LATEST BUSINESS CONTINUITY TESTING AND EXERCISING NEWS HEADLINES

Ear Productions launches new scenario based exercise toolkit
Royalty-free toolkit provides everything needed to run an effective, believable desktop exercise.
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•Date: 3rd October 2008• Region: UK •Type: Article •Topic: BC testing & excercising
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Thoughts on business continuity exercises
Rob Davis provides some pointers for successful exercises.
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•Date: 2nd Sept 2008• Region: Australia/World •Type: Article •Topic: BC testing & ex.
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Market-wide Exercise 2008 update
The FSA has published details of November’s UK financial sector business continuity exercise.
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•Date: 13th August 2008• Region: UK •Type: Article •Topic: BC testing & exercising
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‘Exercising for Excellence: Delivering Successful Business Continuity Management Exercises’
New book from BSI.
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•Date: 8th August 2008• Region: UK/World •Type: Article •Topic: BC testing and ex
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Why is business continuity testing a weak area?
Allen Johnson responds to Continuity Central’s recent article ‘Improving business continuity testing and exercising’.
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•Date: 7th August 2008• Region: UK/World •Type: Article •Topic: BC testing and ex
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Largest ever US earthquake exercise to take place in California
The ‘Great Southern California ShakeOut’ will take place on November 13, 2008.
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•Date: 1st August 2008• Region: US •Type: Article •Topic: BC testing and exercising
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SIFMA publishes summary of 2008 Industry-wide Business Continuity Planning Test
Participation up 25 percent.
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•Date: 31st July 2008• Region: US •Type: Article •Topic: BC testing and exercising
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UK Tripartite Authorities release pandemic exercise materials
Useful resources from the Market-wide Exercise 2006 published.
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•Date: 31st July 2008• Region: UK •Type: Article •Topic: Testing and exercising
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Improving business continuity testing and exercising
Three surveys published recently seem to show that testing and exercising of business continuity and disaster recovery plans and strategies is generally a weak area. Continuity Central asked various business continuity experts why this should be the case and what organizations can do to improve in this area.
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•Date: 18th July 2008• Region: World •Type: Article •Topic: Testing and exercising
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Exercise UUSIMAA 2008
The Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (EADRCC) will conduct a disaster response field exercise from 1st to 5th June 2008 in the region of the Finnish capital Helsinki.
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•Date: 30th May 2008• Region: W.Europe •Type: Article •Topic: Testing and exercising
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Details of Singapore financial sector pandemic exercise published
The Association of Banks in Singapore, the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Ministry of Home Affairs will coordinate a two-week industry-wide exercise to test the Singapore financial sector’s pandemic response plans. The exercise will take place between 28th August and 11th September 2008.
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•Date: 16th May 2008• Region: SE Asia •Type: Article •Topic: Financial sector
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US securities industry prepares for business continuity test
SIFMA and the Financial Information Forum will lead the annual securities industry-wide business continuity test on Saturday, June 7, 2008.
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•Date: 15th May 2008• Region: US •Type: Article •Topic: BC testing
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The design, management and evaluation of exercises and tests
John Salter of Emergency Preparedness Capacity Builders has provided a PDF resource which addresses the above subject.
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•Date: 20th March 2008• Region Australia/World •Type: Article •Topic: Testing
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Singapore plans pandemic exercise
Forbes Calamity Prevention has reported that Singapore's next financial sector industry-wide exercise will be in 3Q 2008. The Association of Banks in Singapore is soliciting proposals from eleven companies to manage an exercise that simulates the late stages of an infectious disease epidemic on the island.
Source: Forbes Business Continuity Planning: March 2008 Newsletter
•Date: 4th March 2008• Region:SE Asia •Type: Briefing •Topic: Testing and exercising
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Network emulation for business continuity testing
Sameer Gupta explains how to test network business continuity plans in the lab environment rather than on the live network.
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•Date: 24th January 2008• Region:UK/World •Type: Article •Topic: IT continuity
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European Commission funds series of emergency response exercises
Exercises will involve earthquake and flooding simulations, and will be led by organisations from five European countries.
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•Date: 17th January 2008• Region: W.Europe/ UK •Type: Article •Topic: Exercising
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Outbreak Anarchy - a business / community influenza pandemic tabletop exercise
The Red Cross has published the scripts for a recent pandemic tabletop exercise. The exercise aimed to bring business owners and community leaders together to collectively help plan and prepare for, respond to, recover from and mitigate the effects of an influenza pandemic. The resources provide useful materials for those developing similar exercises. http://redcross.tallytown.com/panflu/outbreak/
•Date: 30th Nov 2007• Region:US/World •Type: Briefing •Topic: BC testing
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How to build the perfect business continuity management soufflé...
Chris Bakowski offers a recipe for business continuity success.
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•Date: 28th Nov 2007• Region: Australia/World •Type: Article •Topic: Plan dev.
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Canadian Securities Industry reports on business continuity test
The Canadian Securities Industry has issued a bulletin giving a brief report on the recent industry-wide business continuity test.
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•Date: 18th October 2007• Region: N.America •Type: Article •Topic: BC testing
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TOPOFF 4 to take place in Arizona, Oregon and Guam
October 15-19 sees the largest TOPOFF counterterrorism exercise to date; private sector participation welcomed.
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•Date: 25th Sept 2007• Region: US•Type: Article •Topic: Testing and exercising
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US financial services sector gears up for pandemic planning exercise
From September 24 through October 12, 2725 US-based financial sector organizations will take part in a large scale pandemic planning exercise.
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•Date: 21st Sept 2007• Region: US •Type: Article •Topic: BC testing & exercising
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Registration now open for US pandemic 'flu exercise
SIFMA has announced that registration for the multi-week, US financial services sector pandemic exercise is now open.
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•Date: 30th July 2007• Region: US •Type: Article •Topic: Pandemic planning US
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US financial sector pandemic response capabilities exercise scheduled
Multi-week, sector-wide pandemic exercise scheduled to begin on September 24, 2007.
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•Date: 29th May 2007 • Region: US •Type: Article •Topic: BC testing and exercising
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Disaster Recovery Information Exchange calls for Toronto-wide exercise
DRIE Toronto is attempting to organize a wide-scale exercise in the Greater Toronto Area.
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•Date: 15th March 2007 • Region: Canada •Type: Article •Topic: BC testing
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No SIA industry-wide business continuity test in 2007
2005 and 2006 tests will be followed by an expanded test in late spring 2008; but pandemic planning exercise and crisis communications test scheduled for 2007.
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•Date: 27th Feb 2007 • Region: US •Type: Article •Topic: Financial sector BC
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New company offers ‘worst case scenario’ exercising
Will help companies evaluate how business continuity plans will perform during an extreme situation.
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•Date: 16th January 2007 • Region: UK/World •Type: Article •Topic: BC testing
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Majority of US organizations have tested business continuity plans in last six months
According to a Strohl Systems and CPM Global Assurance survey.
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•Date: 21st Dec 2006• Region: US •Type: Article •Topic: BC stats
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Six week UK market wide financial sector exercise finishes
The practicality of relying on home-working as a business continuity strategy for key staff under question.
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•Date: 27th Nov 2006• Region: UK •Type: Article •Topic: Financial sector
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Resilient Community Exercise - Falkirk 2006
Will be held on Thursday 16th November.
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•Date: 9th Nov 2006• Region: UK •Type: Article •Topic: Testing and exercising
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Vanguard carries out emergency response exercise
An emergency response exercise was carried out at The Vanguard Group's campus in Scottsdale on Tuesday 7 th November. More than 150 individuals took part, including members of the Scottsdale and Mesa police departments, and Vanguard crew members (the company's term for employees). The exercise was designed to test the emergency response plans and procedures of both Vanguard and the city of Scottsdale.
•Date: 9th Nov 2006• Region: US •Type: Briefing •Topic: BC testing
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Council of the European Union and European Commission conducts crisis exercise
The chosen scenario was a near-simultaneous terrorist attack in five EU cities.
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•Date: 3rd Nov 2006• Region: W.Europe/UK •Type: Article •Topic: Terrorism
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AT&T staging network disaster-recovery drill in South Florida
The two-day exercise will take place on November 1 and 2 at the Gulfstream Race Track in Hallandale, Fla.
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•Date: 2nd Nov 2006• Region: US •Type: Article •Topic: BC testing
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US financial services industry business continuity test ‘a success’
“This year’s test demonstrates once again that the significant amount of resources and time devoted by the industry to BCP planning has paid off.”
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•Date: 24th October 2006• Region: US •Type: Article •Topic: Testing & exercising
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UK financial sector Annual Market-wide Exercise gets underway
Pandemic planning exercise will run from 13th October to 24th November.
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•Date: 13th October 2006• Region: UK •Type: Article •Topic: Testing and exercising
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US securities industry gears up for business continuity test
Industry-wide business continuity test takes place on Saturday, October 14th, 2006.
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•Date: 13th October 2006• Region: US •Type: Article •Topic: Testing and exercising
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Satyam stages cross-border business continuity exercise in Singapore and India
Simulating a national disaster in India, over 30 engineers flew to Satyam’s Global Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Centre in Singapore.
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•Date: 29th Sept 2006• Region: Various •Type: Article •Topic: BC testing
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TelstraClear conducts successful disaster recovery simulation
New Zealand-based TelstraClear successfully tested its ‘front-of-house applications’ in a self-initiated two-day disaster recovery simulation last month.
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•Date: 27th Sept 2006• Region: New Zealand •Type: Article •Topic: BC testing
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Details of Annual Market-wide Exercise 2006 published
Tripartite led business continuity exercise will focus on pandemic preparedness of UK financial services sector.
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•Date: 19th Sept 2006• Region: UK •Type: Article •Topic: Financial sector
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Exercise to test New Zealand’s readiness for ‘big one’
Capital Quake 06, will test arrangements at local, regional and national level for dealing with a destructive earthquake in Wellington.
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•Date: 29th August 2006• Region: New Zealand •Type: Article •Topic: BC testing
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CITYSAFE launches Virtual Exercise System
Allows businesses to test business continuity plans in collaboration with emergency services and critical service providers.
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•Date: 27th June 2006• Region: UK •Type: Article •Topic: BC testing
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TOPOFF 4 and Forward Challenge 2006 exercise completed
Included a test of Federal continuity of operations plans.
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•Date: 23rd June 2006• Region: US •Type: Article •Topic: Testing and Exercising
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Testing still the business continuity weak link
Only 26 percent regularly review and test their plans, according to new HP survey.
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•Date: 8th June 2006• Region: US/World • Type: Article •Topic: BC statistics
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AT&T conducts network disaster recovery exercise in Washington , D.C.
AT&T Inc. conducting a network disaster recovery exercise at FedEx Field in Landover, Md. , between June 7th and 8th, 2006. The Washington exercise featured 24 trailers, 19 of which were semi-trailers. http://www.att.com/ndr
•Date: 8th June 2006• Region: US • Type: Briefing •Topic: Testing and ex.
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Pacific Wave 06
Earlier this week various Pacific nations conducted a desktop exercise to test communication networks in the event of a tsunami occurring in the Pacific Ocean.
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•Date: 19th May 2006• Region: Various • Type: Article •Topic: Testing and ex.
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Singapore financial sector conducts large-scale industry-wide business continuity exercise
‘Exercise Raffles’ carried out on Tuesday, 9th May 2006.
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•Date: 11th May 2006 • Region: SE Asia • Type: Article •Topic: Financial sector
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‘Pacific Peril’
Three-day multi-state tsunami exercise begins 23 May, 2006 .
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•Date: 9th May 2006 • Region: N.America • Type: Article •Topic: Emergency planning
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Coyote Crisis Campaign disaster drill tests bioterrorism and dirty bomb response
After a full year in planning, the first Coyote Crisis Campaign culminated in a large-scale disaster drill during the week of April 24th-28th, 2006.
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•Date: 4th May 2006• Region: N.America • Type: Article •Topic: Terrorism
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Securities Industry Association publishes details of October industry-wide business continuity test
The Securities Industry Association, The Bond Market Association, Futures Industry Association and Financial Information Forum will lead an industry-wide business continuity test in the United States on Saturday, October 14th, 2006.
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•Date: 28th April 2006• Region: US • Type: Article •Topic: BC testing
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Telstra Europe successfully completes ‘black building’ power failure simulation test
Telstra Europe switches off London Docklands hosting centre and resilient business continuity provisions ensure that customers experience no service downtime.
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•Date: 26th April 2006• Region: UK• Type: Article •Topic: Testing & exercising
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Lessons from UK Financial Sector Market-wide Exercise published
Lessons include: more work is needed to identify supply chain interdependencies; and greater focus required on people aspects of business continuity planning.
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•Date: 11th April 2006• Region: UK • Type: Article •Topic: Financial sector
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SIA releases report into business continuity test
In October 2005, the SIA, TBMA, FIA and FIF conducted an industry-wide business continuity planning test. SIA has now made the detailed results of the test publicly available.
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•Date: 23rd Feb 2006• Region: US • Type: Article •Topic: Financial sector
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Cyber Storm tests US cyber preparedness
Exercise simulated a sophisticated cyber attack through a series of scenarios directed against critical infrastructures.  
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•Date: 14th Feb 2006• Region: US • Type: Article •Topic: Testing and exercising
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US financial markets business continuity test scheduled
Will take place on Saturday, October 14, 2006.
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•Date: 7th Feb 2006• Region: US • Type: Article •Topic: Financial sector
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AT&T to conduct its largest-ever network disaster recovery exercise
Exercise will evaluate the company's disaster response systems with the aim of strengthening the company’s business continuity support for enterprise customers.
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•Date: 26th Jan 2006• Region: US • Type: Article •Topic: BC testing
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US Department of Agriculture conducting five food defense exercises through 2006
Will test response plans for crises which could affect the national agriculture and food infrastructure.
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•Date: 19th Jan 2006• Region: US • Type: Article •Topic: Testing and exercising
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UK financial sector market-wide business continuity exercise takes place
On Monday 28th November, many financial sector firms took part in the UK’s largest ever market-wide exercise.
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•Date: 29th Nov 2005 • Region: UK • Type: Article •Topic: Financial sector BC
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US financial services industry business continuity exercise ‘a success’ 
“Backup data centers, work area recovery facilities and backup communications capabilities across the industry performed exceptionally well,” SIA.
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•Date: 20th Oct 2005 • Region: US • Type: Article •Topic: Financial sector BC
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US securities industry plans large scale business continuity test
Will exercise and verify the ability of firms, markets and utilities to operate through an emergency using backup sites, recovery facilities and backup communications capabilities.
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•Date: 19th July 2005 • Region: US • Type: Article •Topic: BC testing and exercising
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BCI announces International National Rehearsal Day
The Business Continuity Institute is asking all governments and enterprises to use 19th March 2006 as a focal point for BC rehearsals.
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•Date: 18th March 2005 • Region: World •Type: Article •Topic: BC testing and exercising
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