Business Continuity Guidance for Businesses
Loss of electronic communications
Scenario a): Loss of public telecommunication services in a region sized area for up to 5 days. There would be denial or severe disruption to dependent systems, including the Internet (world-wide web and email), cash machines, and mobile phone network.
Scenario b): Loss of Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and dependent systems for up to three days affecting up to 100,000 people in a local area.
Underpinning risks:
Scenario a) This scenario is driven by potential loss of electricity. It is triggered by various scenarios and can include more detail about impact e.g. loss integrity / confidentiality etc.
Scenario b) This scenario could arise through physical damage to the telecoms infrastructure e.g. fire or flood.
BCM Implications:
- The Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) have produced guidelines for implementing telecoms resilience [External website]
- The challenge to overcome when preparing contingency communications is that many of the diverse commercial organisations offer services i.e. mobile, fixed, internet, radio, which are reliant on the same physical infrastructure, the same technology and the same suppliers for the network elements. This means that many services such as messaging systems, internet access, video conferencing and financial systems will fail concurrently.
- Do not rely on mobile networks for critical communications.
- Do not rely on a single technical solution (such as GSM networks) and adopt a diverse approach to the communication systems you use. A layered fall-back approach recognises that no means of communication is always likely to be available. In the event of failure or unacceptable degradation of the primary means of communicating, falling back to another option (possibly providing less 'rich' communications) helps absorb disruptive challenges or mitigate their effects.
- In the event that non-standard communication methods are employed, up-to-date contact details will be particularly important.
- Measures should focus on identifying and maintaining critical users where possible.
- The loss of telecommunication systems would have a wide impact across all sectors. For example the Financial and Food sectors are both dependent on communication systems to run 'just in time' ordering, and cash distribution systems.
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