Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious

[DickyP]

Quote from today's papers.

"Cyber attack contingency plans should be put on paper, firms told"​

Can anyone think of a reason why they shouldn't be doing this already?

 

[NauticalGent]

Somewhere along the line, hard-copy contingencies became obsolete.

 

[DickyP]

Somewhere along the line, hard-copy contingencies became obsolete.

Yeah, perhaps I should have phrased the questions as "Can anyone think of a GOOD reason why they shouldn't be doing this already?"

 

[NauticalGent]

Agreed. That is what I was trying to imply, hard to convey sarcasm in text!

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Back in the 2000-2009 decade, the U.S. Navy started their Continuity of Operations plan which included building an alternate operations site, beefing up the network long-haul segments, setting up data replication to the alternate site, and arranging for alternate site consoles to be visible on an "inside" network so that both primary and secondary sites could be controlled from the same place. Of course, the contingency plans WERE formulated in Word and Excel. We had a Lt. Commander in charge of that project. He worked from paper only in the weekly status meetings.

MANY years ago, in my first "real" job, a co-worker named Wayne gave me a little bit of wisdom. "Paper has a better memory than people.." I took that to heart while I was still in the petroleum industry.

Our design guide was always on paper and organized so that each major component could be updated easily without having to reprint the whole document. So... 3-ring binders and 3-hole pre-punched paper, plus card-stock separators with color-coded tabs between each chapter. However, once I moved to the Navy job, their rules were different and EVERYTHING was electronically transferred. "When in Rome, ...."