smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

Businesses are being urged to take a good look at the risks to their enterprise and employees. The advice comes from Confederation of British Industries Director General Sir Digby Jones.

‘In a year that has seen mainland terrorism, the major incident at Buncefield and natural disasters too numerous to mention across the globe, everyone in business needs to spend some time this January re-assessing their business risk,’ advises Jones.

‘In the immediate aftermath of any form of incident, continuity planning becomes something of a buzz word but it is increasingly clear that many firms still don't have the necessary plans in place,’ he continues. ‘Having the right plan and the right people in the right places can ensure that your business survives no matter what. It is a vital self-help insurance policy that everyone in business must have.’

With the help of security and defence specialists QinetiQ and drawing on MI5 advice, the CBI has produced some new tips on continuity and security planning, concentrating on: business survival; protecting intellectual property; validation of staff; controlling entries & exits; and the basics and technological aspects of physical security.

The advice includes:

• Download regular updates to anti-virus software. If you don’t have anti-virus software, get some.
• Regularly back up data to a secure location
• Vet staff, particularly technical staff or those with access to privileged information, for honesty and integrity
• Encrypt particularly confidential or sensitive data
• Train staff in basic security procedures, such as clearing desks of all confidential information at the end of the day and destroying confidential waste
• Ask new staff to sign compliance forms on email and internet use to prevent the spread of viruses and illicit material.

To download the full guide, click here .

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