A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is a set of procedures and measures prepared in advance to enable a company to maintain its essential activities when a major incident disrupts normal operations.
A cyberattack, ransomware incident, IT failure, power outage or other type of disaster can make certain systems or premises temporarily unavailable. A BCP helps anticipate these situations and determine how the organisation can continue operating despite the disruption.
Implementing a BCP requires careful preparation
To develop a BCP, a company must first identify its most critical activities and the resources required to keep them running. It can then put alternative solutions in place, such as backup IT systems, access to backups, temporary manual procedures, remote working or a different allocation of responsibilities.
For example, if a cyberattack makes the main IT system unavailable, a properly prepared BCP can define the procedures that allow priority teams to continue certain operations while specialists work to resolve the incident.
A BCP is often associated with a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP), but the two concepts are different. A BCP focuses on maintaining business operations during a crisis, while a DRP organises the restoration of systems and the return to normal operations after the incident.
What is a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)?
Like a DRP, a Business Continuity Plan should be regularly tested and updated to ensure that it remains aligned with changes in the company and its infrastructure.
In cybersecurity, a BCP directly contributes to cyber resilience: the objective is not only to prevent attacks, but also to ensure that the company can continue operating when an incident occurs despite the security measures in place.