Since 2021, the ‘steady state’ of operations for business has been coping with the effects of a war in Ukraine.

The initial work of crisis teams when war broke out in February that year focused on helping employees based in Ukraine and their families to reach places of safety and mothballing or selling operations in Russia. Subsequent contingency planning and business continuity work was aimed at ensuring work-arounds on affected supply chains or identifying alternative suppliers.

Today, faced with a serious and escalating war in the Middle East, crisis teams will be revisiting their plans and procedures to ensure they are still fit for purpose under the new threat environment. But what worked for coping with conflict in Ukraine may not copy-paste to deal with the fallout from the Isreal/Hamas situation.

The Ukraine conflict heightened risks from Russian-backed cyber attacks on Western and other international targets, and affected energy security, inflation and the cost of living. And while these threats have not subsided, this Middle East war creates additional threat vectors. These include the influence of Iran – which may have the potential for generating wider regional and cyber impacts. At the same time, some threats outside the conflict zone may be more localised, as acknowledged by both UK and US intelligence chiefs.

“There clearly is the possibility that profound events in the Middle East will either generate more volume of UK threat, and/or change its shape in terms of what is being targeted, in terms of how people are taking inspiration”

Ken McCallum, director general of the UK’s domestic spy agency, MI5

Wherever they may be, Israeli/Jewish and Muslim organisations and individuals currently face a greater risk of harm, and any attacks could have significant collateral effects. Therefore employees on company business must be made aware of this increased risk as they need to be more vigilant, and as a minimum, avoid large gatherings and demonstrations. There is now a greater probability they could suffer from being ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’, regardless of which country they are living in or visiting on business.

“We cannot and do not discount the possibility that Hamas or other foreign terrorist organisations could exploit the conflict to call on their supporters to conduct attacks on our own soil”

FBI director, Christopher Wray

To fulfil their duty of care to employees, companies must thoroughly review their crisis and contingency plans and undertake some or all of the following, depending on the size, scope and geographical reach of the organisation:

• Check crisis teams at all levels are complete, contact details up-to-date, crisis rooms and remote crisis management arrangements are available and equipped
• Immediately train crisis teams on terror, kidnap, travel and cyber-related scenarios and implement corrective actions
  • Ideally, get a third-party to help test readiness
• Cross-check all travel advice with respective countries’ foreign ministry travel advice
  • Maintain at least a daily review of this advice as the situation is extremely fluid and fast action may be needed on travel restrictions
• Check travel tracking processes and related broadcast sms message to travellers is functioning
  • If there is no travel tracking of business traveller, consider contracting a suitable organisation (International SOS provide a range of services)
• Ensure arrangements are in place with contractors for help in countries where with lockdown and evacuation may be required
• Supply chain issues – systematically check how these could be affected by a range of escalating scenarios
• Check and where necessary, augment physical security and surveillance systems at company premises

Companies that run a systematic and disciplined review of the crisis and contingency arrangements will be in a strong position to handle most scenarios and help the business remain resilient and return to normal operations. The scenarios may differ in reality, but crisis teams familiar with working together using a standard operating procedure will have a distinct advantage over those who haven’t heeded this stark wake-up call.

To fulfil their duty of care to employees, companies must thoroughly review their crisis and contingency plans and undertake some or all of the following, depending on the size, scope and geographical reach of the organisation:

• Check crisis teams at all levels are complete, contact details up-to-date, crisis rooms and remote crisis management arrangements are available and equipped
• Immediately train crisis teams on terror, kidnap, travel and cyber-related scenarios and implement corrective actions
  • Ideally, get a third-party to help test readiness
• Cross-check all travel advice with respective countries’ foreign ministry travel advice
  • Maintain at least a daily review of this advice as the situation is extremely fluid and fast action may be needed on travel restrictions
• Check travel tracking processes and related broadcast sms message to travellers is functioning
  • If there is no travel tracking of business traveller, consider contracting a suitable organisation (International SOS provide a range of services)
• Ensure arrangements are in place with contractors for help in countries where with lockdown and evacuation may be required
• Supply chain issues – systematically check how these could be affected by a range of escalating scenarios
• Check and where necessary, augment physical security and surveillance systems at company premises

Companies that run a systematic and disciplined review of the crisis and contingency arrangements will be in a strong position to handle most scenarios and help the business remain resilient and return to normal operations. The scenarios may differ in reality, but crisis teams familiar with working together using a standard operating procedure will have a distinct advantage over those who haven’t heeded this stark wake-up call.

Featured Image, Marius Arnesen, via Creative Commons: Photo Link