Re: Is your ISP Influenza-ready?

[Jared Mauch <jared () puck nether net>]

On Mon, Apr 17, 2006 at 10:07:38AM -0700, David W. Hankins wrote:
> In a www.washingtonpost.com article:
>
>       http://tinyurl.com/s2jpz
>
> It is said:
>
>       President Bush is expected to approve soon a national pandemic
>       influenza response plan that identifies more than 300 specific
>       tasks for federal agencies, including [some stuff and] expanding
>       Internet capacity to handle what would probably be a flood of
>       people working from their home computers.
>
> That's not a lot of detail, and the article only cites www.pandemicflu.gov
> as a reference.  They don't appear to have published any detailed plan
> that Pres. Bush is evidently about to sign there.  What is published there
> feels like background information, and is vaguer still.
>
> Anyone with more information on what they're talking about?

        Not specifically, but i've seen various public-private groups
talking about this for at least several months.  I think it's quite
interesting to have the hurricane season just a few weeks away and
having this go by.  (i've also seen people talking about preparations for
the recovery efforts for any 2006 storms after what happened last year).

        I think it's important that everyone reading this realize
that the internet is now "Critical Infrastructure" for the global
economy.

        How many of the people here have heard of the NIPP or NRP?

        What preparations have you done for some sort of catastrophic
event?  (facility disaster, natural disaster, or some more basic challenges
like loss of drinkable water/food for a week or two?)

        These aren't meant to necesarily be answered here, but what challenges
would you face?  Do you have any "mutual-aid" like agreements with your
peers/competitors?  (When there is a major ice storm or hurricane, you see
all the verizon trucks in bellsouth territory for example, helping out).

        Back to the original question, how well could you cope for such
an event?  It's always challenging to think about what would happen
as sometimes it includes the unexpected.

        - Jared

-- 
Jared Mauch  | pgp key available via finger from jared () puck nether net
clue++;      | http://puck.nether.net/~jared/  My statements are only mine.