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#1811627 - 05/07/13 02:42 PM Annual BCP Exercise - HELP
SloBanker Offline
New Poster
SloBanker
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 23
Kansas
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated! I try very hard to make the exercises realistic for our Bank. I am curretly writing this years scenario - a computer virus (zero day)

However I do not have a strong IT backround, and I am struggling with some of the symptons........

Has anyone else done this type of scenario?
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Disaster Recovery
#1813337 - 05/10/13 07:19 PM Re: Annual BCP Exercise - HELP SloBanker
osucpa Offline
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Joined: May 2011
Posts: 1,406
In an instance like this I think you would have to get IT involved and determine their procedures.

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#1813818 - 05/14/13 02:44 AM Re: Annual BCP Exercise - HELP SloBanker
DCS Planning Offline
Member
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 74
OK
I agree with osucpa. Talk to your IT department and discuss high impact possibilities and disaster recovery procedures. A computer virus has a heavy dose of IT/DR in it with minimal business procedural response implications. If that's not what you intended you may want to go with another scenario.

We're currently piloting a beta version of a Exercise Kit (free) so if you're interested in using our kit and giving us your feedback I'd be happy to send it to you. Best luck on your exercise!
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#1834520 - 07/19/13 02:30 PM Re: Annual BCP Exercise - HELP SloBanker
Queen Mum Offline
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Queen Mum
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 3,920
OK
We are looking for ideas to use for our annual Disaster testing. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

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#1836300 - 07/25/13 02:44 PM Re: Annual BCP Exercise - HELP SloBanker
#Just Jay Offline
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#Just Jay
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 14,390
Cheeseheadland
What are things that could close or prevent access to your main offices? For us, we have a rail line about a block away from the office... a dereailment and spill of toxic material could prevent us from gaining access to our main branch for a day opr better... good test for offsite preparedness.
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#1836357 - 07/25/13 03:51 PM Re: Annual BCP Exercise - HELP SloBanker
califgirl Offline
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califgirl
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,355
The O.C., California
What are things that could close or prevent access to your main offices?

Exactly how we look at it also. We are very close (walking distance) to a large airport and a major freeway. If there were a sizeable incident in either of those, we could have access to our office blocked for some time.
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#1837366 - 07/29/13 06:50 PM Re: Annual BCP Exercise - HELP SloBanker
SandyM Offline
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Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 4
The annual table top testing we did involved a "midnight fire" at our main location - it's an older building and the scenario was definitely realistic. Since it also is the home of our servers, that just made a double whammy - not only the loss of a building, but the (immediate) loss of data. That scenario also allows you to walk through the steps on how you will begin the process of recovering your data from backups.

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#1838540 - 08/01/13 04:43 PM Re: Annual BCP Exercise - HELP SandyM
Cornfed Turtle Offline
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Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 1,323
"...Somewhere in Middle Americ...
We lived the Jay scenario a few years ago and it dramatically changed our whole plan as well as testing. Had to evacuate the building - - NOW. Trouble was, all of the office buildings were being evacuated. Most of our training up to that point was dealing with some incident that affected our building. All of downtown is heading out on newly designated one-way streets with no interstate access. Made for some fun. Our table tops usually started with operating from some other location. We learned the fun of getting out in an organized manner when tons of others are heading to the very same next location that we are.

First thing we learned in the real-life testing? We added "lift the parking garage gate" as the first item on the to-do list.

My other suggestions for testing exercises: think of things that you can't put off until tomorrow. We may be able to put off that loan closing until we are back up and running, but how many of your business customers are making payroll through your bank? Or, if you are small like us, think of people that you can't do without. Regardless of what the disaster is, you can usually get to a few common sceanrios like missing a building, missing access to some IT function, etc.

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#1840042 - 08/07/13 01:24 AM Re: Annual BCP Exercise - HELP SloBanker
BetsyS Offline
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Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 471
I too lived the Jay scenario a few years ago at my Branch. Our fire was at 6:30am; I met the Fire Dept. with shampoo in my hair and clothes from the dirty clothes hamper. Although we had extensive smoke damage and no heat & toilets for several days, we were able to open the office the following day. (Did I mention we had auditors show up the following week?) Repair work was done after hours.

About two weeks into it one of my staff ended up in the ER. Turns out toxic mold developed from the water damage. We had to close the office for remediation. I had three hours notice to close up the office and prepare staff for a temporary move to our main office. It was literally a second disaster after the first. We couldn't script for a scenario like this, but we learned a lot from it.

Like Cornfed Turtle, you have to focus on critical staff and services. Also securing confidential data. Since files locks are easily broken into, I ended up boxing everything up and putting it into our vault. Customer communication was also important. Letters went out and signs were posted. As far as services,you have to determine which are essential from the customer's perspective. Safe Deposit Box access was our biggest challenge. We granted access by appointment, and everyone had to suit up in hazmat gear for the first couple of weeks. There are so many other things to conside: securing the facility, notifying your regulator, selecting vendors for repair work, dealing with fire investigators, the insurance company etc, mail & delivery services. The list could go on.
Last edited by BetsyS; 08/07/13 01:29 AM.
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