infotex has been closely monitoring the impact of the Coronavirus…

Another one of those Dan’s New Leaf Posts, meant to inspire thought about IT Governance . . . .

While news reports indicate the risk is still low, the risk is increasing, and thus the application of adequate business continuity controls is paramount.  One of the most important controls is awareness.  We want you to know that we feel confident our services will NOT be interrupted by a pandemic.

Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs), Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs), and Maximum Tolerable Downtimes (MTDs) are all being tested on our normal cycle.

All infotex employees are working remotely except administration, who are keeping at least 12 feet distance between them.  All non-essential face-to-face meetings are being canceled two weeks out while risk direction is still increasing.  Spare equipment has already been ordered and delivery is being monitored.  Cross-training has been conducted since 2009.  Our “emergency succession plan” was updated in 2019 (and reviewed by the FFIEC).  Awareness training provided on February 28^th stressed that employees get into three habits:  hands awareness, washing your hands regularly and washing your hands properly.  This training also reminded employees that our strength in a pandemic is that social distancing is already built into our infrastructure.  New training, provided on March 11^th, reminded employees of the above training, encouraged employees to cancel “non-essential face-to-face meetings” two weeks out, reminded employees of our “calling in sick” procedure, and we included additional guidance and suggestions on social distancing.

We have also included this link in our awareness training:  https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/workplace-school-and-home-guidance.pdf

For our Managed Security Services Clients:  Please keep in touch with us as you enroll new employees onto remote access systems.  Our standard monitoring configuration includes watching and tracking remote access connections.  We can also “put a watch” on high-risk-profile employees, or those employees with whom you are concerned about endpoint protection, but please know this is a detective (reactive) and not preventive control.

For our Audit Clients:  Please know that we have developed a remote audit process, and this can actually save money on travel expenses, provided we can conduct all interviews during the “virtual on-site time.”

I am proud to explain to our friends outside of regulated industries that my banking and school Clients have been testing pandemic plans for at least a decade now.  We are safe, as long as we execute our pandemic plans.

We wish you good luck as we get through this.

And please remember, AWARENESS IS 9/11’S OF THE BATTLE!

Dan

Original article by Dan Hadaway CRISC CISA CISM. Founder and Managing Partner, infotex

“Dan’s New Leaf” is a “fun blog to inspire thought in the area of IT Governance.”