Prepare, Mitigate, Respond and Recover

Prepare, mitigate, respond and recover are all buzz words in the world of emergency management and here at FutureShield we live and breathe these terms daily. When I first founded FutureShield in 2005, the world of managing security incidents and large-scale emergencies was dominated by the white board in the emergency operations centre. In the physical security realm, it was dominated by Word, Excel, the little black book and a pen. This awareness led to a green field opportunity to provide enterprise-grade applications to an underserved marketplace. I set out the goal of searching out the best technology companies globally bringing products to Canada to make our communities better prepared for when the unexpected happens.

Preparation: Advance Planning

Preparation activities happen before an incident occurs. These should include All Hazards Risk Assessment, security assessments, and regular Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) activities. Other preparation activities include regular training, drills and exercises. Training results should be stored in a system which allows for benchmarking and performance improvement. At FutureShield we support systems that allow you to handle your preparation in an auditable, reportable, compliant fashion ensuring that your organization is better prepared for when the unthinkable happens.

Mitigation: Prevention and Reduction

Mitigation is about preventing future incidents and emergencies or minimizing their effects including a reduction in damage. From a security perspective, mitigation can be supported through the use of an incident and case management solution allowing the risk assessment process to be validated through the documentation of a reduction (or increase) in activities that could lead up to a larger effect. Mitigation can also be achieved while doing planning for business impact analysis (BIA), and in emergency management, ensuring resources and assets are ready for Go Time. At FutureShield we believe that while you can’t always prevent an incident, you can work to ensure the effects are managed in the most responsible fashion possible.

Response: Putting Your Plans Into Action

Response is about putting your preparedness plans into action. For many that means sending out a mass notification to employees, activating the emergency operation centre, and engaging the crisis management team. For first responders, response is a daily mandate, but training using 3D virtual reality serious gaming mimics the adrenaline of response, and those skills can be honed daily using the most current 3D virtual reality serious gaming systems. FutureShield helps by helping you choose response systems that are up to the job, often cloud-based, and battle-tested.

Recovery: Returning to Normal (and Safer)

Recovery takes place after the incident and includes actions take to return to a normal or hopefully safer situation. Recovery also takes into account Business Continuity Management and Continuity of Operations. Financial management, emotional management, and the mere act of getting back in action again can be daunting. Recovery is directly linked to preparation as the more prepared for an event, the better the ability to get back to a situation normal scenario. Cloud-based systems, off-site documentation and availability of information to responders and supporting agencies, are all primary factors in successful recovery. At FutureShield we work with you to look at redundancy, dynamic and relational data, and exercises to help you close the circle and loop back again into preparation.