Security blog

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

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

Bonnie Bird
Manager, Marketing

Parents and teachers are acutely aware of the risks schools face today, ranging from revenge attacks, drugs, sexual predators, abductions 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.

School 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 youths from kindergarten through high school 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 schools 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.

All this is the focus of the new Dept of Education’s Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools Grant Program.

Meeting the Threat

Emergency management (EM) for schools 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 district and its schools, providing the right amount of each capability within the parameters of the risks, budgets, and physical layouts with which each district 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 school system.

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 & management

Business continuity and disaster recovery

• BC/DR planning
• Offsite backup

Information security

• Security assessments
• Security solutions

Process design

• Communications
• Situational awareness
• Decision support
• Operating procedures
• Integrated EM and BC/DR

IT integration

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

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