As we reach the midpoint of the year, now is the perfect moment to re-evaluate your strategy and review your Business Continuity Plan (BCP). Why? Because a single hour of downtime can cost businesses thousands, if not millions. According to a 2023 IBM study, the average cost of a data breach reached $4.45 million. Gartner estimates that network downtime costs large enterprises about $5,600 per minute. These aren’t just numbers — they reflect real damage to revenue, customer trust, and brand reputation.

Your BCP is your silent safety net. But like any good safety net, it requires regular maintenance. If your plan has been sitting untouched, it’s time to review and update it. A BCP isn’t a one-and-done document — it must evolve alongside your business to remain relevant and reliable.

Why Now? The Importance of Regular BCP Updates

Many businesses treat continuity planning as a checkbox item — create it, file it away, and hope it’s never needed. That mindset is risky. The risks of an outdated plan are not hypothetical — recent events demonstrate the serious impact of unpreparedness. New technologies, regulatory changes, and internal restructurings can all make your once-solid plan outdated.

Real-world incidents like the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack highlight the severe consequences of insufficient continuity planning. This ransomware attack caused a shutdown of the largest fuel pipeline in the U.S., leading to widespread fuel shortages and panic buying. The company paid $4.4 million in ransom, and the disruption lasted for days. It exposed how supply chain and operational dependencies are often overlooked in BCPs.

Also, consider the 2023 ransomware attack on MGM Resorts, in which social engineering and poor containment protocols led to widespread service disruptions and losses exceeding $100 million. This highlights how modern threat actors exploit not just technical vulnerabilities but human and operational gaps — gaps your Business Continuity Plan must be equipped to address.

According to frameworks from NIST and guidance from ISACA, a continuity plan must be regularly reviewed and updated to reflect current risks and infrastructure, with ISACA emphasizing that business continuity is an ongoing governance responsibility — not a one-time technical task.

The Review Process: A Collaborative Effort

ISACA's COBIT framework reinforces that business continuity is a governance responsibility, requiring ongoing oversight and cross-functional collaboration to ensure that risk tolerance, recovery priorities, and the plan itself are practical, comprehensive, and align with business objectives. Build a cross-functional BCP review team with representatives from IT, operations, finance, HR, and legal.

Focus your review on these essential areas:

• Risk Assessment: Revisit and update your risk profile using NIST’s framework. Include threats like ransomware variants, supply chain issues, and natural disasters. Assess the likelihood and potential impact of each.
• Contact Information: Confirm employee, vendor, and emergency contact details are current. Effective communication hinges on this.
• Resource Inventory: Make sure your list of critical equipment, systems, and data backups is accurate. Identify and address any gaps or redundancies.
• Procedures: Review and refine recovery procedures for core business functions. Ensure steps are clear and your team is trained. Simulate scenarios to test how well these procedures hold up.
• Compliance: Check that your plan meets current industry regulations — especially if you operate in a highly regulated space.
• Technology: Account for any recent IT changes. Have new cloud platforms or cybersecurity tools altered your recovery priorities?

Uncovering Single Points of Failure

A resilient BCP addresses vulnerabilities that could bring operations to a standstill. Ask:

• Who maintains your critical systems?
• Are you overly dependent on a single vendor or location?
• Is there one person with unique knowledge of a task or process?

Reduce these risks by diversifying vendors, creating system redundancies, and cross-training your team.

The Power of Cross-Training

Cross-training adds depth to your workforce and strengthens your continuity strategy. When employees can step into different roles as needed, your business becomes more agile and less vulnerable.

Key benefits include:

• Employee Engagement: Learning new skills keeps your team challenged and motivated.
• Stronger Teamwork: Cross-functional training fosters collaboration and mutual understanding.
• Operational Flexibility: A versatile workforce is better equipped to adapt during disruptions.

Start by identifying essential tasks and pairing them with interested team members. Offer training, shadowing opportunities, and regular refreshers to keep skills sharp.

Documenting and Communicating Changes

Once you’ve made updates, document all changes clearly and make the updated plan accessible. Everyone should know their roles and responsibilities. Reinforce the plan through:

• Internal communications
• Training sessions
• Tabletop exercises and drills

These steps ensure your team is not just informed — but confident and prepared.

Conclusion: Investing in Business Resilience

Take action now to refresh your Business Continuity Plan and ensure your business is ready for any disruption. Don’t let complacency put your organization at risk. Take these immediate steps to refresh your Business Continuity Plan:

1. Immediately: Schedule your BCP kick-off meeting and assemble your cross-functional team.
2. Within 30 Days: Complete a risk assessment using the NIST framework. Identify single points of failure.
3. Within 60 Days: Update contact lists, critical procedures, and resource inventories.
4. Within 90 Days: Conduct a tabletop exercise to validate your revised plan.

By investing in these proactive measures now, you're not just protecting against immediate threats; you're building organizational resilience that will serve as a competitive advantage in an increasingly unpredictable business environment.

Next Steps: Document your BCP update process, capture lessons learned and prepare to test the plan thoroughly. In next month’s article, we’ll dive into how to conduct full-scale testing of your BCP to validate its effectiveness and boost your team’s crisis response capabilities.

The time to act is now — before disruption strikes. Remember, preparedness is your best defense.