E-H

Published under Risk Management

Terminology	Explanation	Source
ELECTRONIC VAULTING	Electronic transmission of data to a server or storage facility.	ENISA
EMERGENCY	An actual or impending situation that may cause injury, loss of life, destruction of property or cause the interference, loss or disruption of an organisation's normal business operations to such an extent that it poses a threat	The BCI
EMERGENCY CHANGE	A change that is planned, scheduled and implemented at very short notice in order to protect a service from an unacceptable risk of failure or degradation, lack or loss of functionality	ENISA
EMERGENCY CONTROL/COMMAND CENTRE (ECC)	The location from which an incident is directed and tracked. It may also serve as a reporting point for deliveries, services, press and all external contacts. See Command Centre	ENISA
EMERGENCY CO-ORDINATOR	The person designated to plan, exercise, and implement the activities of sheltering in place or the evacuation of occupants of a site with the first responders and emergency services agencies	ENISA
EMERGENCY DATA SERVICES	Remote capture and storage of electronic data, such as journalling, electronic vaulting and database shadowing	The BCI
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PLAN	A plan which supports the emergency management team by providing them with information and guidelines	The Emergency Planning Society modified by ENISA
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT TEAM	The group of staff who command the resources needed to recover the enterprises operations	The Emergency Planning Society, modified by ENISA
EMERGENCY OPERATIONS CENTER (EOC)	A site from which response teams/officials (municipal, county, state and federal) provide direction and exercise control in an emergency or disaster. See Emergency Control Centre, Crisis Centre, Crisis Room, Incident Room	The Emergency Planning Society, modified by ENISA
EMERGENCY PLANNING (EP)	Development and maintenance of agreed procedures to prevent, reduce, control, mitigate and take other actions in the event of an emergency	The Emergency Planning Society, modified by ENISA
EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS	The capability that enables an organisation or community to respond to an emergency in a coordinated, timely, and effective manner to prevent the loss of life and minimize injury and property damage	The Emergency Planning Society, modified by ENISA
EMERGENCY PROCEDURES	A documented list of activities to commence immediately to prevent the loss of life and minimize injury and property damage	The Emergency Planning Society, modified by ENISA
EMERGENCY RESPONSE	The immediate reaction and response to an emergency situation commonly focusing on ensuring life safety and reducing the severity of the incident	The Emergency Planning Society, modified by ENISA
EMERGENCY RESPONSE PLAN	A documented plan usually addressing the immediate reaction and response to an emergency situation	The Emergency Planning Society, modified by ENISA
EMERGENCY RESPONSE PROCEDURES	The initial response to any event,focused upon protecting human life and the organisation's assets	The BCI
EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM (ERT)	Qualified and authorized personnel who have been trained to provide immediate assistance	The Emergency Planning Society modified by ENISA
EMERGENCY SERVICES	Usually refers to the civil services of Police, Fire and Ambulance	The BCI
ENTERPRISE	An organisation, a corporate entity; a firm, an establishment, a public or government body, department or agency; a business or a charity	The BCI
ENTERPRISE WIDE PLANNING	The overarching master plan covering all aspects of Business Continuity within the entire organisation	ENISA
ESCALATION	Passing information and/or requesting action on an Incident, Problem or Change to more senior staff (hierarchical escalation) or other specialists (functional escalation) The circumstances in which either vertical escalation for information/authority to apply further resources or horizontal escalation for greater functional involvement need to be precisely described, so that the purpose of the escalation and the nature of the required response is absolutely clear to all parties as the escalation occurs. Escalation rules will be geared to priority targets. Functional Escalation is sometimes called Referral.	The BCI modified by ENISA
ESSENTIAL SERVICE	A service without which a building would be 'disabled'. Often applied to the utilities (water, gas, electricity, etc.) it may also include standby power systems, environmental control systems or communication networks.	The BCI
EVACUATION	The movement of employees, visitors and contractors from a site and/or building to a safe place (assembly area) in a controlled and monitored manner at time of an event	The BCI
EVENT	Any occurrence that may lead to a Business Continuity incident	ENISA
EXCLUSION ZONE	See Cordon	ENISA
EXCEPTION REPORTING	Reducing the Management Information produced to that which most demands or deserves attention. The Top Ten style of list is an example.	ENISA
EXECUTIVE / MANAGEMENT SUCCESSION PLAN	A predetermined plan for ensuring the continuity of authority, decision-making, and communication in the event that key members of executive management unexpectedly become incapacitated	ENISA
EXERCISE	A people-focused activity designed to execute Business Continuity Plans and evaluate the individual and/or organisation performance against approved standards or objectives. Exercises can be announced or unannounced, and are performed for the purpose of training and conditioning team members, and validating the Business Continuity Plan. Exercise results identify plan gaps and limitations and are used to improve and revise the Business Continuity Plans.	ENISA
EXERCISE AUDITOR	An appointed role that is assigned to assess whether the exercise aims/objectives are being met and to measure whether activities are occurring at the right time and involve the correct people to facilitate their achievement	The UK Financial Sector Continuity
EXERCISE CONTROLLER/FACILITATOR	The person who runs the exercise on the day in accordance with the Exercise Script	ENISA
EXERCISE CO-ORDINATOR	They are responsible for the mechanics of running the exercise.	ENISA
EXERCISE OBSERVER	An exercise observer has no active role within the exercise but is present for awareness and training purposes. An exercise observer might make recommendations for procedural improvements.	The BCI
EXERCISE OWNER	An appointed role that has total management oversight and control of the exercise and has the authority to alter the Exercise Plan.	ENISA
EXERCISE PLAN	A plan designed to evaluate tasks, teams, and procedures that are documented in Business Continuity Plans to ensure the plan’s viability. This can include all or part of the BC plan, but should include mission critical components. See Test Plan	ENISA
EXERCISE SCRIPT	A time-line for running the exercise. It states what activities should be happening, when they should happen and who is carrying out the activity. See Test Script	ENISA
EXERCISE REPORT	A report which is written following an exercise to discuss the outcomes of the exercise and recommendations for amendments and further work. See Test Report	ENISA
EXPOSURE	The potential susceptibility to loss; the vulnerability to a particular risk	The BCI
EXTRA EXPENSE	The extra cost necessary to implement a recovery strategy and/or mitigate a loss. An example is the cost to transfer inventory to an alternate location to protect it from further damage, cost of reconfiguring lines, overtime costs, etc. Typically reviewed during BIA and is a consideration during insurance evaluation.	ENISA
EXTREME OR CATASTROPHIC EMERGENCY, EVENT, INCIDENT AND/OR CRISIS	A Business Continuity incident of immense proportions that has severe consequences, often damaging a large proportion of the organisation's assets that results in a loss greater than an expected loss.	The BCI
FACILITIES MANAGEMENT (FM)	The function that manages all aspects of an organisation’s real estate assets and infrastructure.	The BCI
FAILURE	A failure occurs when a functional unit is no longer fit for purpose.	The Disaster Recovery Journal modified by ENISA
FAILOVER	Failover is the capability to switch over automatically to a redundant or standby computer server, system, or network upon the failure or abnormal termination of the previously active server, system, or network. Failover happens without human intervention and generally without warning, unlike switchover.	The Disaster Recovery Journal modified by ENISA
FALLBACK	Another term for alternative e.g. a fallback facility is another site/building that can be use when the original site/building is unusable or unavailable.	The BCI
FAMILY ASSISTANCE CENTRES	A one-stop-shop for survivors, families, friends and all those affected by the emergency, through which they can access support, care and advice.	ENISA
FAULT	A condition that causes a functional unit to fail to perform the required function.	The Disaster Recovery Journal modified by ENISA
FAULT TOLERANCE	The ability of a service to continue when a failure occurs. See Resilience	The Disaster Recovery Journal modified by ENISA
FILE SHADOWING	The asynchronous duplication of the production database on separate media to ensure data availability, currency and accuracy	The Disaster Recovery Journal modified by ENISA
FINANCIAL IMPACT	An operating expense that continues following an interruption or disaster, which as a result of the event cannot be offset by income and directly affects the financial position of the organisation	The UK Financial Sector Continuity
FIRE MARSHALL	A person responsible for ensuring that all employees, visitors and contractors evacuate a site/building	The BCI
FIRST LEVEL SUPPORT	The technical and managerial resources within the Service Desk available at the initial point of contact with the Customer/User	ENISA
FLOOR WARDEN	Person responsible for ensuring that all employees, visitors and contractors evacuate a floor within a specific site	ENISA
FORTRESS APPROACH	An approach to Business Continuity where the entire site is made as disaster-proof as possible	ENISA
FORWARD RECOVERY	The process of recovering a database to the point of failure by applying active journal or log data to the current backup files of the database	The Disaster Recovery Journal modified by ENISA
FULL REHEARSAL	An exercise that simulates a Business Continuity event where the organisation or some of its component parts are suspended until the exercise is completed	The BCI
FULL RELEASE	A release that tests, distributes and implements all components of a release unit, regardless of whether or not they have changed since the last release of the software	The Disaster Recovery Journal modified by ENISA
FUNCTION	The actions or intended purpose of a person, team or thing in a specific role. Service Management functions may be considered as key business activities, often with a broad scope and associated with a particular job, consisting of a collection of lower level activities. The characteristics of a function are that it is continuous and represents a defining aspect of the business enterprise. It is usually associated with more than one method and contributes to the execution of those processes. Rarely do (or should) functions mirror the organisational structure.	ENISA
GAP ANALYSIS	A survey whose aim is to identify the differences between BCM/Crisis Management requirements (what the business says it needs at time of an incident) and what is in place and/or available	The BCI
GOLD TEAM	Strategic decision makers and groups at the local level. They establish the framework within which operational and tactical managers work in responding to and recovering from emergencies.	ENISA
HAND-CARRIED BOMB	Any type of portable bomb, usually contained in a form that would blend easily with the target surroundings, for example, suitcases, handbags, briefcases, video cassette boxes	NASP; National Association Of Security Professionals
HARDENING	The process of making something more secure, resistant to attack, or less vulnerable	NASP; National Association Of Security Professionals
HAZARD	An accidental or naturally-occurring event or situation with the potential to cause physical (or psychological) harm to members of the community (including loss of life), damage or losses to property, and/or disruption to the environment or to structures (economic, social, political) upon which a community’s way of life depends	ENISA
HAZARD OR THREAT IDENTIFICATION	The process of identifying situations or conditions that have the potential to cause injury to people, damage to property, or damage to the environment	ENISA
HEALTH AND SAFETY	The process by which the well-being of all employees, contractors, visitors and the public is safeguarded. All Business Continuity Plans and planning must be cognisant of Health and Safety statutory and regulatory requirements and legislation. Health and Safety considerations should be reviewed during the Risk assessment.	The BCI, modified by ENISA
HIGH AVAILABILITY	Systems or applications requiring a very high level of reliability and availability. High availability systems typically operate 24x7 and usually require built-in redundancy to minimize the risk of downtime due to hardware and/or telecommunication failures.	The Disaster Recovery Journal modified by ENISA
HIGH-RISK AREAS	Areas identified during the Risk Assessment that are highly susceptible to a disaster situation or might be the cause of a significant disaster.	ENISA
HOT SITE	An alternate facility that already has in place the computer, telecommunications, and environmental infrastructure required to recover critical business functions or information systems	The BCI modified by ENISA
HOT STANDBY	A term that is normally reserved for Technology Recovery. An alternate means of processing that minimises downtime so that no loss of processing occurs. Usually involves the use of a standby system or site that is permanently connected to business users and is often used to record transactions in tandem with the primary system.	The BCI
HOT STANDBY/START/SITE (internal, external or mobile)	An IT Service Continuity option - either provided from within the organisation or by a 3rd party, possibly in a fixed place or mobile, consisting of a computer room with full environmental and telecommunications facilities plus the necessary hardware and software to enable the site to take over processing from the normal infrastructure with minimal disruption to services. See Immediate Recovery and Intermediate Recovery	The BCI, modified by ENISA
HOUSEKEEPING	The method of maintaining procedures, systems, people and plans in a state of readiness	The BCI
HUMAN RESOURCES	The department of an organisation responsible for the recruitment, employment and welfare of staff. Can also be known as Personnel	ENISA
HUMAN THREATS	Possible disruptions in operations resulting from human actions (i.e. disgruntled employee, terrorism, blackmail, job actions, riots, etc.).	ENISA

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