Singapore’s financial sector industry-wide exercise (IWE) will run from September 1 through 13, 2008. There will be three (3) event developments in a highly-pathogenic influenza (HPI) scenario over the two-week period, plus a “practical exercise” that will apparently require mobilization of people or resources or both. The IWE is sponsored by the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) with support from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and
There is no more important long-term challenge in protecting businesses, homes and lives than bridging the knowledge gaps between what I call the “resilience professions”: business continuity, disaster response, disaster recovery, emergency management, crisis management, risk management and security. Asia is about to host the first conference I’ve seen to take on that challenge explicitly. The 2008 International Disaster Management Conference on Public Private Partnership will bring together for the first time in Asia both public- and private-sector professionals in disaster, emergency and business continuity management as both presenters and attendees. The conference is on April 16 & 17 in Delhi, India and is endorsed by India’s National Disaster Management Authority.
Here in Asia, a lot of BCP practitioners want to earn certifications in business continuity and the related fields of emergency management, I.T. disaster recovery, crisis management and security. I’ve made a table of certifications in those fields and links to the organizations that offer them. I’ve included only certifications from independent, non-profit organizations or their education arms. All of the certifications listed are internationally-recognized, although all of them originate from North America or Europe. I have not included any from private companies that give out certificates (as opposed to certifications) on completion of their programs, although there are many of them and they may be worth your time and money.
Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has new BCM guidelines that became effective in January.Banks in Download the guidelines here (Adobe® Acrobat® PDF file, 42 pages). The document number is BNM/RH/GL 013-3, but I cannot find it on the BNM web site. There are 17 principles in 5 categories that banks must follow: BCM framework (4 principles) and methodology (10 principles), communication with internal and external constituencies, internal audit review of a bank’s plan and responsibility for outsourced functions. There is also a glossary of terms and several appendices.
If you made up this scenario for a tabletop exercise, you’d be laughed out of the room: At 08:00 on Wednesday morning January 30, two ships 2,500 kilometers (1,600 miles) apart in the Mediterranean drop their anchors in stormy weather off Alexandria, Egypt and Marseilles, France at the same time. They both manage to drop their anchors directly onto two (2) separate undersea cables buried fifty (50) centimeters in the sand, each roughly the diameter of your wrist. The two cables carry seventy-five (75%) percent of network traffic in the Middle East and south
An epidemic of avian influenza in West Bengal, India has the Indian “government in panic mode”, according to the Times of India web site. And with good reason: 15 million of West Bengal’s 80 million people are crammed into its capital city, Kolkata (Calcutta), a petri dish of poverty, pollution, political intransigence and hopeless public health. It is the city where Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity order. If the infection reaches Kolkata’s poultry markets, there is a much greater risk of animal-to-human transmission than there has been in Indonesia or Vietnam, where infections of H5N1 influenza have already crossed species from animals to humans.
The online and in-house securities trading systems of Phillip Securities in Singapore crashed on Tuesday, Jan. 15. The online system used by customers is Phillip’s On-line Electronic Mart System (POEMS), the “Web site most-visited by Singapore users in [market research company Hitwise’s] Business and Finance Stocks and Shares category”, according to the company. Phillip Securities was an “eBroker of the Year” in 2000. The in-house system used by the firm’s traders also failed, so customers had no recourse to execute transactions from their Phillip Securities accounts while the systems were down.
Thousands of innocent bankers could perish in Singapore’s next financial sector disaster exercise in 3Q 2008, when the Standing Committee on Business Continuity Management of the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) plans to simulate the late stages of an infectious disease epidemic on the island. No event in
The Disaster Recovery Institute International (DRII) has appointed a new representative in Singapore, operating under the name “DRI Singapore.” The representative, CCS Enterprise (S) Private Limited, also operates Strohl Systems Singapore for the American BCP software company Strohl Systems. Note: Strohl Systems advertises on our web site. After a nasty break-up six months ago (read this bizarre press release from DRII) with its former Asia regional representative DRI Asia Pte Ltd., DRII decided to appoint separate representatives in each country. DRII has a representative in China and recently also appointed a representative in Malaysia.
The Emergency Manager’s Toolbox from All Hands Global Emergency Management Consulting (AHC) contains a treasure trove of presentations, checklists, guidelines and documents for reference. AHC is a U.S.-based consortium of emergency management and business continuity consultants founded by Steve Davis. Forbes Calamity Prevention has been the AHC partner in Asia for many years. A separate, new All-Hands Community (called “AHDN” for its URL all-hands.net) lets emergency managers, homeland security and business continuity professionals share information, tools, and resources. All-Hands Community is a non-commercial public service by of All Hands Consulting The news items are American-centric, but professionals outside the U.S.A. can help fix that by joining at http://www.all-hands.net/ and contributing knowledge. Need help? In Singapore, call: +65 6324-3091 Fax: +65 6324-3093 Email: info@calamity.com.sg
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