Business continuity trends to watch in 2024 

Charlie Maclean-Bristol offers his insight on what might be the top business continuity trends for 2024 

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Charlie Maclean-Bristol, the author of 'Business Continuity Exercises: Quick Exercises to Validate Your Plan,' examines and makes predictions of the top business continuity trends for the new year, which organisations should be aware of and watch out for.

The first one is permacrisis. Although it was the Collins Dictionary's word of the year for 2022, 'permacrisis' will continue to affect everyone in 2024. Flooding in the south of England and the assassination of Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut have already happened within a few days of the new year. Crises, one after the other, are likely to continue. There is a need to conduct horizon-scanning to see how new events and existing events worldwide, such as the conflict in the Middle East, will affect the organisations.

Cybersecurity is another challenge for organisations. According to a number of articles, the encryption of an organisation's files is the most complex of ransomware attacks to achieve by attackers. It is easier to exfiltrate files and then threaten to release them if a ransom is not paid. There is a need to make sure that the plans take this into account and that crisis teams have practice dealing with a situation where they have lost data.

Mapping and monitoring the supply chain is necessary to avoid any unfavourable circumstances. Although the price of shipping goods has been going down, the attacks by the Houthis from Yemen are forcing ships to go via the Horn of Africa, increasing costs and time to market. This may have consequences for the supply chain and the cost of shipping.

Organisations cannot ignore climate change awareness any longer. According to the Met Office, 2023 was the second warmest year on record, so there is a chance that 2024 could be another year of extreme weather with extreme temperatures, weather, and wildfires. Just because a weather-related event has not happened before, organisations should still revisit their exposure to climate-related events.

Some organisations have to make changes to their work-from-home culture to encourage their staff to come back to the office. Business continuity plans need to take into account the influence of more people working in offices and ensure that work-from-home capabilities developed over Covid-19are not lost. The effects of the loss of the building may need to be revisited.

The effects of AI will continue to accelerate, affecting jobs, ways of working, and processes. So far, there has not been a great effect on business continuity processes and delivery. Given that many people view business continuity as a niche activity, there won't be a significant change or investment in automating the profession, but astute practitioners will use and adapt general AI tools and tools created for non-business continuity purposes.

Many organisations are moving their IT to the cloud or using a diverse set of SaaS solutions, all of which are critical to the organisation's delivery of services. Practitioners should better understand the risks and issues associated with incidents involving the cloud and SaaS.

Regulatory requirements for business continuity and data privacy may become stricter and further enforced. Organisations will need to ensure their plans, planning, and risk management comply with relevant regulations and mitigate financial losses from disruptions.

Organisations must be ready for policy changes. According to The Economist, 2024 will be the biggest year in history for elections, with over 4 billion people having the opportunity to cast their vote. Changes in government will lead to new policies, which could have organisational and supply chain effects, and there could be violence around the time of the election.

Finally, the requirement for training and exercising is on the rise, with many organisations, as part of their compliance requirements, ensuring that their senior managers are trained and practiced at responding to incidents. Organisations should be considering two to three short exercises alongside a more extended annual exercise to ensure that they are ready to respond to many of the issues outlined above.