Business Continuity Planning

In today’s evolving risk landscape, the intersection of Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) is more critical than ever. An integrated GRC approach fosters resilient organizations, facilitates risk-informed decisions, and ensures secure systems – all while driving continuous improvement. Key Takeaways from the GRC Framework: 1. Governance – The foundation for robust internal controls and accountability: • Align policies with statutory and regulatory frameworks (e.g., COSO, ISO, NIST). • Foster organizational, IT, and information security policies to mitigate vulnerabilities. 2. Risk Management – Tiered assessment for comprehensive oversight: • Address risks at organizational, business line, and asset levels. • Implement risk-based system categorization and control assessments aligned with frameworks like NIST RMF, COBIT, and ISO 31000. 3. Compliance – A continuous, proactive approach to regulatory adherence: • Monitor, Self-Assess, and Audit systems, processes, and controls. • Conduct external audits (e.g., PCI, ISO) and ensure transparent reporting to stakeholders. Strategic GRC Benefits: ✔️ Strengthens board and audit committee oversight. ✔️ Drives risk-aware culture across the workforce. ✔️ Reduces compliance incidents by embedding controls into daily operations. ✔️ Enhances long-term operational resilience and business continuity. Corporate Example: JPMorgan Chase – Integrated GRC Approach JPMorgan Chase demonstrates a robust GRC framework by aligning policies with COSO and ISO standards, investing $12B+ annually in technology to enhance governance and cybersecurity. > Governance: Strong internal controls and IT policies safeguard against vulnerabilities. > Risk Management: A tiered model addresses enterprise, business unit, and asset-level risks using NIST RMF and ISO 31000 frameworks. > Compliance: Continuous audits and automated monitoring reduced regulatory fines by 20% over three years. Strategic Impact: This integrated approach strengthened resilience, fostered a risk-aware culture across 270,000 employees, and ensured operational continuity, protecting $3.9T in client assets. #RiskManagement #Governance #Compliance #IIA #CyberSecurity #GRC

All risk is enterprise risk. Cybersecurity Risk Management (CSRM) must be part of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM). Many companies think managing cyber risks is: ╳ Just an IT problem. ╳ Isolated from other risks. ╳ A low-priority task. But in reality, it is: ☑ A key part of the entire risk strategy. Here are the key steps to integrate cybersecurity risk into enterprise risk management: 1. Unified Risk Management ↳ Integrating CSRM into ERM helps handle all enterprise risks effectively. 2. Top-Level Involvement ↳ Top management must be involved in managing cyber risks along with other risks. 3. Contextual Consideration ↳ Cyber risks should be considered in the context of the enterprise's mission, financial, reputational, and technical risks. 4. Aligned Risk Appetite ↳ Align risk appetite and tolerance between enterprise management levels and cybersecurity systems. 5. Holistic Approach ↳ Adopt a holistic approach to identify, prioritize, and treat risks across the organization. 6. Common Risk Language ↳ Establish a common language around risk that permeates all levels of the organization. 7. Continuous Improvement ↳ Monitor, evaluate, and adjust risk management strategies continuously. 8. Clear Governance ↳ Ensure clear governance structures to support proactive risk management. 9. Digital Dependency ↳ Understand how cybersecurity risks affect business continuity, customer trust, and regulatory compliance. 10. Strategic Enabler ↳ Prioritize risk management as both a strategic business enabler and a protective measure. 11. Risk Register ↳ Use a unified risk register to consolidate and communicate risks effectively. 12. Organizational Culture ↳ Foster a culture that values risk management as important for achieving strategic goals. Integrating cybersecurity risk into enterprise risk management isn't just a technical task. It's a strategic necessity. 💬 Leave a comment — how does your company handle cyber risk? ➕ Follow Andrey Gubarev for more posts like this

Jaguar Land Rover. Factories stalled. Supply chains bleeding. Hundreds of millions in losses. All because of one thing: a cyber attack. When “everything is connected,” one breach doesn’t just take down a server. It takes down plants. Workers. Suppliers. Customers. Entire ecosystems. That’s the reality of today’s business world. A single compromise can bring global operations to a standstill. And here’s the uncomfortable truth: Most businesses still treat cybersecurity like a checkbox. Something you outsource. Something you worry about after growth. But attacks like this remind us: security is not an IT problem. It’s a business survival problem. So what can every business (big or small) learn from this? → Build resilience into every layer. Don’t let “everything connected” mean “everything vulnerable.” → Monitor the dark web. Your stolen data often shows up there before you even know you’re breached. → Know your supply chain risk. Your weakest vendor can be the hacker’s easiest way in. → Test your incident response before you need it. Recovery speed decides the damage. → Treat cybersecurity as core to strategy, not an afterthought. Because downtime doesn’t just kill servers. It kills trust. Your customers won’t remember how fast you shipped features. They’ll remember how you protected their data when it mattered. Still think cybersecurity slows you down? Ask JLR’s factories what real downtime looks like. #CyberSecurity #DarkWebMonitoring #Ransomware #SupplyChainSecurity  #BusinessContinuity #DataProtection #CyberResilience #InfoSec #CISO #RiskManagement

Ransomware attacks have become one of the most prevalent threats and it continues to paralyze businesses, organizations, and individuals by encrypting their data and demanding hefty ransoms for its release. We tend to focus a lot on "response and recovery" while ignoring the "strategy & planning". For example, when as a organization you decide to not pay ransom, you would be more diligent building comprehensive security controls and in taking backups. Mitigating these risks goes beyond just deploying controls. Given the impact of ransomware on business, organizations should focus on -      Get your board/mgmt. know the impact of threat & recovery challenges. -      Deploy controls to protect devices and monitor effectiveness of these controls. -      Incident mgmt. plan – Readiness, recovery, communication, lesson learned etc -      Run cyber threat exercises with these scenarios and test effectiveness of your playbook and crisis mgmt. capabilities -      In case ransomware hits in cloud / third party integrated environments, it might require comprehensive approach in recovery with vendor participation. -      Maintaining clean backup of critical data I'm sharing a high level approach for mitigating these risks. The technical controls would vary with each environment. Any suggestions or feedback is most welcome. #CisoStrategist #CisoAdvisor #DataPrivacyLeader #CyberSecurity #Cybersecurityawareness #Ransomeware #InformationSecurityInsights

Unpopular Opinion: Treating compliance and risk management functions as critical only during crises and then relegating them to mere “support staff” once the storm has passed is a flawed and short-sighted approach. The mindset that these functions are not revenue-generating, and therefore expendable, needs to change. Frameworks like ISO 31000, COSO ERM, and Basel guidelines emphasize the significance of continuous monitoring and ongoing risk assessment as essential components of a healthy organizational ecosystem. These aren’t just check-box requirements, they are proactive tools to prevent breakdowns before they happen. Risk and compliance professionals play a pivotal role in embedding a risk-aware culture and ensuring that controls evolve in line with changing business environments. Organizations must prioritize retaining and empowering these teams rather than downsizing them once immediate threats are over. A case in point, a major global bank has recently faced substantial penalties from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) due to repeated lapses in AML and financial crime compliance. Ironically, this same institution has seen a revolving door of executives in risk and compliance functions, yet little attention is being paid to the leadership instability that may be contributing to systemic failures. It's high time organizations stop treating compliance as a fire extinguisher only to be used when flames appear. Instead, invest in it as an essential pillar of sustainable growth and integrity. Anup Singh, CISA® Picture Courtesy - Financial Crime Academy #RiskManagement #ComplianceMatters #ContinuousMonitoring #EthicalLeadership #CorporateGovernance #AMLCompliance #OperationalRisk #COSO #ISO31000 #AccountabilityInAction #FinancialCrimePrevention #CultureOfCompliance #SustainableBusiness #LeadershipStability #GovernanceRiskCompliance #LinkedIn LinkedIn News LinkedIn LinkedIn Guide to Creating

Strengthening your financial foundation in facing uncertainty 🎯 😩 The last few years we have been facing so many uncertainties that is so far beyond what we can predict. Well, COVID is the biggest one for sure and seems we have just surpassed it. Before that is really over then we have Russia vs Ukraine war. Both events have negatively impacted the global supply chain. 🤔 Now we have some news about possibility of China economy is in trouble that may affect the global economy. What is next? Well, we do not know what other news that will arise. Honestly all of that are beyond our control. What you can do as business owner is by preparing proper mitigation so your business can survive in facing any kind of circumstances and uncertainties. 👌 As Virtual CFO, I always recommend for a business to anticipate any potential headwinds that they might face sometime in future. One way to do it from financial point of view is by strengthening company’s financial foundation. Here’s several steps that can help to strengthen company’s financial foundation: 👉 Proper management of your working capital: Carefully manage your Accounts receivable and inventory plus negotiate better terms with your supplier will help you better manage your working capital. 👉 Cash reserves: If the situations permit, you may want to start build your business cash reserve to cover your operational expenses during hard times.   👉 Cost management and efficiency: Closely review all your expenses and avoid unnecessary costs. Continuously find ways to optimize your business processes to improve efficiencies. 👉 Risk management: Regularly review all your key risk elements including market risk, currency risk and supply chain risk. Prepare relevant mitigation whenever possible. 👉 Adopt Scenario Planning: Prepare several scenarios for different key economic assumptions. This can help you in mitigating for the worst scenario while also giving you chance you to take advantage of opportunities that might arise. 👉 Selective Capital expenditures: During times of uncertainty, you better be selective in spending for capital expenditure. Choose the one that can clearly bring benefit to the business such as for new market expansion or to help boost efficiencies. 🤔 Anything to be added? 😇 Please DM me if you need help to build your business financial foundation and at the same time help you gaining sound financial literacy as business owner. #VirtualCFO #SmallMediumEnterprise #SmallBusinessOwner #MitigatingUncertainty

I have recently been asked to share my learnings about Business Continuity (BC) with the IIRSM emerging risk leaders group. I decided to start with some of the common misunderstandings about BC that I have come across in the past year. 1. BC is just a disaster recovery plan Reality: Disaster recovery is a specific term used for IT systems and data recovery after an event but it is often used in error for the recovery of facilities too. While disaster recovery focuses on restoring technology, BC ensures that essential processes, people, suppliers, facilities, and communications can continue during disruption. Why it matters: Focusing on IT means other operations may be missed. BC focuses on the recovery of critical processes and disaster recovery focuses on 'reconstruction' to resume normal operations. 2. BC can sit with our risk management function Reality: Risk management aims to reduce the likelihood of threats. BC assumes that threats will still materialise and focuses on how to operate despite them. When BC sits in the risk management function, less resource may be allocated to the discipline. Why it matters: Risk management without BC is like having fire prevention measures without a fire evacuation plan. 3. A Crisis management team and BC management team are the same Reality: Crisis management is about leading the organisation and making board decisions during an unexpected event. If you have a good BC management team, then an event is less likely to become a reputational crisis! In smaller organisations they may be the same team. Why it matters: Crisis management is the captain steering the ship; BC is the crew keeping the engines running. I see crisis management as the Gold (strategic) level and BC teams as the Silver (tactical) level. 4. BC is just making sure you have contingency plans in place Reality: A contingency plan focuses on specific scenarios, where BC is broader and more strategic, focusing on continuing operations, regardless of the cause of disruption. Why it matters: A contingency plan is an immediate and short term response to a specific problem or risk identified, where a BC plan covers the full timeline - before, during and after a disruption - to minimise operational downtime and maintain essential processes over a longer duration. 5. Resilience and BC are interchangeable terms Reality: BC is the capability to keep essential functions running during disruption whilst Resilience is the capacity to adapt and emerge stronger over time. BC is a tool within resilience-building, but resilience also involves culture, adaptability, and long-term strategy. Why it matters: A resilient organisation can adapt to unknown threats. BC alone may be too narrow. How They Fit Together Risk Management, Crisis Management, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity are all very different, but interconnected, parts of Organisational Resilience. No one is more or less important than the other to keep a business, in business.

Too often, risk management operates in a parallel universe - technically sound, well-documented, but disconnected from the organisation’s actual goals, which results in risk processes that slow things down rather than enabling smarter, faster decisions. A risk framework should be a strategic asset. It should help leaders weigh trade-offs, allocate resources, and pursue growth with confidence, but that only happens when risk appetite, controls, and reporting are aligned with what the business is actually trying to achieve. This alignment doesn’t happen by accident, it requires deliberate effort. Risk teams need to understand the business model, the strategic priorities, and the pressures leaders are facing, and then they need to translate those into risk terms - what’s acceptable, what’s not, and where the real exposure lies. When risk and strategy are aligned, the conversation shifts. Risk management stops being a blocker and starts becoming a partner. It’s no longer about saying “no”, it’s about helping the business say “yes” to the right opportunities, with eyes wide open. #RiskManagement #StrategicAlignment #BusinessStrategy #RiskAppetite #Leadership #OperationalRisk

Uncertainty hasn’t slowed demand—it’s changed what leadership looks like. As we approach EOFY, more organisations are turning to interim executives not just to fill roles, but to deliver capability—quickly, flexibly, and with minimal disruption. Our latest Interim Executive Market Update (May 2025) explores how this is playing out across sectors—from finance and transformation, to ER/IR and digital. The takeaway? Interim is becoming less of a contingency, and more of a deliberate leadership strategy. If you’re planning for FY26 or advising clients through change, the data and trends may resonate. 📄 Full report in the comments 👇 #ExecutiveLeadership #InterimExecutives #interimManagement #Transformation #FutureLeadership #EOFY2025 #LeadershipStrategy