The British weather continued to catch UK businesses by surprise in 2012, according to new research released by the Chartered Management Institute, British Standards Institution, the Business Continuity Institute and the Cabinet Office. Three in five firms suffered financially as a result, with managers estimating the average cost to their organisation in excess of £52,000, and some as high as £1m.

Telefónica UK has become the first UK mobile operator to have achieved ISO 22301 across all of its operations from BSI. ISO 22301, which has evolved from the internationally recognised British Standard BS 25999, endorses a plan of management practices and preventive solutions to protect an organisation against unexpected disruptions which may affect ability of the company to operate.

The deadline for entries for the Business Continuity Awards has been extended to 28th February. The Business Continuity Awards recognise business continuity, security, resilience and risk professionals whose innovative strategies and industry savvy make them stand out above the rest. Judged by an independent panel of experts for exceptional performance, service and results in this dynamic industry, this year’s winners will be announced at a gala dinner and ceremony on Thursday 30th May at the Hilton on Park Lane in London – an evening that brings industry leaders together for a night of networking and celebration.

The British Insurance Brokers' Association (BIBA) has launched its 2013 Manifesto Meeting the Growth Challenge in the House of Commons to an audience of ministers, MPs, lords, senior government officials and brokers. Jonathan Evans MP, chair of the all-party parliamentary group on insurance and financial services, hosted the reception.

Phoenix has announced the launch of its cloud-to-cloud backup service, following its first customers roll-out in the UK. Salesforce.com has chosen to back up its customer data to its own secure data store, which allows them to dictate the precise terms and conditions of their back-up.

The Met Office is warning of the risk of disruption as heavy snow is forecast across many parts of the UK tomorrow, Friday. A band of snow will push into the west into Friday morning with parts of Wales, the west of England and later Northern Ireland particularly at risk of heavy falls of snow and blizzard conditions in strong winds. A red warning has been issued for upland parts of southern Wales where accumulations of 10 to 15 cm are expected. Businesses are advised to review continuity plans where necessary.

A new survey published by the Business Continuity Institute and the British Standards Institution shows concern over cyber attacks continues to mount. The survey also reveals that 71% see the use of the Internet for malicious attacks as a major trend that requires a business continuity response with 42% seeking to manage the prevalence and high adoption of Internet-dependent services, such as the cloud, within their preparedness activities.

A senior Lloyds executive is suing the British bank Lloyd's Banking group for £1 million in lost earnings, alleging that he was forced out of his post after blowing the whistle on "startling" failures in the bank's disaster recovery systems. In a submission to the Central London Employment Tribunal, Stephen Clements, claims that two-thirds of the bank's systems were not subject to resiliency tests, leaving "very serious gaps” in their ability to recover critical IT systems.

The spread of violence and instability from Syria and Libya; increasing terrorism across key growth economies; the heightened risk of social unrest driving regime change; and resource nationalism, will be the key drivers of political risk for 2013, according to the fifth annual Political Risk Atlas, from risk analysis firm Maplecroft.

Recently retired Assistant Commissioner Frank Armstrong has been honoured with the Queen's Policing Medal for Distinguished Service. Mr Armstrong is also the latest judge to join the 2013 Business Continuity Awards panel. Mr Armstrong spent the first 18 years of his policing career with the Met Police before joining the City of London Police as Commander in December 2000.

For enterprises seeking to identify impacts that emerging technology trends can have on business continuity management, global IT association ISACA released a new white paper, which provides an overview of the impacts, benefits and opportunities of four emerging technologies as they relate to business continuity management: virtualisation, cloud computing, mobile devices and social networks.

Business standards company BSI has published a new guidance standard to help organisations take practical steps towards mitigating risk and improving their business continuity management. ISO 22313 Societal Security – Business Continuity Management Systems – Guidance describes the steps businesses need to take in order to meet the requirements of ISO 22301.

With thousands of businesses already adversely affected by recent bad weather and flooding, new research released today by the UK’s largest commercial insurer, RSA suggests that small and medium-sized retailers are dangerously unprepared for interruptions to their Christmas trading period.

For the past seven days, much of the UK has experienced torrential rain resulting in flooding and widespread disruption. As conditions look set to continue, business continuity and managed IT services provider, Phoenix has been on hand to assist many of its 2,000 customers in keeping their business running.

As the insurance cost of the recent flooding looks set to reach £1bn, a study by Iron Mountain shows that although 40% of UK firms regard natural disaster as the top threat to information security, few have taken action to protect their data from flood and fire risk. Iron Mountain has prepared a practical checklist to help firms minimise the impact of a natural disaster and protect their important information assets.