Security blog

Manage Operational Risk Like a Bank!
posted: 08 June 2009 by Eric Tompkins
 

IT Assessment Cost vs. Value – A Market Response Analysis
posted: 06 May 2009 by Matthew Sharp
 

See more articles in the Security blog

For more information about our Emergency Management for Higher Education services & solutions, please contact:

Bonnie Bird
Manager, Marketing

Educators and students are acutely aware of the risks colleges and universities face today, ranging from revenge attacks, drugs, sexual predators, and other criminal threats, to the catastrophic potential for natural and man-made disasters, terrorism, and pandemic.

At the heart of effective emergency preparedness and response are planning and implementing the crisis actions systems and procedures upon which readiness depends.

Campus administrators generally have limited appreciation of how emergency management systems such as the following can prepare them for success:

• Emergency notification
• Crisis information management
• Crisis communications
• Situational awareness and decision support
• Incident Command System
• Surveillance and detection

It’s More Than Emergency Notification and Access Control

Providing safety and security for students and faculty is a daunting prospect. On top of that is the requirement to protect vital data and systems in the event of a disaster. The ideal solution is an enterprise approach, integrating the full range of applicable emergency management functions and business continuity/disaster recovery procedures while leveraging existing capabilities. Such solutions can be tailored to fully prepare campuses for the unique risks they face, posturing them to quickly understand the nature of a crisis as it develops, determine the best courses of action, and integrate seamlessly into their neighboring responder agencies, all the while maintaining control and containing the crisis.

As recent events have clearly established, the complexity of a campus and its personnel, students, and facilities demand thorough readiness preparation.

Meeting the Threat

Emergency management (EM) for higher education goes far beyond the roles and responsibilities with which most are familiar. The key to strong EM programs is building essential capabilities that are effective in all crisis scenarios.

First, and most importantly, schools and districts must have prevention and mitigation plans and procedures in place that greatly reduce the risks faced.

Second, if a crisis evolves, decision makers must get timely, accurate, and sufficient information upon which to assess the situation, determine the best responses, and contain the crisis.

Third, they must have robust communications that are survivable and dependable, to get the right information to the right people at the right time.

Fourth, they must have inherent response capabilities and procedures that are essential to providing immediate safety and security until the local response agencies arrive.

All of these capabilities can, and should, specifically be tailored for each campus system, providing the right amount of each capability within the parameters of the risks, budgets, and physical layouts with which each system must contend. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions, nor are there silver bullet solutions that will address all of these requirements. The CIBER approach is to build custom, integrated solutions that best meet the needs of each campus.

The CIBER Approach

CIBER offers a range of services that can be precisely tailored to each customer:

Overall program assessment

• Requirements determination
• Capability gaps
• Single points of failure

Planning services

• Strategic planning
• Capabilities-based planning
• Grant application & mgmt

Process design

• Communications support for emergency operations
• Situational awareness
• Decision support
• Standard operating procedures
• Information security
• Integrated EM and BC/DR

IT integration and mapping

• Emergency notification
• Crisis information management
• Access control and credentialing
• Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
• Business process management

Campus continuity and disaster recovery

• BC/DR planning
• Offsite backup

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