Operational Resilience

It used to be easy to predict and prepare for realistic disaster scenarios. But modern organizations face a bewildering array of potential crises. Global pandemics. Ransomware. State-directed espionage. Domestic unrest. Emerging from modern disasters unscathed requires a unique approach to organizational preparation that emphasizes resilience against the unexpected.

Operational Resilience Approach

MBL uses thorough planning, effective procedures and live simulation to harden your team against disruption or disaster.

We execute this approach with an eye on regulatory compliance, such as the U.S. Federal Continuity Directive (FCD), as well as FISMA, DFARS and NIST requirements. But we also use the continuity planning process to gain insight into critical assets and their cost to maximize your return on investment in operational resilience.

• Business Continuity: Our goal is for your team to remain resilient in the face of disruption or disaster. We analyze the people, processes and technology that make your business work. We then identify and plan for the most realistic disruptions, from cyber-attacks to natural disasters to personnel issues. With focused, disciplined plans in place, we test and improve these plans using scenario-based training, enhancing your team’s ability to weather whatever the future brings.
• Continuity of Operations: We prepare and test continuity of operations (COOP) plans aligned to U.S. federal and state compliance requirements and based on the most likely threats to your continued operation. Starting with a business impact analysis (BIA), we quantify the value of critical business assets and understand the impact to operations if those assets are lost. We then develop and test an actionable COOP plan to get core assets back online, as quickly as possible, to meet service-level agreements (SLAs) and/or recovery objectives.
• Disaster Recovery: MBL’s approach to disaster recovery (DR) complements COOP planning with focused, technical plans for the rapid recovery of capability. DR planning begins with a thorough review of the natural and human disasters that might impact any element of your infrastructure. We then develop granular plans and procedures, aligned to COOP plans, for restoring that infrastructure to an operational state.
• Physical Security: With the modern focus on cyber defense, it’s easy to forget the importance of old-fashioned physical security. MBL helps organizations of all sizes apply active and passive techniques to the challenge of securing the physical perimeter. We also help you and your staff prepare for challenging situations, such as terrorism and active shooter scenarios. To test physical security, we conduct black-bag assessments, using modern tools to assess physical security posture.
• Test, Training and Exercises: Live, scenario-based testing is the best way to ensure the effectiveness of COOP, DR and physical security plans. From active shooter simulations, to full failover or tabletop COOP and DR testing, we design and execute realistic assessments. We then use lessons learned to enhance plans and develop tailored training to improve team readiness.