Dealing with terrorist attacks and IT breaches were the key areas covered by a Reliance seminar held at Deutsche Bank’s London HQ
Financial organisations have been tasked with developing contingency plans which back up their business and outline the actions required post-disaster or business failure, at the same time as being urged to introduce measures ensuring business continuity.

Delegates at a London conference – held at Deutsche Bank’s hq and sponsored by guarding contractor Reliance Security Services – heard that financial organisations must implement procedures to ensure that customer service is maintained in the event of business interruption. For an investment bank, for example, it’s vital that people can start work again with the same telephone number and a screen in front of them within four hours of an event.

Attendees also heard that there are three key areas vital to contingency planning for a financial institution: establishing lines of communication, defining roles and responsibilities and ensuring that the right people are made responsible for the actions required.

In terms of communication, establishing a chain of command that ensures everyone knows who to get in touch with – and defining the communications media – is crucial. How you get in touch with one another in the aftermath of a disaster should exhaust all possibilities (from using a dedicated audio paging system to mobile telephones, and even making some use of a dedicated, bespoke radio system).

Delegates were informed that financial organisations should hold training programmes and special exercises to find out who among their own members of staff is most appropriately suited to specific roles.

Financial organisations attending the seminar were also given a harsh warning about the threat posed to their business by shortfalls in the security of their networks. Phil Bowles – an established forensic analyst at DataSec – discussed the ease with which corporate networks can be hacked, and warned companies not to disclose any information about themselves that might aid the hacker’s cause.

Source

SMT