So far Security Vibes has reported on technological problems to business continuity plans from pandemics, however one aspect that has so far gone unmentioned is the potential reputational damage from the lack of a more holistic strategy in the case of a pandemic.

For example, what is the organisational stance should a pandemic occur in terms of

• employee confidence,
• customer confidence,
• hygiene, and
• technological business continuity.

We've already covered how many organisations will resort to remote working and the security and continuity implications of an actual pandemic occuring so lets examine the other three factors.

Should a pandemic occur, employees are going to be concerned about catching the virus either from their route to work or from co-workers. In other words they will not have enough confidence to come to work and in adequate protection from their organisation. This can have a knock on effect on customer confidence. If most of your employees get infected with a virus, how likely are your customers going to want to continue doing business with your organisation, either in case they also get infected or because there is a lack of immediate response to their queries due to many of the organisation's employees being off sick due to having the virus.

As a result of the above issues some organisations are now looking at not just your business continuity plans in the event of a crisis but also your hygiene and virus awareness campaigns. Unfortunately if you don't have one, these organisations are reconsidering whether they wish to continue do business with your organisation due to fear of infection, or lack of response times.

To mitigate the business risk of lack of confidence from employees and customers, organisations need to be working on the importance of personal hygiene for their employees and examining the way in which their systems are cleaned as well as their technological business continuity strategy. The hygiene strategy needs to be clearly communicated to all employees to ensure they have confidence in working from home and on the organisation’s premises and what they should od in the event of an emergency or an actual pandemic occuring.

For further reading

Security Vibes Article on Pandemic Hygiene Campaign

Security Vibes Podcast with Dr Nigel Brown on the Probems of Pandemic Contigency Plans

Security Vibes article Swine Flu - A possible Business Risk?