti is the result of decades of corrupt and ineffective Haitian governments, indifferent to the welfare of the Haitian people

  • Need seen for single U.S. disaster recovery agency

    The Obama administration has launched a series of meetings around the country which bring together government officials and representatives of non-profit, volunteer, and faith-based organizations to identify and share best practices and innovations in the area of disaster recovery; insights gathered at these meetings and at other similar meetings will go into recommendations for improving disaster recover policy to be presented to the Obama administration in April

  • Hazmat clean-up should be performed by qualified contractors

    During and the immediate aftermath of a disaster involving hazardous materials, local officials are often surprised to learn that first responders do not do hazmat clean-up; the fact is, most fire departments and other first responders, besides not having the equipment and personnel for these activities, do not have the necessary environmental permits; since hazmat clean-up should be done by qualified personnel, here are guidelines to help you find them

Intelligence- Led Policing by Jerry Ratcliffe – Willan Publishing – Buy $35.95

The Long View