Pandemic Planning: Beyond 'Checkbox' Compliance - Harry Rhulen

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There won't be any time for planning, only action, when the H1N1 (swine flu) virus returns to the U.S. this fall, says business continuity planning expert Harry Rhulen.

In an exclusive interview, Rhulen discusses:

Rhulen is Chairman and CEO of Firestorm Solutions, a BCP and disaster recovery consulting firm based in Denver, CO. He is also co-author of the book "Disaster Ready People For A Disaster Ready America." Two additional books will be published this year on pandemic planning: "The Pandemic Scam -Why Plan?" and "Luck is Not a Strategic Plan."

LINDA McGLASSON: Hello, I'm Linda McGlasson, Managing Editor for www.bankinfosecurity.com and www.cuinfosecurity.com. Today's Information Security Media Group Podcast is with Harry Rhulen, CEO of Firestorm, a business continuity planning and disaster recovery consulting firm. Welcome Harry.

HARRY RHULEN: Thank you very much Linda.

McGLASSON: Harry, you recently returned from Europe and have seen first hand the preparation and reaction to the Swine Flue virus and pandemic over there. How are they coping?

RHULEN: It is actually very interesting. Europe in general has a slightly different culture than we have here in the United States. Because they are not protected on both borders as the United States is by an ocean and therefore aren't isolated, they are subject to far more issues, more vulnerabilities and threats than we see on a day-to-day basis in the United States. The first thing you notice when you go to Europe, walking through the airport, is more people wearing masks. You will also see signs up in the airport not only just for Swine Flu, which is the H1N1 virus, , but additionally placards up for other diseases such as the H5N1 virus, which as you probably know is still affecting people very adversely in places like Egypt and Indonesia. They are trying to keep their people tuned into a much greater degree than I believe the media-based society herein the United States is doing.

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McGLASSON: Can you point to examples of businesses around the globe that are doing a good job in preparation, planning and implementation of their response plans? And here in the United States, what should businesses and financial institutions in particular be telling their employees and customers at this point?

RHULEN: Very often when people talk about pandemics they talk about pandemic planning, but the reality is there are many diseases that do not reach pandemic levels that have the ability to incapacitate a financial institution, or any type of organization. It is the training and education of the employees that becomes paramount in the process. Teaching them how to identify the issues, how to use proper hygiene, what the cleaning protocols are, what cleaning products need to be used under what circumstances, all those things need to be incorporated into an overall communicable illness plan for an organization. Additionally, one of the things that most organizations found during this most recent Swine Flu outbreak is that they need to have very firm travel policies in place. You can't start or try to implement policies after the disease has already broken out. If you are going to be sending people to foreign countries, you need to know what your quarantine protocol is. If you are in a situation with the Swine Flu, say you have an employee that returned from Mexico, how long are you going to keep them from returning to the office? If you need to send somebody to a location that potentially is an infected area, how does that affect your worker's compensation policy? How does that affect all of the other benefits and policies that your organization has? There are many vulnerabilities and threats that need to be looked at as part of the overall communicable illness planning process, and the employees are the key to it. They are the ones who are either going to keep your organization safe or, if they are not trained and educated properly, they are the ones who are going to spread the disease. Again, it is not just about the Swine Flu and it is not about the H5N1. We at Firestorm have had clients recently that had issues with things such as Measles or drug resistant forms of Tuberculosis; also MRSA has been a big issue, the drug resistant form of bacteria that is a flesh-eating bacterium. So really overall communicable illness planning is important for any organization.