The risk of organisations breaching international human rights regulations has risen significantly over the last quarter as key Asian economies adapt to tougher economic conditions. Rising labour costs in China have led companies to diversify their supply chains into other high-risk countries such as Vietnam, especially for electronics, apparel and footwear.

Phoenix has today launched its active Archive as a Service (AaaS) offering, the UK’s first interactive cloud-based archive service to also be fully integrated into Phoenix’s IT Disaster Recovery as a Service offering. The active Archive as a Service will provide organisations of all sizes, with a resilient and economic data storage solution that also remains fully accessible and available for users to search, access and retrieve their archived data.

Flood modelling specialist JBA Risk Management has been commissioned by Flood Re broker Guy Carpenter to develop a probabilistic loss model for flooding in the UK. The model, likely to be completed later this year, will be used to draw a more complete and sophisticated picture of the risk being underwritten by Flood Re, the flood reinsurance fund being created to provide affordable domestic flood cover in high-risk areas.

As uncertainty rises over the potential for Greece to exit from the euro currency, the Lloyd’s Market Association (LMA) has reissued its guidance and a model clause relating to the withdrawal of a country from the eurozone. The association’s aim is to minimise risks in the event of an exit by encouraging policyholders and carriers to include appropriate clauses in order to safeguard their intentions.

The winners of the 2015 Business Continuity Awards were announced last night at a Gala Dinner hosted by comedian Josh Widdicombe at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London's Park Lane. A full review of the most celebrated event in the industry calendar will be published in the July issue of CIR Magazine. In the meantime, our worthy winners are as follows. Congratulations to everyone shortlisted, and particularly to...

Terrorist attacks pose an extreme risk to populations and business in the capital cities of 12 countries, including in the strategic markets of Egypt, Israel, Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan, according to new research released by global risk analytics company Verisk Maplecroft, which assesses 1,300 of the world’s most important commercial hubs and urban centres.

Although all London councils have disaster recovery procedures in place, nearly half of them (40%) have not tested them in the last 12 months, according to an FOI request from Databarracks. The FOI requests were sent to all London boroughs, the majority of which obliged with details on their business continuity practices, specifically in relation to electoral data. Managing director of Databarracks, Peter Groucutt, says that 40% is an alarmingly high number to have forgone testing, especially considering the election later this week:

Rapid economic growth in emerging economies, labour disruptions, political instability and a disease outbreak in West Africa led to a rise in business losses in 2014 according to the latest Global Supply Chain Intelligence report from BSI Supply Chain Solutions. Globally over US$23 billion was lost to cargo theft in 2014 from a variety of supply chain threats, while the four most economically damaging natural disasters caused a collective US$32.8 billion of damage. Within Europe, trade interruption due to an array of strikes throughout Europe caused US$1.5 billion of direct losses to business.

Netwrix has announced that its Netwrix Auditor for Active Directory is available for free to small businesses with no more than 100 user accounts, if downloaded during April 2015. The Netwrix solution – valued at over £800.00 – helps to detect security incidents and prevent data breaches, enables continuous compliance and optimises operations by providing complete visibility into all Active Directory and Group Policy changes.

Resilience will be particularly important for countries most exposed to the impacts of climate change, which will result in more frequent and severe weather events. This is according to the latest research from Verisk Maplecroft, which flags climate change as the most important cross-border risk affecting the long-term outlook for global investment. More than 50% of countries are categorised as ‘extreme’ or ‘high risk’ in the GRRA’s Climate Change Exposure Index, with the key Asian economies of Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Japan, Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and India among the highest risk.

Congratulations to all our finalists in this year's Business Continuity Awards, celebrating the very best in your sector. Winners will be announced at a gala dinner and awards presentation, during an evening of networking with hundreds of the business continuity and resilience professionals. Hosted by a celebrated comedian – to be announced shortly – the 2015 Awards will be a night to remember. This year’s finalists are…

Figures from Sungard Availability Services show that UK invocations have hit their highest levels since 2009. Overall incidents of downtime, in which staff are unable to work from their usual office or access business critical systems, also rose by over a third since 2013, leading to concerns that organisations are failing to sufficiently invest in the strategies and solutions required to maintain availability.

Analysis from business continuity and disaster recovery provider, Phoenix, finds that customers using Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) are far more likely to undertake regular tests and plan rehearsals. This suggests that customers find it easier to test with DRaaS in place than customers who have traditional business continuity services, where Phoenix has seen only 40% of its customers testing.

Business standards company, BSI has produced a list of top tips for business continuity planning. 1). Identify critical business functions – Once critical business functions have been identified, it is possible to apply a methodical approach to the threats that are posed to them and implement the most effective plans. 2). Remember the seven ‘P’s needed to keep your business operational – Providers, performance, processes, people, premises, profile (your brand) and preparation.

A third of businesses in the manufacturing industry are extremely concerned about potential supply chain disruption according to research released by BSI, the business standards company and the Business Continuity Institute (BCI). More than three quarters of manufacturing firms report increasing supply chain complexity as the fastest growing risk in business continuity, with malicious attacks via the internet and increased regulatory scrutiny taking second and third place.