YPSILANTI ? What does your IT Security Index look like? In recent study Marcus Fedell, manager of federal opportunity products at INPUT reported that civilian cyber security ? related IT spending is anticipated to grow 27 percent over the next five years due to poor security assessment ratings and increased attention to homeland security.
Vulnerability, Risk and Countermeasures are part of every threat assessment that the Center has conducted. You must go beyond the threat of Terrorism. While this threat is real for many, it does require special physical security counter measures as we start to define what level of security does my facility and more specifically IT system require?
To balance the Technical threat with a real documented threat of a Natural Disaster requires one to look at historical weather related data. In a study released by Frank Tatom, an engineer, and founder of Engineering Analysis of Alabama, Ann Arbor ranks eighth among the 20 most tornado-prone U.S. cities during the month of April, and Michigan ranks fairly high itself for the probability of tornadoes occurring in the state.
So, the idea that one or two cities from Michigan would be in the top 20 is not surprising. While there have been quite a few significant tornadoes within a 20-mile radius of Ann Arbor, the city is no more tornado-prone than other areas in southeast Michigan, said Rich Pollman, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service in White Lake Township.
National Weather Service statistics show Genesse County has had 39 tornados since 1950, and that includes the 1953 Flint-Beecher tornado, the deadliest tornado in Michigan history, which killed 116 and injured 844.
Kent County, where Grand Rapids is located, has had 30 tornados, and Washtenaw County has had 22 since 1950, said Pollman, citing National Weather Service figures.
Based on statistical and historical data, the city of Ann Arbor is no more or less likely than the rest of the county to have a tornado, said Washtenaw County Emergency Management Director Marc Breckenridge.
The question now begs: ?What has your business done to ensure that you will be capable of conducting business tomorrow should a tornado strike your location??
Does your preparedness plan address issues of backup, storing critical data off site, sheltering issues for employees while at work, and a plan to conduct business tomorrow at another location should your current site be affected? If you are not able to address these questions then you are not prepared for business continuity and will join other businesses that were forced to close their doors because they failed to respond to a known threat.
I believe you have a greater chance in becoming a victim of a technical or natural disaster than to a terrorist event. In either case, preparedness goes beyond locks and bars and must be applied across your entire enterprise.
Gerald V. ?Skip? Lawver is Associate Professor and Director Center for Regional and National Security at Eastern Michigan University. You can email Lawver at [email protected]
