2025-05-29 EasyVista is recognized as an Emerging Innovator in QKS Group’s 2025 SPARK Matrix for Enterprise Service Management. Its platform, with AI-driven automation, streamlines IT operations, enhances service delivery, and improves efficiency for global organizations.
Continue reading
:format(avif))
These days, cybercrime is rampant. It’s no longer a matter of “if” you’re going to suffer an attack but “when” it will happen. All companies want to be ready for any crisis – that’s where a business continuity plan comes into play.
Setting up a strategy helps understand the next steps during and following a potential cyber incident. So what is a business continuity plan, exactly? What does it encompass? And what makes it so important to organizations? Today, we’re exploring all these questions in-depth.
A business continuity plan (BCP) is a document that sets guidelines for maintaining or quickly resuming business operations during and after a disruption. Disruptions may include fires, floods, other natural disasters, cybersecurity incidents, or service outages. A BCP is a proactive strategy that aims to help organizations resume operations without significant downtime, safeguard resources, and maintain customer trust.
Despite their utility for business security, BCPs are not as common as expected. According to ZipDo, 57% of organizations that experience a business disruption don’t have a business continuity plan in place.
Sometimes, people use the terms disaster recovery plan (DRP) and business continuity plan (BCP) interchangeably. However, these are two separate types of plans. A business continuity plan helps organizations stay prepared to deal with a potential crisis and, hence, usually encompasses a disaster recovery plan. Although the two overlap and are often set into motion to optimize procedures during crisis events, their purposes differ.
The key difference between BCPs and DRPs is their goal. Business continuity plans aim to reduce downtime during the incident to a minimum. Disaster recovery plans focus on reducing any faults or abnormalities in the system caused by the event and returning things back to normal. They also tend to be more extensive, including additional steps like containing, examining, and restoring operations and covering employee safety measures.
In terms of functionality, a disaster recovery plan focuses on operational steps to restore data access to business as usual following an incident. On the other hand, a business recovery plan is set in place while the incident is still ongoing, ensuring that the operations proceed despite the circumstances.
The number of news headlines announcing data breaches has numbed us to the fact that cybercrime is very real and frequent and poses an existential risk to companies of all sizes and industries.
According to the 2023 Data Breach Investigations report, ransomware is present in 24% of all breaches and is among the top four most common types of cyberattacks. In fact, 24% of breaches involved ransomware, with damages costing businesses an average of $4.82 million.
Most cyberattacks are financially motivated, as the global cost of cybercrime exceeded $8 trillion in 2022 and is expected to exceed $13 trillion by 2028. The picture is quite clear — cybercrime is a lucrative venture for bad actors and potentially disastrous for those on the receiving end.
The importance of business continuity plans cannot be understated, as to thrive in these unpredictable times, organizations go beyond conventional security measures. Many companies develop a BCP parallel to secure infrastructure and consider it a critical part of the security ecosystem. The purpose of a business continuity plan is to significantly reduce the downtime in an emergency and, in turn, reduce the potential reputational damage and — of course — revenue losses.
[Company Name]
[Date]
Purpose of the Plan
Scope of the Plan
Budget
Timeline
The initial stage of developing a business continuity plan starts with a statement of the plan’s purpose. It explains the main objective of the plan, such as ensuring the organization’s ability to continue its operations during and after a disruptive event.
The Scope of the Plan outlines the areas or functions that the plan will cover, including business processes, personnel, equipment, and technology.
The Budget specifies the estimated financial resources required to implement and maintain the BCP. This includes costs related to technology, personnel, equipment, training, and other necessary expenses.
The Timeline provides a detailed schedule for developing, implementing, testing, and updating the BCP.
Identification of Risks
Prioritization of Risks
Mitigation Strategies
The Risk Assessment section is an essential part of the business continuity plan that identifies potential risks that can disrupt an organization’s critical functions.
The Identification of Risks involves identifying potential threats to the organization, such as cybersecurity breaches, supply chain disruptions, or power outages. This step is critical to understand the risks and their potential impact on the organization.
Once the risks have been identified, the Prioritization of Risks follows, which helps determine which risks require the most attention and resources.
The final step in the Risk Assessment section is developing Mitigation Strategies to minimize the impact of identified risks. Mitigation strategies may include preventative measures, such as system redundancies, data backups, and cybersecurity measures, as well as response and recovery measures, such as emergency protocols and employee training.
Emergency Response Team
Communication Plan
Emergency Procedures
This section of the plan focuses on immediate actions that should be taken to ensure the safety and well-being of employees and minimize the event’s impact on the organization’s operations.
The Emergency Response Team manages the response to an emergency or disaster situation. This team should be composed of individuals trained in emergency response procedures who can act quickly and decisively during an emergency. The team should also include a designated leader coordinating the emergency response efforts.
The Communication Plan outlines how information will be disseminated during an emergency situation. It includes contact information for employees, stakeholders, and emergency response personnel, as well as protocols for communicating with these individuals.
The Emergency Procedures detail the steps during an emergency or disaster situation. They should be developed based on the potential risks identified in the Risk Assessment section. The procedures should be tested regularly to ensure their effectiveness.
The Business Impact Analysis (BIA) section of a business continuity plan is a critical step in identifying the potential impact of a disruption to an organization’s critical operations.
The BIA is typically conducted by a team of individuals who understand the organization’s critical functions and can assess the potential impact of a disruption. The team may include representatives from various departments, including finance, operations, IT, and human resources.
Procedures for Recovery and Restoration of Critical Processes
Prioritization of Recovery Efforts
Establishment of Recovery Time Objectives
The Recovery and Restoration section of a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) outlines the procedures for recovering and restoring critical processes and functions following a disruption.
The Procedures for Recovery and Restoration of Critical Processes describe the steps required to restore critical processes and functions following a disruption. This may include steps such as relocating to alternate facilities, restoring data and systems, and re-establishing key business relationships.
The Prioritization of Recovery Efforts section identifies the order in which critical processes will be restored based on their importance to the organization’s operations and the overall mission.
Recovery time objectives (RTOs) define the maximum amount of time that critical processes and functions can be unavailable following a disruption. Establishing RTOs ensures that recovery efforts are focused on restoring critical functions within a specific timeframe.
Plan Activation Procedures
The Plan Activation section is critical in ensuring that an organization can quickly and effectively activate the plan and respond to a potential emergency.
The Plan Activation Procedures describe the steps required to activate the BCP in response to a disruption. The procedures should be clear and concise, with specific instructions for each step to ensure a prompt and effective response.
Testing Procedures
Maintenance Procedures
Review and Update Procedures
This section of the plan is critical to ensure that an organization can effectively respond to disruptions and quickly resume its essential functions.
Testing Procedures may include scenarios such as natural disasters, cyber-attacks, and other potential risks. Clear objectives, testing scenarios, roles and responsibilities, and evaluation criteria to assess the plan’s effectiveness are also part of the procedural structure.
The Maintenance Procedures detail the steps necessary to keep the BCP up-to-date and relevant.
The Review and Update Procedures describe how the BCP will be reviewed and updated regularly to ensure its continued effectiveness. This may involve reviewing the plan regularly or after significant changes to the organization’s operations or threats.
Organizations looking to develop a BCP have a lot to consider. Variables such as the organization’s size, its IT infrastructure, personnel, and resources all play a significant role in developing a continuity plan. Remember, each crisis is different, and each organization will have its own view on handling it according to all the variables in play. However, all business continuity plans include a few fundamental elements.
Clearly defined areas of responsibility
A BCP should define specific roles and responsibilities for emergencies. You must detail who’s responsible for what tasks and clarify what course of action a person in a specific position should take. Clearly defined roles and responsibilities in an emergency event allow you to act quickly and decisively and minimize potential damage.
Crisis communication plan
In an emergency, communication is vital. It is the determining factor in crisis handling. Establishing clear and effective communication pipelines is critical. Alternative communication channels should not be overlooked either. Make sure to outline them in your business continuity plan.
Recovery teams
A recovery team is a collective of professionals who ensure that business operations are restored as soon as possible after the organization confronts a crisis.
Alternative site of operations
Today, when we think of an incident in a business environment, we usually think of a cybersecurity-related event. However, as discussed earlier, a BCP covers many possible incidents. In a natural disaster, determine potential alternate sites where the company could continue to operate.
Backup power and data backups
Whether a cyber event or a real-life physical incident, ensuring that you have access to a power source is crucial to continue operations. A BCP often contains lists of alternative power sources like generators, locations of such tools, and who should oversee them. The same applies to data – regularly scheduled backups can significantly reduce potential losses incurred by a crisis event.
Recovery guidelines
If a crisis is significant, a comprehensive business continuity plan usually includes detailed guidelines on how the recovery process will be carried out.
:format(avif))
Here are the 3 main business continuity plan pillars that an organization looking to develop a BCP should consider:
Any business continuity planning process should start with the identification of potential threats and vulnerabilities. All threats and vulnerabilities should be prioritized and systematized so that the organization can take steps to mitigate and manage them.
Once risks are identified, they should be followed by an assessment of the potential impact of these disruptions on critical business functions and resources. The analysis phase should also include assessing different levels of risk. This will help determine the most essential services or systems that have to be maintained during a crisis and how long they can stay offline before causing significant damage to the business.
Once you have a clear overview of the potential risks your company could face, start developing a plan. Create a draft and reassess it to see if it accounts for even the smallest of details, including alternative locations, communication plans, and how to restore critical functions.
A business continuity plan cannot be completed without regular implementation, testing, and maintenance:
Implement the BCP within the organization by providing staff with training sessions to familiarize them with the plan.
Run through a variety of scenarios in training sessions to assess the plan’s overall effectiveness. By doing so, everyone on the team will be closely familiar with the business continuity plan’s guidelines.
Tune your continuity plan to recent developments to ensure the plan remains relevant as the business and landscape change.
Business continuity plans don’t just appear out of thin air. They must strictly adhere to industry standards, including ISO and regional standards, to ensure that business is sufficiently prepared for a crisis scenario.
Following a standard is advantageous to businesses as the relevant information and the requirements are continuously being updated. This ensures that the implemented strategies don’t fall behind the security requirements. The ISO 223XX standard series, in particular, aims to provide a clear and internationally recognized framework for continuity planning.
ISO 22301, or the Security and Resilience Standard, provides organizations with a framework to plan, operate, improve, and otherwise maintain response and recovery strategies. The business continuity plan acts as the documented management system (known as a business continuity management system, or BCMS) that aims to prevent disruptive incidents and, if they occur, ensure a full recovery. It goes hand in hand with ISO 22313.
This business continuity plan standard provides guidance on implementing the ISO 22301 requirements. It details the precise steps on how the business continuity management system should be implemented in an organization.
ISO 27001 provides a framework for managing information security. This standard ensures that an organization implements the right risk assessment and controls to upkeep the development, improvement, and protection of information management systems (ISMS). The NordPass ISMS is certified according to ISO 27001.
These guidelines cover the principles of how ready an organization’s information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure should be for business continuity. It covers all potential events and incidents that may impact the infrastructure, leading to the implementation of a BCP.
ISO 31000, or the Risk Management Standard, exists to help all organizations handle potential risks. Its main purpose is to allow organizations to compare their internal risk management practices to the global standards. However, ISO 31000 can’t be used for certification purposes.
A comprehensive business continuity plan is vital for the entire organization’s security posture. However, in a perfect world, you wouldn’t have to use it. That’s is where NordPass Business can help.
Weak, reused, or compromised passwords are often cited among the top contributing factors in data breaches – unsurprising, considering that an average user has around 170 passwords. Password fatigue is real and significantly affects how people treat their credentials. NordPass Business counters these issues.
With NordPass Password Manager for IT Teams, your team will have a single secure place to store all work-related passwords, credit cards, and other sensitive information. Accessing all the data stored in NordPass is quick and easy, which allows your employees not to be distracted by the task of finding the correct passwords for the correct account.
NordPass Enterprise helps keep your corporate credentials secure at all times. Everything stored in the NordPass vault is secured with advanced xChaCha20 encryption, which would take hundreds of years to brute force.
If you’are interested in learning more about NordPass Business and how it can help fortify corporate security, do not hesitate to book a demo with our representative.
About NordPass
NordPass is developed by Nord Security, a company leading the global market of cybersecurity products.
The web has become a chaotic space where safety and trust have been compromised by cybercrime and data protection issues. Therefore, our team has a global mission to shape a more trusted and peaceful online future for people everywhere.
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
Summary: Learn how Traceloop locked down AWS access, passed SOC 2 compliance, and saved hours with NordLayer’s dedicated IP.
Established in 2022, Traceloop is a seed-stage startup based in Israel. It creates platforms that help companies worldwide build and improve their large language model (LLM) apps. The team consists of eight on-site employees and one remote worker based in Ukraine.
Before NordLayer, Traceloop didn’t have any security solution in place. And like many early-stage startups, its team focused exclusively on building products.
Knowing that their SOC 2 compliance audit was fast approaching, they needed a reliable and scalable solution that:
We spoke with Gal Kleinman, CTO and co-founder of Traceloop, about when security became a priority.
“We’ve always cared about security, but SOC 2 made us realize we needed tighter access controls to our cloud environments.”
The biggest issue was that their Kubernetes clusters were accessible from anywhere using AWS Command Line Interface (CLI), with no IP restrictions. Manually restricting access would’ve slowed down the team and introduced bottlenecks for developers.
They needed a solution that offers a server with a dedicated IP, works seamlessly with AWS, and could be set up in minutes, not days.
Traceloop needed a fast, reliable way to secure access to its cloud environments without adding unnecessary cost or complexity. As Gal Kleinman explains:
“With NordLayer, our team can now securely access our cloud resources, and I don’t have to spend much time managing it.”
Traceloop deployed NordLayer’s server with a dedicated IP, which was assigned to the company through a Virtual Private Gateway.
Traceloop was looking for a solution that was easy to use and set up. NordLayer’s deployment was simple:
“Everything took four or five minutes—start to finish.”
To secure AWS access and meet SOC 2 compliance, Traceloop assigned a server with a dedicated IP to the Virtual Private Gateway. This ensured the whole team could connect through the same IP address, regardless of where they were.
For a small team managing security themselves, this simplicity was a huge benefit. Setup was fast and straightforward. And they met all SOC 2 requirements without disrupting workflows or slowing down product development.
After one year of using NordLayer, Traceloop achieved the following results:
“NordLayer gave us a simple way to secure AWS access with a dedicated IP. The whole team connects through the gateway, and I can control access without touching our workflows.”
NordLayer was the perfect fit for Traceloop because it delivered exactly what the team needed: simplicity, security, and zero disruption to developer workflows.
As a small startup without a dedicated IT team, Traceloop needed a solution that just worked, right out of the box:
Gal Kleinman, CTO and co-founder of Traceloop, shared a few cybersecurity tips with us:
Traceloop chose NordLayer to secure its AWS access and streamline SOC 2 compliance without disrupting the team’s daily work.
“NordLayer gave me exactly what I needed—a dedicated IP, fast setup, and no disruption to how our team works.”
With NordLayer, Traceloop gained secure cloud access and an easy way to scale security as the team grows.
Need to secure your cloud workflows without slowing your team down? Learn how NordLayer can help you with that.
Talk to our sales team to find the right plan for your team.
About NordLayer
NordLayer is an adaptive network access security solution for modern businesses – from the world’s most trusted cybersecurity brand, Nord Security.
The web has become a chaotic space where safety and trust have been compromised by cybercrime and data protection issues. Therefore, our team has a global mission to shape a more trusted and peaceful online future for people everywhere.
Version 2 Digital is one of the most dynamic IT companies in Asia. The company distributes a wide range of IT products across various areas including cyber security, cloud, data protection, end points, infrastructures, system monitoring, storage, networking, business productivity and communication products.
Through an extensive network of channels, point of sales, resellers, and partnership companies, Version 2 offers quality products and services which are highly acclaimed in the market. Its customers cover a wide spectrum which include Global 1000 enterprises, regional listed companies, different vertical industries, public utilities, Government, a vast number of successful SMEs, and consumers in various Asian cities.
AI 驅動的劫案：人工智能如何武裝下一代網絡犯罪分子
在香港，一名財務主管在接到一通看似來自公司財務總監的視訊通話指示後，轉帳了 2,500 萬美元。唯一的問題是？那位財務總監是由 AI 生成的深偽影像。這不是科幻小說，而是網絡安全新時代的一個鮮明例子，在這個時代，人工智能既是強大的工具，也是可怕的武器。
隨著 AI 融入社會，它正從兩方面重塑威脅格局：一是為傳統的黑客手法提供強大動力，二是創造出全新的攻擊方式。
AI 加持的舊劇本
敵手現正利用 AI 以驚人的效率，精進並自動化舊有的攻擊手法。
攻擊大腦：針對 AI 的新型威脅前線
除了強化舊有手法，針對 AI 模型本身的新型威脅也正浮現。
全面性安全策略的新呼籲
AI 驅動威脅的崛起，意味著純粹的技術防禦已不再足夠。為保持韌性，機構必須採取一種全面性的策略，將 AI 不僅視為需要防禦的工具，更將其本身視為一個潛在的攻擊途徑 —— 這需要一個結合法律、道德和安全治理的新框架。
Penta Security 採取全方位的策略來涵蓋資訊安全的每個面向。本公司持續努力，透過廣泛的 IT 安全產品，在幕後確保客戶的安全。因此，Penta Security 總部位於韓國，並已在全球擴展，成為亞太地區的市佔領導者。
作為韓國最早進入資訊安全領域的公司之一，Penta Security 已經開發出廣泛的基礎技術。我們將科學、工程與管理相結合，擴展自身的技術能力，並以此技術視角做出關鍵決策。
Version 2 Digital 是立足亞洲的增值代理商及IT開發者。公司在網絡安全、雲端、數據保護、終端設備、基礎設施、系統監控、存儲、網絡管理、商業生產力和通信產品等各個領域代理發展各種 IT 產品。透過公司龐大的網絡、通路、銷售點、分銷商及合作夥伴，Version 2 提供廣被市場讚賞的產品及服務。Version 2 的銷售網絡包括台灣、香港、澳門、中國大陸、新加坡、馬來西亞等各亞太地區，客戶來自各行各業，包括全球 1000 大跨國企業、上市公司、公用事業、醫療、金融、教育機構、政府部門、無數成功的中小企及來自亞洲各城市的消費市場客戶。
Click one of our contacts below to chat on WhatsApp
