Introduction
The University of Virginia often abbreviated as UVa or sometimes UVA is by now the only UNESCO Heritage Site University in all of the United States of America. Located in Virginia at Charlottesville, the Public University is known for public research. It was founded by Jefferson Thomas and by 1819, it had already been established. It offers such courses as Philosophy to technical courses of Engineering and the like.
Risks
Just like any other organization or business franchise, this university faces various risks to its day-to-day operations. One of the major risks is a cyber-attack risk. This could especially lead to sensitive data being hijacked just over the normal network. Another major risk could be due to a fire outbreak which might cause loss of properties and even life. The university might also risk closure by the state if especially its buildings fail some structural test of safety or due to health reasons. Other risks that could occur include the risk of a drop in ranking and the risk of improper financial management.
Continuity Objectives
To ensure continuity of the university after a cyber-attack that might have disabled its servers, the university has put in place backup systems that continually save all necessary data. In case of a fire outbreak, copies of an important document can be easily retrieved from their online serves that are kept at separate locations. On the other hand, a contingency plan is always on standby to mitigate any fall in ranking.
Alternative Strategies
An alternative strategy to a cyber-attack would be the shut down of the servers that might be under attack. However, this would only help the attacker as the attacker would have eventually disabled the universities communication. In case of a fire outbreak, an alternative to safeguard important files and documents would be to build special vaults that would suck up air and automatically kill the fire. A fall in ranking could be handled by using services of outsourced firms
Disaster Recovery Plan
In case of a disaster like a fire outbreak at my place of work, several disaster recovery plans have been drafted to mitigate the situation. The company is reliant on information technology, it cannot afford to lose the data stored in its servers. Therefore, services of another outsourced company were acquired to help ensure the availability of backup data in case of such an event. Further, smoke detectors have been placed in the offices and corridors and in case of a substantial amount of smoke, they do fire up a siren in the building to alert everyone and let them evacuate. This trigger is also automatically detected by the fire brigade. The police also do get this notification and they come in to prevent loss of any property during this commission
As much as outsourcing a third party to handle all the companies’ backup information is almost 100% effective, a few challenges do exist. These challenges involve how to back up vital secrete company information that ought not to be seen by an outsider to the company. There is also the risk that this outsourcing company could sell our information to our competitors. As much as there are legal actions that can be taken against these actions, the harm would already have been done. To prevent all these, it is my suggestion that the company builds a separate building at a remote location and installs its backup servers at this location. They should be manned and controlled by their staff and thus ensure proper security.