Last week, the World Health Organisation declared that the H1N1 (or swine flu) virus is now officially a pandemic. Lest organisations become inured against hearing about one potential pandemic after another such as SARS and Avian Bird Flu, this one is real.

Official reports say at the time of writing that there have been nearly 30,000 cases globally and 141 deaths, with figures rising daily. Bearing in mind that this is happening during the summer period when viruses have more difficulty in spreading we should be very concerned indeed. Although the UK is well prepared to deal with the pandemic, we should not become complacent due to the unexpected and unplanned for events that often occur when disasters of this nature do take place. H1N1 now has a pandemic status and organisations are urged to use the summer respite to shore up their business continuity plans before a potential autumnal/winter onslaught.

Remember that your company may potentially have up to a third of staff off ill as will the people you do business with. In addition organisations may have greater problems from all nursing and hospital staff being affected by the same virus and many GPs may refuse to even see suspected infected patients due to fear of getting the disease themselves.

Organisations also need to think about how they can protect their healthy staff and how to ensure that their sick staff get sufficient treatment to get back to full health. More than likely, aspects of this strategy will involve remote working to ensure staff do not get infected whilst at work or on their travel to work.

If remote working is part of your business continuity strategy, then security experts will need to be brought in to look at the risk versus security required to protect their organisations’ portable devices (such as laptops) and any sensitive data on them. In addition organisations will need to ensure security in their VPN connections and protect their VPN communications from being hacked such as by Man-In-the-Middle attacks as discussed in a previous article from a Security Vibes CISO.

In addition, organisations will also need to think about continuity in the event that the UK telecommunications system also becomes overloaded from every UK organisation being in the same situation - as this will affect broadband as well as landline and mobile communications.

Summary
Since the WHO declaration that the H1N1 virus is now officially a pandemic, there is a greater impetus on organisations to resolve how and if they even wish to have people coming to work where the risk of infection may be greater. If remote working is to be used, strategies will be needed on

• how to protect their portable devices such as laptops during pandemic conditions,
• how to secure their remote working and
• how to ensure that there is no denial of service to their broadband connections should telecommunications become overloaded due to all other organisations using remote connectivity at the same time.

Hopefully the virus will fizzle or at least hackers will be affected by the virus too and we can expect one third less attacks.

References
Security Vibes Interview: NHS Security Experts on Pandemic Effects on Hospital Resources
A SecurityVibes CISO on Laptop Protection under Epidemic Situations
Security Vibes Article: A Pandemic - A Hacker's Paradise
Security Vibes Interview: Pandemic Contingency Plans - Will Yours Actually Work?
Security Vibes Article: How Technology can Spread Swine Flu
Security Vibes Article: Reputational Damage from Bad Pandemic Planning
CSO Online: Swine Flu A Wake Up CAll for Emergency Planners
BBC News: Doctors Refuse to Treat H1N1 Infected Patients
BBC News: First UK Death to H1N1
BBC News: WHO Declares pandemic