Nearly half of all firms believe that a 24 hour IT shutdown could ‘jeopardise the survival of their entire business’ according to a new survey.
A shocking 47% of risk managers questioned for the Economist Intelligence Unit survey into business resilience feared that much unplanned downtime could be disastrous.
The report claimed that the severity of a threat from IT disruption was prompting more companies to dedicate attention to potential risks.
Three quarters of those asked said they had increased the time and resources dedicated to operational risk management. A further 71% said they now focused more attention on business continuity programmes.
Threats seen as most significant to operational management were cited as loss of data (36%) and human error (35%).
“The results of the survey illustrate the degree to which companies now rely on their IT systems, as well as the devastating consequences that can ensue from even a short period of disruption,” said Rob Mitchell, editor of the report.
“Discussions of business continuity often centre around catastrophic events, such as terrorist attack or pandemic outbreak, but our survey indicates that it is the more mundane and likely problems, such as power outage, human error and unplanned downtime that pose the gravest threat to organisations.”
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2007
