A salary benchmarking study conducted by the Business Continuity Institute points to a considerable gender pay gap within the business continuity industry. The institute's study of over 1,000 business continuity and resilience professionals sought to discover the remuneration packages that those in the industry receive, including salary, bonus and other benefits. The report provides deep dives into regional specifics for Australasia, Europe, the US and the UK.

Even five years ago the term ‘organisational resilience’ was heard relatively infrequently; now it inevitably crops up in any conversation amongst business continuity, security, risk management and other professionals tasked with ensuring that the physical and operational integrity of an organisation is maintained no matter what challenges it may face.

Globalisation and trade challenges highlighted by the US election and Brexit referendum usher in a year of heightened strategic uncertainty on both sides of the pond – difficult topics which have become impossible to avoid and, according to Control Risks’ CEO Richard Fenning, may even make 2017 “one of the most difficult years for business’ strategic decision making since the end of the Cold War”. Such high levels of complexity and uncertainty will force boards to undertake comprehensive reviews of their approaches to risk management. Risk professionals at the Institute of Risk Management (IRM) echo this sentiment, citing political risk among their chief concerns for the coming year.

The newest entrant to the UK business continuity market is opening the doors to its first work area recovery centre. The new, 4000 sq ft Crossharbour Crisis Management Centre is the first independent recovery centre to open in the UK in over a decade, and was designed and built specifically to meet the needs of London businesses.

Crises Control has released two new modules on its platform and a new business solution. A new Task Manager Module allows the delegation and tracking of completed tasks and the creation of complex task work flows using predecessor logic; while the iSOP Wizard module allows users to quickly create their own bespoke business continuity action plans.

UKCloud has announced the launch a self-service replication and recovery solution powered by software provider, Zerto. Disaster Recovery to the Cloud is based on a pay-as-you-use cloud model; organisations can select applications that are crucial for the provision of public services, and therefore only pay for the disaster recovery or business continuity that is needed.

The shortlist for the 2017 Business Continuity Awards has been announced. Now in their 19th year, the Business Continuity Awards recognise those business continuity, security, resilience and risk professionals whose innovative strategies and industry savvy make them stand out above the rest, organised by CIR Magazine. The winners will be announced at a Gala Dinner on 8 June 2017 at the London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square.

Cyber attack is once again the top threat perceived by businesses, according to research published this week by the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) in association with BSI (British Standards Institution). Eighty eight per cent of organisations are concerned about the possibility of a cyber attack. The threat of a data breach follows (81%), while unplanned IT and telecom outage remains third greatest concern (80%).

Research conducted by the British Standards Institution reveals the scale of the modern slavery issue facing UK businesses. Its 'Human Trafficking and Supply Chain Slavery Patterns Index’ suggests UK businesses are at particularly high risk of modern slavery. Russia, Slovakia, India and Pakistan, according to the Index, are all ‘severe risk’ source countries. Of the G7 nations, Italy is identified as a ‘high risk’ nation – partly due to the conflict in Syria. Greece and Turkey are additionally categorised as ‘high risk’ countries.

It is just over 12 months since Storm Desmond wrought havoc in many parts of the UK; an event that, according to the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, ranked alongside the devastating flooding of March 1947 as the largest event of at least the last century. In responding to major emergencies like flooding, emergency services and local authorities play a crucial part in managing the immediate aftermath, supporting local people and businesses as well as restoring the public realm. Those organisations are well versed in having emergency plans for such circumstances and regularly test aspects of these plans to ensure they are robust. They are also under a duty to ensure that they have plans in place to respond to events that may affect their own services during an emergency.

AXA has announced a partnership with resource management advisor, SUEZ aimed at improving resilience of cities and territories against flood risks. The new joint offering, available globally, will provide communities and industries with analysis of vulnerability to any form of flooding (flash flood, marine submersion, rising groundwater level, rupture of hydraulic structures, overflowing); solutions to reduce vulnerability for locations and territories through business continuity plans, education and prevention; and tools for awareness and assistance in crisis management (alert tools, material and human means, and so on).

An ambitious £3.5m hardware upgrade is being rolled out to business continuity customers of converged IT and communications provider Daisy Group. The major investment will equip all of its 13 nationwide work area recovery sites with 6,000 latest desktop computers from global hardware provider Hewlett Packard.

The Met Office has warned of plummeting temperatures this week, with snowy conditions expected across the UK, bringing the issue of business resilience to the fore. Is your business prepared?

Political risk, cyber security, bribery and oil price and financial markets fluctuations are among chief concerns for businesses voiced by some of the UK’s leading risk experts as they look ahead to 2017.

James McAlister has formally taken over as chairman of the Business Continuity Institute, replacing David James-Brown whose two year term in office has come to an end. A former police officer with over 30 years of experience in business continuity, civil protection, emergency planning, security, firearms, public order and training, McAlister has advised and contributed to many operations and exercises throughout the UK and internationally including political party conferences, major sporting events,