Development of Contingency Plans

Development of Contingency Plans

Copyright(c), 1990, 1995 Fred Cohen - All Rights Reserved

Contingency planning is performed to be able to adapt the system and personnel to continue operations during abnormal conditions, and to lessen the damage and assist in recovery during unforeseen events. General guidelines include a plan for each system if a disruption in service would have a critical impact on mission accomplishment, test and evaluation of plans at least once per year, personnel responsibilities should be kept up to date and tested frequently for readiness, and key personnel should participate in the definition of criticality and operational planning.

Contingency plans should cover actions required if the normal ADP environment is impaired or disrupted in the cases of limited loss, interruption of operation, major damage or destruction of ADP facilities or contents, if the user is denied information or services, or if the ADP may have to suddenly expand processing capabilities.