Tips for Protecting Your Business with Continuity Planning and Cybersecurity Best Practices

As a business owner, you face a variety of risks that can threaten the continuity of your operations - disasters, cyberattacks, equipment failures and more. Developing a comprehensive business continuity plan and maintaining strong cyber security hygiene are essential to safeguarding your company, your community, your employees and your customers.

Business Continuity Planning

Regardless of business size, a robust business continuity plan (BCP) outlines the procedures and resources needed to keep your business running in the event of a disruptive incident. Your plan should address potential threats, outline response and recovery strategies and detail the roles and responsibilities of your staff members. Remember that BCP's are not disaster recovery plans as they support the continuity of your entire company and employees.

Key Elements of an Effective Business Continuity Plan

• Risk Assessment. Identify the internal and external risks most likely to impact your business, such as severe weather, data breaches, supply chain disruptions or power outages. Evaluate the potential impact of each risk on your operations, finances and ability to meet your customers' needs.
• Data Backup and Recovery. Ensure you have secure, redundant backups of your critical data, systems and applications. Test your ability to restore operations from these backups regularly.
• Alternate Worksites. Determine how your employees can safely and effectively work from home or alternate locations if your primary facility becomes inaccessible. Be sure to provide the necessary equipment, tools and connectivity.
• Communication Plan. Establish protocols for communicating with employees, customers, vendors and other stakeholders before, during and after disaster. Identify key contacts and maintain up-to-date contact information.
• Test, Practice, Update. Schedule regular exercises to test and practice your Business Continuity Plan to validate your plan's effectiveness and make necessary changes. Update your plan as your business evolves or new risks emerge.

Key Resources for creating your Business Continuity Plan

Get a head start on developing or updating your Business Continuity Plan with a few preparedness resources and tools:

• If you are a small business, consider getting in touch with FEMA's partner Operation HOPE by visiting their website or calling 1-888-388-HOPE (4673).
• Download FEMA's Emergency Financial First Aid Kit (EFFAK).
• Download a Business Continuity Plan template at Ready.gov.
• Download a Business Impact Analysis Worksheet at Ready.gov.
• Join the National Business Emergency Operations Center, which coordinates and enhances information-sharing among FEMA and businesses before, during, and after disasters. Visit fema.gov/NBEOC to sign up and become a member.

Cybersecurity Best Practices

Cybersecurity is a vital component of business continuity as data breaches and ransomware attacks can cripple your operations. Implementing strong cybersecurity measures is essential to protecting sensitive information, systems and even reputation.

Key Elements of Cyber Hygiene

• Employee Training. Educate your employees on common cyber threats (ex. phishing emails or social engineering tactics). Teach them how to identify and proactively report suspicious activity.
• Create Access Controls. Implement robust access controls, like multi-factor authentication (MFA), to limit who can access your systems and data. Regularly review and update permissions.
• Software Updates. Keep your software, operating systems and applications up to date with the latest security updates. Enable automatic updates when possible.
• Firewalls and Antivirus. Deploy reliable firewall and antivirus solutions to detect and block malicious activity on your network and devices.
• Backup and Recovery. In addition to your overall data backup plan, ensure you have a separate secure backup of your critical data and systems, specifically for cybersecurity incidents.
• Incident Response Plan. Develop a comprehensive response plan that outlines the steps your organization will take in the event of a cyberattack. Test and update this plan regularly.

Key Resources for your Cyber Hygiene

Clean-up your cybersecurity and access tools to educate yourself and staff with these resources:

• Explore the Secure Our World program offered by the Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency (CISA).
• Follow 4 Easy Tips for staying safe online.

By proactively planning for your business continuity and addressing your cybersecurity hygiene, you can better protect your company, your community, your employees and customers from a disruption in services and potentially harmful outcomes. Investing time and resources to develop these plans now can save you significant time, money and effort down the road.

Get access to additional resources and tools for your business by connecting with FEMA's Office of Business, Industry, and Infrastructure Integration. FEMA works to build relationships with business and industry sectors to yield better information-sharing and coordination opportunities before disasters strike by providing education, resources and two-way communications to ensure businesses get back to business.