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This Certified Professional Put Social Media to Use: Boston Crisis Has One CBCP

Re-Thinking Workflow

The expression "late to the party," when interpreted literally, doesn't really apply to me. I'm not much of a party person, and on the rare occasion when I do attend one, I make it a point to be punctual. But as most of you know by now, I have no shame in admitting that I'm more of a book nerd than a movie geek, and therefore, I could be considered "late to the party" when it comes to seeing a handful of classic, iconic movies that many people automatically assume I've already seen years ago.

A good example of this was my recent viewing of the movie "The Planet Of The Apes," a science fiction epic that was made over 45 years ago. Yet somehow, I've miraculously managed for all these years to be completely unaware of the movie's famous twist ending, which many movie buffs consider to be one of the best of all time.

I won't take the liberty of spoiling that twist ending for those of you who are also 45 years late (although 20th Century Fox's marketing department had no qualms about doing just that on the DVD's front cover, back cover, disc label and on-screen menu!).

But I will tell you that POTA had a strong "business continuity" theme running throughout. In this case, the "business" was that of the highest magnitude -- the survival of an entire species. And if that's not enough, there were actually two separate species -- the simians and the "humanoids" -- who had their own notions of BCP. One species seemed to have given it little or no thought, with predictably tragic results. The other had an elaborate, over-thought system in place for several thousand years, but that system was abruptly turned upside-down when an unexpected visitor fell -- literally -- from the sky.

Bleak cautionary tale? Ponderous morality lesson? Twizzler and Junior Mint-munching thriller? "Too Much Monkey Business?" POTA is all of that and more.

But mostly, it made me think of those of you out there who actually engage in BCP in the real world...especially now when news stories about life or death situations -- like the man hunt in Boston and the explosion in Texas --  are unfolding as I type this. Whether you are responsible for the safety of nuclear power plants, keeping our banks in business, monitoring or containing potential epidemics and pandemics, countering terrorism, watching the skies for Earth-bound asteroids, or perhaps even working to rid the world of annoying acronyms like "YOLO" -- I salute you with two thumbs up and say "Thank You" for all that you do to ensure that we'll see another tomorrow.

Buffy Rojas

First and foremost, our hearts go out to everyone impacted by the Boston Marathon bombings. But our heads are also spinning with thoughts of how this incident will affect our profession and plans. There were numerous news reports about cellular communication failures following the explosions. Reports of a government cellular network shut down were false, and it turns out that networks just couldn't handle the volume.

This Bank Infosecurity article raises some important questions about the wisdom of relying on cellular communication in a crisis: "This outage is yet another reminder to organizations that they need to develop alternative ways to communicate with employees during such emergencies. Otherwise, they could put their organizations' continuity plans at risk."

Give the full article a read and then take this week's one-question survey, in which we ask if you'll be reconsidering your reliance on cellular communications in your plans.

In the midst of much fear and sorrow, there are good news stories coming out of Boston.  And here's one about the preparedness of Boston's hospitals. The New Yorker ran a piece written by a Boston medical professional -- in his words:

"Disaster response has become an area of wide interest and study. Cities and towns have conducted disaster drills, including one in Boston I was involved in that played out the scenario of a dirty-bomb explosion at Logan Airport on an airliner from France. The Massachusetts General Hospital brought in Israeli physicians to help revamp their disaster-response planning. Richard Wolfe at the Beth Israel Deaconess recalled an emergency physician's presentation of the medical response required after the Aurora, Colorado, movie-theatre shooting of seventy people last summer. From 9/11 to Newtown, we've all watched with not only horror but also grave attention the myriad ways in which the sociopathy of killers has combined with the technology of inflicting mass casualty. We've learned, and we've absorbed. This is not cause for either celebration or satisfaction. That we have come to this state of existence is a great sadness. But it is our great fortune."

For the full article, click here.  It's a fantastic, detailed case study of what went right.

This Wired report details the recent history of "software-fueled" airline disruptions.  Tuesday's grounding of over 400 American Airlines flights is the latest in a string of such incidents.

"With completely computerized booking systems, one minor glitch is enough to shutter not just a single flight, but an entire airline. And it seems to be happening with increasing regularity...While the cause of [Tuesday's] outage remains unclear, American Airlines says that it was unable to connect with its online booking system, Sabre, which handles everything from boarding passes to tracking checked baggage," according to Wired.

"There's no such thing as a minor glitch anymore," Mike Boyd, airline analyst and chairman of the Boyd Group International, told Wired. "With everything computerized, there are failures. They're like teenage kids. You don't always know why they do what they do."

The increased computerization of the airline industry over the last 30 years has obvious benefits for both airlines and consumers, but the major thrust behind the integration of software systems is more for security than utility, says Wired.  Read about the American Airlines disruption and more here.