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12/01/2005
Every Business Should Have An Emergency Plan
Part 3 - Protect Your Investment
Review Insurance Coverage
Inadequate insurance coverage can lead to major financial loss if your business is damaged, destroyed or simply interrupted for a period of time. Insurance policies vary, check with your agent or provider.
1. Meet with your insurance provider to review current coverage for such things as physical losses, flood coverage and business interruption.
2. Understand what it covers and what it does not.
3. Understand what your deductible is, if applicable.
4. Consider how you will pay creditors and employees.
5. Plan how you will provide for your own income if your business is interrupted.
6. Find out what records your insurance provider will want to see after an emergency and store them in a safe place.
Prepare for Utility Disruptions
Businesses are often dependent on electricity, gas, telecommunications, sewer and other utilities.
1. Plan ahead for extended disruptions during and after a disaster. Carefully examine which utilities are vital to your business's day-to-day operation. Speak with service providers about potential alternatives and identify back-up options.
2. Learn how and when to turn off utilities. If you turn the gas off, a professional must turn it back on. Do not attempt to turn the gas back on yourself.
3. Consider purchasing portable generators to power the vital aspects of your business in an emergency. Never use a generator inside as it may produce deadly carbon monoxide gas. It is a good idea to pre-wire the generator to the most important equipment. Periodically test the backup system's operability.
4. Decide how you will communicate with employees, customers, suppliers and others. Use cell phones, walkie-talkies, or other devices that do not rely on electricity as a back-up to your telecommunications system.
5. Plan a secondary means of accessing the Internet if it is vital to your company's day-to-day operations.
6. If food storage or refrigeration is an issue for your business, identify a vendor in advance that sells ice and dry ice in case you can't use refrigeration equipment.
Secure Facilities, Buildings and Plants
While there is no way to predict what will happen or what your business's circumstances will be, there are things you can do in advance to help protect your physical assets.
1. Install fire extinguishers and smoke detectors in appropriate places.
2. Locate and make available building and site maps with critical utility and emergency routes clearly marked.
• Plan to provide a copy to fire fighters or other first responders in the event of a disaster.
• Keep copies of these documents with your emergency plan and other important documents in your emergency supply kit.
3. Consider if you could benefit from automatic fire sprinklers, alarm systems, closed circuit TV, access control, security guards or other security systems.
4. Secure ingress and egress. Consider all the ways in which people, products, supplies and other things get into and leave your building or facility.
Plan for mail safety. The nation's battle against terrorism takes place on many fronts, including the mailrooms of U.S. companies. A properly informed and well-trained work force can overcome such threats.
a. Teach employees to be able to quickly identify suspect packages and letters. Warning signs include:
• Misspelled words;
• No return address;
• Excessive use of tape; and
• Strange discoloration or odor
b. The United States Postal Service suggests that if a suspect letter or package is identified:
- Don't open, smell, touch or taste;
- Immediately isolate suspect packages and letters;
- Move out of the area and don't let others in;
- Quickly wash with soap and water and remove contaminated clothing; and
- Contact local law enforcement authorities.
c. Post emergency number for easy reference.
5. Identify what production machinery, computers, custom parts or other essential equipment is needed to keep the business open.
• Plan how to replace or repair vital equipment if it is damaged or destroyed.
• Identify more than one supplier who can replace or repair your equipment.
6. Store extra supplies, materials and equipment for use in an emergency.
7. Plan what you will do if your building, plant or store is not usable.
• Consider if you can run the business from a different location or from your home.
• Develop relationships with other companies to use their facilities in case a disaster makes your location unusable.
8. Identify and comply with all local, state and federal codes and other safety regulations that apply to your business.
9. Talk to your insurance provider about what impact any of these steps may have on your policy.
Secure Your Equipment
The force of some disasters can damage or destroy important equipment.
1. Conduct a room-by-room walk-through to determine what needs to be secured.
2. Attach equipment and cabinets to walls or other stable equipment.
3. Place heavy or breakable objects on low shelves.
4. Move workstations away from large windows, if possible.
5. Elevate equipment off the floor to avoid electrical hazards in the event of flooding.
Assess Building Air Protection
In some emergencies microscopic particles may be released into the air. For example, earthquakes often can release dust and debris into the air. A biological attack may release germs that can make you sick. And a dirty bomb can spread radioactive particles. Many of these things can only hurt you if they get into your body. A building can provide a barrier between contaminated air outside and people inside, but there are ways to improve building air protection.
Depending on the size of the building and the design and layout of the Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system, there may be simple steps building owners and managers can take to help protect people from some airborne threats. If you rent or lease your space, speak to the building owners and managers about HVAC maintenance. Ask if there are options for improving building air protection.
1. Know the Heating, Ventilating and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) system.
• Building owners or managers, and employers should take a close look at the site's system and be sure it is working properly and is well-maintained.
• Be sure any security measures do not adversely impact air quality or fire safety.
2. Develop and practice shut-down procedures for the HVAC system.
3. Secure outdoor air intakes. HVAC systems can be an entry point and means of distributing biological, chemical and radiological threats.
• Limit access to air intake locations to protect the people inside a building from airborne threats. Air intakes at or below ground level are most vulnerable because anyone can gain easy access.
• Consider relocating or extending an exposed air intake, but do not permanently seal it.
4. Determine if you can feasibly upgrade the building's filtration system.
• Increasing filter efficiency is one of the few things that can be done in advance to consistently protect people inside a building from biological and some other airborne threats.
• Carefully consider the highest filtration efficiency that will work with a building's HVAC system.
5. HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Arrester) Filter Fans. These individual units have highly efficient filters that can capture very tiny particles, including many biological agents. Once trapped within a HEPA filter, contaminants cannot get into your body and make you sick. While these filters are excellent at filtering dander, dust, molds, smoke, many biological agents and other contaminants, they will not stop chemical gases.
Improve Cyber Security
Protecting your data and information technology systems may require specialized expertise. Depending on the particular industry and the size and scope of the business, cyber security can be very complicated. However, even the smallest business can be better prepared.
Every computer can be vulnerable to attack. The consequences of such an attack can range from simple inconvenience to financial catastrophe. While a thief can only steal one car at a time, a single hacker can cause damage to a large number of computer networks and can wreak havoc on both your business and the nation's critical infrastructure.
Start with these simple steps:
1. Use anti-virus software and keep it up-to-date.
• Activate the software's auto-update feature to ensure your cyber security is always up-to-date. Think of it as a regular flu shot for your computer to stop viruses in their tracks!
2. Don't open email from unknown sources.
• Be suspicious of unexpected emails that include attachments whether they are from a known source or not.
• When in doubt, delete the file and the attachment, and then empty your computer's deleted items file.
3. Use hard-to-guess passwords.
• Passwords should have at least 8 characters with a mixture of uppercase and lowercase letters as well as numbers.
• Change passwords frequently.
• Do not give your password to anyone.
4. Protect your computer from Internet intruders by using firewalls.
• There are two forms of firewalls: software firewalls that run on your personal computer, and hardware firewalls that protect computer networks, or groups of computers.
• Firewalls keep out unwanted or dangerous traffic while allowing acceptable data to reach your computer.
• Don't share access to your computers with strangers.
• Check your computer operating system to see if it allows others to access your hard drive. Hard-drive access can open up your computer to infection.
• Unless you really need the ability to share files, your best bet is to do away with it.
5. Back up your computer data. Many computer users have either already experienced the pain of losing valuable computer data or will at some point in the future. Back up your data regularly and consider keeping one version off-site.
6. Regularly download security protection updates known as patches. Patches are released by most major software companies to cover up security holes that may develop in their programs.
• Regularly download and install the patches yourself, or check for automated patching features that do the work for you.
7. Check your security on a regular basis.
• When you change your clocks for Daylight Saving Time, evaluate your computer security. The programs and operating system on your computer have security settings that you can adjust.
• Do you have multiple door locks and a high-tech security system at your office? It could be that tighter security for your computer system is also what you need.
8. Make sure your co-workers know what to do if your computer system becomes infected.
• Train employees on how to update virus protection software, how to download security patches from software vendors, and how to create a proper password.
• Designate a person to contact for more information if there is a problem.
9. Subscribe to the Department of Homeland Security National Cyber Alert System, to receive free, timely alerts on new threats and learn how to better protect your area of cyberspace.
• US-CERT is a partnership between DHS and the public and private sectors. It was established to protect the Nation's Internet infrastructure through coordinated defense against and responses to cyber attacks.
An investment in planning today will not only help protect your business investment and your livelihood, but will also support your employees, customers and stakeholders, the community, the local economy and even the country.
This three part series was designed to launch a process of learning about business preparedness.
Source: U.S. Department of Homeland Security
For more information visit www.ready.gov
Part 1 - Plan to Stay in Business appeared in the October Tower Times and the November Tower Times featured Part 2 - Talk To Your People.
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