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News Release from: TPS | Subject: Disaster recovery plans
Edited by the Buildingtalk Editorial Team on 21 March 2005

Complacency is a terrorist's best friend

Need for organisations fully to assess the risks to their activities and to implement comprehensive disaster recovery plans.

This is one of the key messages to be relayed to delegates at a seminar on managing the threat of terrorism being staged this week by TPS Consult, the UK's largest security and counter-terrorism consultancy The seminar is being held during Business Continuity Week (14-18 March), an initiative by the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) to highlight the need for organisations fully to assess the risks to their activities and to implement comprehensive disaster recovery plans

"The threat is there, and it is real," said Chris Bowes of TPS Consult.

"There may well be a level of complacency already - there have not been any terrorist incidents in the UK recently to highlight the threat, although the train bombs in Spain last year did show that Western Europe is a target." While specific information is understandably sparse, the security services are said to be remaining very vigilant.

Some notable successes have been achieved in recent years in the UK, receiving only cursory mention in the media.

These have involved the interception or disruption of terrorist activities such as a possible in-flight hijacking in 2003 and preparations for a vehicle bomb in 2004.

Last year an Al Qaeda cell was interrupted in London and suspects were known to be undertaking reconnaissance of the port at Shoreness.

This followed similar activities around Heathrow in 2001 which resulted in the Army being brought in.

It is known that a number of the world's terrorist groups, many linked to Al Qaeda, are in Iraq.

Not to assist with the insurgency but for training purposes.

They are using that cause as a cover for real training in the use of munitions, vehicle and suicide bombs.

There have been over 220 attacks in Iraq in the two years since the war.

Although thwarted in the UK to date, it is accepted in security circles that it is only a matter of time before the terrorists are successful here.

The former Police Commissioner said recently that there are over 200 identified suspects walking free in the UK.

The method of attack will most likely be a vehicle or suicide bomb, as these are the currently preferred options.

The targets are numerous: recent activity suggests that infrastructure will be at the top of the list, whether that be road, rail or air, or even water supplies, refineries or energy generation.

The bombing of the HSBC and British Consulate in Turkey suggest that commercial targets are also a possibility.

In a recent survey of businesses, the BCI found that 20 per cent do not have disaster recovery plans.

Of those that do, 60 per cent do not test these plans regularly, and this with most companies interviewed ranking terrorism as one of the most significant threats to their businesses.

The seminar being staged by TPS Consult will enable those with responsibility for business continuity, securing assets and protecting people, to relate the current threat to their scenario, and begin the process of understanding the nature of that threat and the options available.

This is the third such seminar staged within a year, with the last one oversubscribed significantly.

Previous seminars have included briefings from the security services, and HSBC following its experience in Turkey.

This seminar includes a presentation by the National Security Advice Centre on the current security threat, TPS Consult, which has provided design and security advice for many notable public buildings, both in the UK and abroad, including all British embassies for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), and Keith Lane, who is from the FCO, who will give a presentation on security considerations from the client's perspective.

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