CyberSecurity
Business Continuity Plan
Business Continuity Plan
A documented strategy & set of procedures to ensure that critical business operations can continue — or recover quickly — during and after a disruption.
Minimize downtime & financial loss.
Protect employees, customers & reputation.
Comply with standards (e.g., ISO 22301 & NIST SP 800-34).
Here are the 10 key steps for a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) — aligned with ISO 22301 & NIST SP 800-34:
1️⃣ Obtain Management Commitment
— Secure top management support, resources, and sponsorship.
2️⃣ Conduct Business Impact Analysis (BIA)
— Identify critical business functions, dependencies, and recovery priorities.
3️⃣ Perform Risk Assessment
— Assess threats, vulnerabilities, and likelihood of disruptions.
4️⃣ Define Recovery Strategies
— Develop alternatives and solutions to continue operations during and after disruptions.
5️⃣ Develop the Business Continuity Plan
— Document procedures, teams, contact lists, and action steps.
6️⃣ Establish Incident Response & Communication Plan
— Define how to respond to incidents and communicate with internal & external stakeholders.
7️⃣ Allocate Roles & Responsibilities
— Form dedicated teams with clear roles and escalation paths.
8️⃣ Train & Educate Employees
— Conduct awareness sessions and role-specific training.
9️⃣ Test, Exercise & Evaluate the Plan
— Regularly simulate scenarios to validate and improve the plan.
🔟 Maintain & Update the Plan
— Periodically review and update to reflect business and risk changes.
Disaster Recovery (DR)
IT systems & data recovery
Restore servers & apps after a datacenter fire.
Emergency Response Plan (ERP)
Immediate safety & evacuation
Fire drills, active shooter, chemical spill response.
Crisis Management Plan (CMP)
Leadership decisions & PR
CEO & team manage a reputational crisis after a breach.
Incident Response (IRP)
Cybersecurity incidents
Detect, contain, and eradicate ransomware.
IT Service Continuity (ITSC)
Keeping IT services online
Switching to cloud failover during an outage.
Pandemic/Health Response Plan
Continuity during epidemics
Shifting to remote work during COVID-19.
Work Area Recovery (WAR)
Alternative workplaces
Renting temporary offices for staff after HQ floods.
Data Backup & Restoration Plan
Data integrity & availability
Daily backups to offsite/cloud & restore when needed.
Supply Chain Continuity Plan
Vendor/supplier resilience
Switching to backup suppliers when primary fails.
Communication/Notification Plan
Internal & external messaging
Notifying employees & regulators of an outage.
Dr. Ghoniem Lawaty
Tech Evangelist @TechHuB Egypt