Security Planning & Disaster Recovery

The release of this book couldn't have happened at a better time. Many companies in India have lately realized the importance of having a disaster recovery and business continuity solution in place. Books like these can help as a guideline to CIOs who are serious about their data, and want to see their enterprises function unhindered in the event of a disaster.

The book is for the CIO and the security expert in an enterprise since they are the ones answerable to the management if there's a break in business. It basically provides a road map that speaks about policies, procedures, audits, monitors, deadlines, and budgets.

Security Planning & Disaster Recovery begins with guidelines and principles in plan development. A section on laws and regulations doesn't apply to the Indian environment since every country has separate laws that govern them. Planned implementation procedures are then explained along with possible policies and procedures. There's a lot of detail about implementing a security plan, deploying new projects, and monitoring.

The study of business continuity administration talks about the ways to formulate a budget and guidelines on how to stick to them. A full section on incident response is a very welcome aspect of the book. A few pages dedicated to handling audits and deciding on the correct outsourcing partner can help if you're new to these areas.

This is a good guide for enterprise CIOs and security experts, but unfortunately can't do more than put a thought into your mind. In reality different enterprises need recovery solutions that are highly customized and tuned to perform optimally. The book's a good start nevertheless.

Title: Security Planning & Disaster Recovery
Authors: Eric Maiwald and William Sieglein
Publisher: McGraw Hill
Price: Rs. 295/-

Will it rock?

Is your enterprise located on safe ground, or does it (literally) rock at times? In case you have plans to set up an enterprise facility at a location in India make sure you don't set it up in an earthquake-prone location. In case you plan to set up a disaster-recovery site make sure you set it up in a less earthquake-prone location and certainly in a separate seismic zone. And in case you have already set up facilities in a high earthquake-prone zone, it's best you act fast and put your disaster recovery systems and policies in place.

India has been classified into five seismic zones. Zone V is the most hazardous and Zone I, the least.

• Zone V: Covers the areas liable to seismic intensity IX and above on the Modified Mercalli (MM) Intensity Scale. This is the most severe seismic zone and is referred here as a 'Very High Damage Risk Zone'.
• Zone IV: Gives the area liable to MM VIII. It is second in severity to zone V and is referred here as 'High Damage Risk Zone'.
• Zone III: The associated intensity is MM VII. This is termed as 'Moderate Damage Risk Zone'.
• Zone II: The probable intensity is MM VI. This zone is referred to as 'Low Damage Risk Zone'.
• Zone I: Here the maximum intensity is estimated as MM V or less. This zone is termed here as 'Very Low Damage Risk Zone'.