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Super Duper Tabletop Disaster Scenarios

Think you're "ready for anything"? Think again.

By Derek Slater

April 02, 2010 — CSO — Are your business continuity plans battle-tested? Gather the team, get out your cinnamon-scented whiteboard markers and work through these useful business continuity and disaster recovery tabletop scenarios.

Scenario A

(Elementary level)

Phase 1: An employee in the Muncie plant reports "a funny smell, kinda like something's burning" coming from the telephony closet.
Phase 2: Tiger Woods returns to golf and Janet Napolitano is kicked off Dancing with the Stars.
Phase 3: Your CEO's admin is sidelined by a recurring hangnail problem. (Marketing is working to estimate the impact on your social media buzz.)

Scenario B

(Intermediate level)

Phase 1: An employee in the Grise Fiord office reports "a funny smell, kinda like someone's mixing sulfuric acid and caramel toffee" coming from the upstairs men's room.
Phase 2: The FS-ISAC, the US-CERT, and the company that makes BlackBerrys are all purchased by China.
Phase 3: Shoplifters take your headquarters building. (Marketing is working to estimate the impact on your triplicate form inventory.)

Scenario C

(Expert level)

Phase 1: Your retail outlet in Monieux, France, is destroyed by a freak meteor shower.
Phase 2: North America is destroyed by a freak meteor shower, but not the same one.
Phase 3: The sun goes supernova. (Marketing is working to estimate impact on in-store traffic.)

Note: For more serious BC/DR tabletop exercises, see these three scenarios.

Read more about disaster recovery in CSOonline's Disaster Recovery section.

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