Y2K, Viruses, and Emergency Response Teams

by Yvonne LaRose

June 2, 2002 —

Do you remember those exercises we did in the last century? You know the
ones; the Y2K preparedness exercises. There were the daily updates of
information about what systems should be checked and safeguard
implementations, recommendations for safety precautions and emergency
plans of action and team readiness regimens. A few weeks after we
entered Year 2000, those updates considerations stopped. Interesting
that. The need for the practices did not.

Around this time last year, the number of viruses circulating around the
Web increased. The level of virulence of those viruses also increased.
And the amount of hacking of systems became of greater importance as the
number of incidents grew.

A little time back, these issues and the events of September 11th all
coalesced for me. A listserv on which I'm a member began delivering
double messages. A quick emailed response to notify the list owner
resulted in no cure. Eight days, 500 messages, and a lot of unsubscribes
later, the situation was finally under control and we were restored to
normalcy. It seems a virus infected the office where the servers reside.

This little exercise was not isolated. A couple of other lists also
started dropping twins of their messages but the situations were nipped
within a day.

The IT department of any business is basically the backbone of the
business. If it doesn't function properly or respond quickly, the entire
infrastructure is weakened. Responsiveness is imperative, whether during
normal business hours or not. Failure to respond quickly and decisively
will result in lost business. Failure to have a plan for such events
will result in a lot of wasted time and lost business.

So even though we've passed the milestone of the calendar turning to
Year 2000, the need for a standing emergency response team has not. You
probably will want to schedule at least pairs of your tech staff (one
senior, experienced person with one novice) who are on emergency call
status on a rotating basis. If an emergency arises during non-business
hours or during a weekend, some means of contacting the team is in place
so that they can respond and preserve the company's credibility,
goodwill and its business.

It's important to do this as an emergency team regimen rather than one
person who is on standby. The idea of mixed experience is transparent.
The more senior person has the benefit of exposure to many situations
and knowledge of how to deal with matters quickly. With a person of less
experience on their side, they act as a type of trainer for the other.
However, it is quite possible that innovations in technique are
available from the "younger" team member (from classes recently
completed) who can then share that knowledge with their senior.

The critical matter is having a responsive, efficient team to deal with
the emergencies no matter what time or day.

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