Zombie Defense Plan

Okay, this one may be hard to believe but, here we go… It has been discovered that the US Military has developed a strategic defense plan against zombie attacks. That’s right, your government has spent tax-payer money on creating a defense strategy against mindless, reanimated, fictional corpses (don’t we have enough real enemies that we should be actually planning defenses against).

According to Foreign Policy Magazine (http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/05/13/exclusive_the_pentagon_has_a_plan_to_stop_the_zombie_apocalypse), “Buried on the military's secret computer network is an unclassified document, obtained by Foreign Policy, called ‘CONOP 8888.’ It's a zombie survival plan, a how-to guide for military planners trying to isolate the threat from a menu of the undead”.

Now let's be fair. The reality is that the US Military is using “zombies” as a pseudonym for any unknown threat to the US. US Military spokespeople have stated that this fictional Zombie Defense Plan is only a creative endeavor for training purposes. It is meant to be a focal point for training against any kind of disaster (whew… I was worried for a minute that our government leaders didn’t realize that zombies weren’t real). Since I pay (through my taxes) for the US government to protect me and my family against attacks, I guess I am pretty happy that they are planning against ALL kinds of incidents.

This zombie non-sense got me thinking about paying for protection (No, this isn’t a reference to the Mafia or extortion). As business owners and executives, we pay for protection all of the time. We pay our attorneys for legal protection, our accountants for financial protection and yes, our IT companies for digital information protection. In return, we should expect that each of these professionals has an individualized strategy to protect our companies’ assets and interests (a “Zombie Defense Plan”). Not only should we expect for them to have a plan but they should be able to verbally describe what that plan is and how it protects us.  But as business executives, are we asking the right questions and focusing on the right details?

When it comes to supporting your company’s information technology investment, your IT vendor should be able to provide specific details about their services to you. It doesn’t matter if you have a formal contract with a company or if you just have your nephew fixing your PCs for you. They should have a plan to not only protect your investments, but also a plan to support you in case that protection fails. What specific steps are being taken so that you do not lose data, or have downtime that affects your business operations? What happens if hardware fails or if you have a major computer virus outbreak? How quickly can/will then respond? How long will your systems and data be unavailable to you and your employees? Anyone that you are paying for IT support from, should have a detailed plan that answers all of these questions. You have a responsibility to ensure the livelihood of your company, so make sure anyone supporting your IT systems has a “Zombie Defense Plan” in place for you.