In addition, security policies and agreements with third-parties regarding device security cannot always be enforced, potentially leaving unsecured, malware-infected, and compromised devices connected to sensitive organizational resources. Security concerns include the lack of physical security controls, the use of unsecured networks, connection of infected devices to internal networks, and the availability of internal resources to external hosts. Many organizations let their employees, contractors, business partners, and vendors use enterprise remote access technologies to perform work remotely using organization-owned and bring your own device (BYOD) client devices that must be secured against data breaches and theft. Now, to prevent banking employees from being quarantined globally over coronavirus, financial institutions are looking at spreading workers out between head offices and disaster recovery sites that have the same technical capabilities as their main sites, according to the Financial Times. “You don’t want to wake up and find that the US has half a million cases and someone tells you to send everybody home.” “We’re practicing,” said a senior executive at one large US bank. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Barclays’ business continuity planning all called for isolating and protecting employees in Asian countries at the coronavirus outbreak epicenter. And while investment bankers, engineers, IT staff, human resources, and senior management can work from home, workers such as traders or salespeople that must meet regulatory requirements are faced with technological limitations that must be solved. The coronavirus, a disruptive biological event, has forced organizations to shift their employees and IT resources so that they can function with work at home scenarios or in secure locations.īanks and financial institutions have installed screens in securities traders’ homes to help slow and stop new coronavirus infections through employee isolation.

Secure remote access also plays a critical role when considering disaster recovery and business continuity as organizations must be flexible enough to enable remote work for a majority of all of their employees while still achieving normal workforce productivity despite external disruptions.

Technology recovery strategies should also be developed to restore hardware, applications and data in time to meet the needs of the business recovery in the event of an outage.

This includes business priorities and recovery time objectives for IT resources along with a business impact analysis. In response to crises such as the coronavirus, organizations should have IT disaster recovery plans in place that have been developed simultaneously with business continuity plans. Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery, and the Coronavirus

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