As recovery begins in the wake of Cyclone Amphan in India and Bangladesh, and with the Atlantic hurricane season fast approaching, businesses with an international presence are urged to consider continuity plans to safeguard employees whilst taking into account the unique challenges caused by COVID-19.

Site security inspections and dedicated loss prevention measures will help ensure a successful and safe reopening after shutdown, as businesses are warned that fires, machinery breakdowns and faulty workmanship or maintenance are among the most expensive causes of insurance claims. This is the advice of AGCS, in a back-to-work checklist for businesses now preparing to reopen.

Research published today points to fundamental failures in business continuity planning amongst UK companies, as it suggests that before the coronavirus outbreak, two-thirds of organisations polled had no plans in place for responding to a pandemic, despite the same number having what they considered to be an "up-to-date business continuity plan".

Assurance Software has completed its acquisition of Avalution Consulting, in the latest M&A deal in the business continuity software market. The combined company serves more than 850 customers in 30 countries, offering business continuity consulting, software, staffing and data analysis.

AXA XL Risk Consulting has launched a virtual risk assessment service to help maintain client service continuity amid COVID-19 restrictions. Remote Risk Dialogue enables the insurer's risk engineers to perform remote analysis not seen in traditional loss prevention programmes and provide risk managers, underwriters and brokers with an up-to-date view risks.

Chaotic scenes in supermarkets, tension and even brawls on public transport over mask-wearing and coughing, fake news, fake remedies, and alarming headlines around the stockpiling and resale of PPE at exorbitant prices all characterise the darker side of what can happen when people are faced with a pandemic.

Coronavirus is the latest and most impactful challenge faced by the global economy but trade tensions, geopolitical uncertainty and Brexit also present threats to continuity in 2020. Against this backdrop, Euler Hermes has downgraded a record 18 countries and 126 sector risk ratings due to recession risk and COVID-19-related bankruptcies.

We cannot avoid talking about the pandemic currently affecting the global business environment. It is, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in one of his many recent briefings,“the worst global health crisis in a generation”.

Gala Dinner and Awards Presentation will now take place on Wednesday 9th December.

When it comes to disruption, we’ve seen it all. Over the decades, businesses have had to combat a growing number of threats – whether they take the form of natural disasters, terrorism, global cyber attacks, and just about any unexpected scenario you can imagine. But, as the spread of COVID-19 has shown, it’s clear that new and unprecedented threats of disruption will continue to emerge that will challenge the agility of all businesses globally.

Less than half of safety and performance improvement recommendations put forward for critical energy infrastructure are fully implemented, new research reveals, greatly increasing the risk of failure, fatality or fire posed by transformers.

The COVID-19 outbreak is forcing millions of employees to work from home, presenting organisations with an unprecedented challenge -- keeping as many business-critical functions running as possible whilst maintaining cyber security. According to information security experts at Veridium, this represents the greatest ever cyber security threat firms have ever faced.

Each firm’s designated Senior Manager or equivalent person is responsible for identifying which of their employees are unable to perform their jobs from home, and have to travel to the office or business continuity site, according to guidance issued by the Financial Conduct Authority.

BSI has today made public a suite of resilience standards to help businesses navigate the challenges associated with the coronavirus pandemic.