Risk Assessment Report, Research Paper Example

Introduction

Many computer science companies have been involved with and considered critical risks when presented with risk assessment reports on certain issues. One such company is Intel, who had a risk assessment report written in July of 2012 regarding environmental storage hazard findings and further improvements and directions to be taken. As a result of this, a business impact analysis outlined herein, along with a business continuity plan and a disaster recovery plan, complemented with a computer incident response team plan will be detailed, including relevant examples for further improvements.

Business Impact Analysis

According to the most recent risk assessment report from Intel, environmental levels were the lowest at the Massachusetts-Hudson branch in the United States (Intel, 2012). This was in comparison to other divisions in the business that required daily activity, including labor, health and safety, management systems, and ethics. In light of long-term activities, environmental concerns and associated findings pose critical concerns for the company in regards to the business impact analysis (BIA).

These findings showed that precautionary measures were insufficient to guard against high-damage, environmental impact as a result of storing hazardous waste on site. Most of the new measures that were being implemented were in branches outside of the area of concern, in New Mexico. Potential losses to Intel could be tarnished brand image, increase of health concerns, and public outcry against environmental practices at Intel.

In particular, business critical services are integral to the implementation of the plans detailed below. Issue resolving and risk mitigation using IT infrastructure is central to the basis of the business continuity plan as mentioned below, and will allow for Intel’s rapid response team to address environmental concerns more efficiently.

Furthermore, proactive account management of different departments within the company itself will assist in identifying issues earlier, mitigating problems, and resolving ways and strategies to deal with such concerns and move forward. Lastly, assurance services for technological arrangements to stabilize infrastructure post-crisis is critical to improving and recovering important functions of the business.

Business Continuity Plan

As aforementioned, one of the most critical risks that Intel has reported in its recent risk assessment report is its environmental concerns, particularly in regards to storing hazardous waste on site. Some of the ways that this can be prevented at the outset is both environmentally and properly disposing of hazardous waste off-site. This will eliminate the potential risks to employee’ health and safety, as well as breaches in ethical protocol and management systems.

However, as this is more of a long-term strategy, there are certain short-term strategies that can be put in place. Research shows that natural concerns can cause monetary, mortality and morbid losses for business operations, such as inter-dependant activities, products and services (Momani, 2010).

Therefore, a plan to restore services to critical components post-crisis is known as a business continuity plan (BCP). Such a plan incorporates recovery steps and procedures, critical business operations, and recovery operations.

Recovery steps and Procedures

First and foremost, major functioning departments that rely on computer interfaces and technological assistance, such as production processes and IT departments will be the first point-of-call for technical repairs. Once these departments have been recovered, it will be easier to restore other services to inter-dependant functioning departments, such as business support, customer relations and other such services.

Finally, the emergency contingency plans and state of emergency will only be lifted once all critical services are restored by the rapid response team, the computer-operated event log has been reviewed to identify the environmental cause of the problem, and hazardous or defective materials have been removed from the site.

Critical Business Operations

Importantly, there should be in place both hot sites and cold sites, where evacuated employees can maintain critical functionalities of the firm without having to suspend activities of the business. The cold site should be located a few miles away from Intel’s Massachusetts-Hudson branch, and should maintain customer relations and business support services and related personnel. This cold sit will function inter-dependently with the hot site, so that all employees are still working together, albeit at separate locations.

The hot site, which contains all computer systems and backed-up data from the original site, including real-time synchronization of all computer activities, IT infrastructure and computer-supported post-productions phases of the company will function as normal. The rapid response team will work between the hot site and the main branch, which will be located in close proximity for synchronization purposes. This will allow for efficient and effective recovery of data, services and functioning of the main Intel Massachusetts-Hudson branch.

Recovery Operations

There needs to be a timeframe for recovery, in terms of how and when to respond, and what measures to put into place when considering the possibility of such a disaster. In Intel’s case, a period of about three to six months to implement short-term changes would require an additional risk assessment report to be conducted at the end of the timeframe, findings to be analysed, and further implementations to be carried out if necessary.

Disaster Recovery Plan

In the event that these environmental concerns as experienced at Intel come to a head, key resources, equipment and staff in charge of recovering operations should be ready to implement a disaster recovery plan (DCP). This includes communications and a contingency plan.

Communications

Key roles and responsibilities would be designated to personnel within the team, and as such, would include computer technicians, medical officers, and safety employees. These important staff are required to cooperate with and assist all employees of the company in the event of an emergency. All communication within the team is to be documented post-crisis, and staff and emergency services must be notified via the computer mainframe in accordance with the plan outlined.

Key resources to mitigate the environmental concern would include medical kits and an emergency plan that incorporates safety evacuations and rapid response to the area of critical need. Furthermore, any equipment, such as hazmat gear and other such tools that would isolate such areas would be needed in the event of such an emergency. Finally, medical personnel and a rapid response team with designated individuals would be required to be the first employees to respond to such a situation in this event.

Contingency Plan

The United States can improve disaster recovery only by acknowledging that recovery requires attention to restoring both human needs and infrastructure needs in particular (Chandra and Acosta, 2010). Therefore, these needs, as well as company protocol needs, should be placed in a priority checklist in the post-crisis process.

All data will be backed up from the original site via off-site servers which function as a conduit between the hot site and the original site. This backup site will be the temporary headquarters until all critical components of the business have been restored. This data and critical information will be monitored closely, so that employees can return to site as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Computer Incident Response Team Plan

Usually, an incident response plan is handled and carried out by designated personnel. However, in Intel’s case, it is possible to customize this plan to be executed by internal computer combinations, albeit with limited human control and a manual override function in the case that the computer mainframe of the company is damaged in the emergency situation. This would form the basis of a computer incident response team (CIRT) plan.

Activation of such a plan and identified authorization is critical to immediate implementation in the situation when environmental concerns threaten the operations of the company internally, and the lives of employees who also operate externally with others in the business network. Those in charge of the rapid response team, as indicated, would be authorized to activate the plan when and if necessary.

During the entire CIRT plan conduction, a computer-operate event log, detailing information, decisions and actions as implemented in real time should be recorded for analysis and follow-up once the emergency has passed. A large-scale emergency response relies on a single decision-maker, the Incident Commander, to allocate resources that change continuously in both availability and status, to control and resolve an equally dynamic incident (Simpson and Hancock, 2009). In this situation as exemplified, the Incident Commander is the Intel Computer Mainframe.

As mentioned earlier, the production stage often produces the most hazardous waste. To minimize such by-products, research points to a five-point practice this outlines structurizing, systemizing, sanitizing, standardizing and self-discipline. Such a practice ensures that risk assessment findings are addressed on a quantifiable and prioritized basis, especially for semiconductor firms (Chang, Chang and Chen, 2013).

Firstly, structurizing certain contingency plans around the basis of addressing the inherent will help to eliminate concerns early. Secondly, systemizing the computer programs to ensure the implementation of such plans will allow for immediate action in the case of an environmental emergency. Thirdly, sanitizing the area of concern and surrounding areas where employees are located will enable others to evacuate areas immediately and prevent the disaster from spreading. Fourthly, standardizing the plans as protocol will ensure that all employees are aware of such plans and follow them accordingly. Fifthly, self-discipline will allow all Intel staff to conduct themselves in an appropriate and safe manner once these plans are acted upon. Once these five preliminary steps are carried out, it will be much easier for the plans as mentioned to fall into place.

Conclusion

Intel has major environmental concerns in regards to the storage of hazardous waste on site, and over time, could pose critical after-effects to the company at large if unheeded. Therefore, the business impact analysis, as shown through the business continuity plan, the disaster recovery plan, and the computer incident response team plan would ensure the efficient and effective strategic implementation of recovery and action in the case of such an environmental emergency.

References

Chandra A., and Acosta J. (2010). Disaster Recovery Also Involves Human Recovery. Journal of the American Medical Association, 304(14), 1608-1609.

Chang, Y., Chang, K., and Chen, C. (2013). Risk Assessment by Quantifying and Prioritising 5S Activities for Semiconductor Manufacturing. Journal of Engineering Manufacturers, 24(3), 101-117.

Intel Corporation. (2012). Intel Risk Assessment Summary. Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition. Retrieved from https://supplier.intel.com/static/eicc/2012_Final_Intel_RA2_summary.pdf

Momani, N. (2010). Business Continuity Planning: Are We Prepared for Future Disasters. American Journal of Economics and  Business Administration, 2(3), 272-279.

Simpson, N., and Hancock, P. (2009). The Incident Commander: Resource Allocation in the Context of Emergency Response. International Journal of Services Science, 2(2), 102-124.