Conducting Periodic Business Impact Assessments | Importance and Benefits

Importance of Periodic Business Impact Assessments

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Which of the following is the PRIMARY reason to conduct periodic business impact assessments?

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A. B. C. D.

B.

Periodic business impact assessments (BIA) are a critical part of a comprehensive business continuity management (BCM) program. BIAs help organizations identify critical business processes, the resources required to support them, and the potential impacts of disruptions. Based on the results of the BIA, an organization can develop and implement strategies to minimize the impacts of disruptions and recover from them as quickly as possible.

The primary reason to conduct periodic business impact assessments is to update recovery objectives based on new risks. Risks to an organization can change over time due to a variety of factors, including changes in the business environment, advances in technology, and evolving threats from natural disasters, cyberattacks, or other events. Periodic BIAs help organizations identify these changes and adjust their recovery objectives accordingly.

For example, a BIA conducted several years ago might have identified the risk of a power outage and set a recovery objective of restoring critical systems within 24 hours. However, if the organization has since implemented cloud-based backup and recovery solutions, it may now be possible to restore critical systems in a matter of minutes or hours, rather than days. In this case, conducting a periodic BIA would help the organization update its recovery objectives to reflect the new capabilities provided by the cloud-based solutions.

Improving the results of the last BIA, decreasing recovery times, and meeting the needs of the business continuity policy are all important objectives of a comprehensive BCM program. However, these objectives are secondary to the primary goal of updating recovery objectives based on new risks. By conducting periodic BIAs, organizations can ensure that their BCM programs remain up-to-date and effective in mitigating the impacts of disruptions.