London firms ready for disasters

Three quarters of IT executives view business continuity as a priority

London firms have business continuity plans in place

Eight out of 10 London-based IT executives say their company has a business continuity plan in place, according to new research.

A study conducted by vendor AT& T says 76 per cent of those surveyed saw business continuity planning as a priority, with three quarters having updated and half having tested, their plans in the past 12 months.

More than three out of four view online security as part of their company’s overall business continuity plan with 62 per cent considering viruses and worms as the most significant perceived threats, followed by hackers at 39 per cent.

A third of companies surveyed say business continuity planning has become a priority in recent years because of natural disasters, security risks and terrorist threats.

London firms have already taken measures against internet security as well as established backup and restore procedures.

Many firms have established procedures for off-site storage and recovery of backup data, and use a service provider for outsourcing to minimise data loss risk.

In the fight against cyber crime, London companies have taken measures to educate employees, define corporate security policies and contract with an outside service provider to manage security.

IT executives are most worried about security breaches, viruses/worms, man-made disasters, corporate/e-commerce sites crashing and natural disasters.

'It is extremely encouraging to learn that the majority of organisations that we talked to in London,' said John Slamecka, vice president of AT&T Europe.

He says it is encouraging that the majority of organisations in London have business-continuity plans in place.

‘I am not that surprised to see that cyber security is top of mind. We find that this is a common concern for our customers around the world,' Slamecka said.