Business continuity

  • DHS recommends three emergency management standards

    DHS, under its Voluntary Private Sector Preparedness Accreditation and Certification Program (PS-Prep), is proposing the use of three existing emergency management and business continuity standards; the three were selected from twenty-five standards submitted to DHS for consideration

  • New Bay Bridge span designed to endure major quake

    Twenty years ago a 250-ton section of the Bay Bridge fell into the water as a result of a 6.9 magnitude earthquake; the new bridge design will be able to withstand the largest plausible earthquake to occur within a 1,500-year period

  • Planetary securityAsteroid collision: How to defend Earth, II

    Asteroid impacts are much rarer than hurricanes and earthquakes, but they have the potential to do much greater damage; moreover, what if an asteroid hits Earth in the Middle East or the Asian subcontinent? Such an event could be misinterpreted as a nuclear attack -- both produce a bright flash, a blast wave, and raging winds; the result may be a nuclear war

  • Is your water system up to standard? ASME/ITI/AWA J100-10: Standard for Risk Res

  • How high is the risk of civilization-killing asteroids?

    Planetary bombardments: scientists at a planets meeting discuss the risks of an asteroid colliding with Earth; researchers are worried about asteroid Apophis, which will come uncomfortably close to Earth on 13 April 2029; one scientist said that "It's 10 times more likely that an unknown asteroid will slam into us from behind while you're looking at Apophis"

  • Energy futureOil production to peak before 2030

    New reports says that oil will become increasingly expensive and harder to find, extract, and produce; significant new discoveries, such as the one announced recently in the Gulf of Mexico, are only expected to delay the peak by a matter of days and weeks; to maintain global oil production at today's level will require the equivalent of a new Saudi Arabia every three years

  • Asteroid collision: How to defend Earth, I

    There are thousands of Near Earth Objects (NEOs) orbiting Earth; some of them are of a civilization-ending size, others are smaller -- they will take out "only" a country or a city were they to collide with Earth; scientists say we should focus our minds on this danger

  • ISC Solutions, November 3-4, New York – Security solutions & guidance to apply t

  • School closings owing to swine flu could cost between $10 and $47 billion

    The U.S. government urges schools to remain open, but there had already been at least 187 school dismissals across the country affecting at least 79,678 students; cost of closing all U.S. schools could reach billions of dollars

  • Is California's Big One coming?

    In 1992 and in 2004, remote earthquakes caused changes to the San Andreas fault; in both cases, there were distinct changes in the movement of fluids and an increase in the frequency of micro-earthquakes deep within the fault below Parkfield; what will be the effect on the fault of the recent Sumatra earthquake?

  • Majority of Americans would refuse emergency use H1N1 vaccine or additive

    Some 46 percent of people surveyed said they were concerned about getting swine flu, but nearly 86 percent said they thought it was unlikely or very unlikely that they themselves would become ill

  • Heard & seen on the floorProtection One unveils uConnect

    Large security provider shows a new, all-in-one online security management solution for businesses of all sizes

  • Cloud computingU.S. government takes leap into the Internet cloud

    Vivek Kundra, the White House CIO, said wider adoption of cloud computing solutions would allow federal agencies to "fulfill their missions at lower cost, faster, and ultimately, in a more sustainable manner"

  • Nuclear mattersGAO: FEMA not ready for nuclear, radiological attack

    GAO: "FEMA has not developed a national disaster recovery strategy or related plans to guide involvement of federal agencies in these recovery activities, as directed by federal law and executive guidance"

  • Swine flu continues to spread long after fever stops

    Swine flu appears to be contagious longer than ordinary seasonal flu, several experts said; more than 1 million Americans have been infected and nearly 600 have died from it

  • Planetary securityCatastrophic Darkness: How Life Survives an Asteroid Impact

    The humble mixotrophs provide a cushion against catastrophe for certain ecosystems, and may even prevent huge population crashes (among other things, they ate phototrophs -- which may have used too much energy trying to do photosynthesis in the weak light); humans, however, who would have a much harder time feeding themselves if the skies went dark, may want to plan on how to prevent such catastrophic asteroid impacts in the future

  • Most U.S. businesses can not handle flu outbreak

    One-fifth of the businesses surveyed said they could avoid problems for one month with half their employees out

Online Groomers: Profiling, Policing & Prevention – a new book from Russell Hous

The Long View

  • IT securityTrend: Businesses increasingly rely on SAS for security

    More and more companies have gravitated toward the idea of "software as a service" (SAS) -- using software that is delivered remotely instead of hosted on in-house servers; more and more companies are now offering security products as services -- but is it the best approach to security?

  • Be preparedPractical guides to disaster recovery planning in SMEs

    Gartner says that "40% of all SMBs will go out of business if they cannot get to their data in the first 24 hours after a crisis"; two papers aim to help SMBs prepare for disaster

  • Guest columnHow soon they forget: Organizational memory and effective policies // Jon Shamah

    Large organizations, either in the private sector or public sector, always have a churning of staff; the problem is that within one or two cycles of churn, anecdotal knowledge, and other unwritten information, just gets lost from the organizational memory; when something bad happens, few people know those solutions which have proven to work in the past and those that have failed miserably

  • The 25 most dangerous places for offshore outsourcing

    Are you thinking about outsourcing your company's back-room work to companies in Bogota, Bangkok, or Johannesburg? Think again; here is a list of the 25 worst outsourcing cities

  • TrendIndia to see a large, broad growth in expenditures on domestic security

    A series of terrorist attacks, culminating in the coordinated attack in Mumbai last month, convinced both government and industry in India that more security -- much more security -- is required to cope with mounting threats to domestic peace; business opportunities abound for companies in IT security, biometric, surveillance, detection, situational awareness, and more

  • TrendAsia at risk of era of mega-disasters

    Asian countries are heading toward an era of mega-disasters; cities in the Himalayan belt, China, Indonesia, and the Philippines could experience earthquakes where the death toll could top one million

  • AnalysisEven in tough times, IT security should not be short changed

    In tough economic times, IT managers -- as do other managers -- look for ways to cut costs and expenses; they should realize, though, that in tough economic times IT security may become even more important than during more normal times