Experienced emergency relief and humanitarian agencies caution that after the initial outpouring of support for Haiti from all over the world the challenge is sustaining interest and support in the long term rebuilding of Haiti. So much to do! Returning to some semblance of normalcy, rebuilding an infrastructure to support the Haitian people – one can only hope that post earthquake Haiti will be better . Warren Axelrod, a frequent contributor to What’s New In Information Security sent us this post.
From the desk of Warren Axelrod: The top priority in Haiti is to save lives. But once the heroic efforts of the first responders are over, the enormous task of rebuilding the country structures and infrastructure for the survivors will begin. There will be the clearing of debris and rebuilding homes, places of business and government infrastructure – a slow return to normalcy.
Thousands will be buried anonymously, leaving families and government entities without confirmation of their identities Millions of records may have been irretrievably destroyed; the task of recovering and reconstituting public and personal records will be next to impossible.
Like others I am donating and praying for the lives of the Haitians. But, I can’t push entirely from my mind the ramifications and repercussions that result when we fail to protect information assets like personal records. Prisoners have most likely escaped and will quickly assume new identities. Health records, insurance records, proof of ownership as it applies to real estate and personal property are gone leaving the living in a difficult position to prove who they are, what they own. Leaving Haiti for other countries will be impossible without personal identification.
From the perspective of enterprise security management I think we can agree that contingency planning for catastrophes is entirely different from regular continuity and recovery planning. It is necessary to think out of the box and to establish procedures to protect sensitive information, which account for the types of losses sustained by the citizens, businesses and government agencies in New Orleans, Indonesia, Kobe, and now Port-au-Prince.
As history has shown, catastrophes hit random places at random times. It’s impossible to predict where or when they will strike.- the one thing we can count on is that disasters happen. So some measure of preparation iis in order.
Should there be some mammoth repository for electronic copies of vital information for everyone on the planet? It would be a monumental task not to mention the security and privacy issues. But the project is worth considering. The database would be enormous … it might be an interesting challenge for “the Cloud”!
Join us and donate to the American Red Cross or consider making a donation to LIONS Clubs International Fund. The LIONS donate more money to disaster recovery than any other philanthropy in the world.
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