How can we avoid human made disasters ??
Answers
Answer:
Human error isn't a rare occurrence. In 2017 Amazon experienced an outage of its S3 servers due to a typo by an Amazon employee. Also in 2017, a British Airways engineer caused a data center outage resulting in the cancellation of 400+ flights. The Uptime Institute claims that 70% of data center outages are caused by human error. In fact, it has become the leading cause of data breaches for companies worldwide. While human error is the most common culprit of data center downtime, it's also the most preventable.
Unfortunately, there is no one simple answer to completely eradicating human error from your business. Humans are bound to make mistakes, however; these mistakes should be accounted for and with the proper preparation, steps can be made to minimize human errors. This can ensure a more speedy recovery if one does occur. Check out these 5 tips for minimizing the occurrence and affects of human error on your business:
1. Training, Training and More Training
A business is only as strong as its weakest link and that weak link shouldn't be your employees. Educating and training employees, tailored to their job-specific roles, is vital for improving overall workplace competency and reduce the likelihood of human error. This is especially important for employees dealing with mission critical data and technology. In this case, consider developing criteria for employee certification and test employees on their knowledge.
The biggest obstacle to training for most companies is the cost of and time allocated to training. If you put a different lens on, you'll see that the ROI for training, when it prevents catastrophic data loss and downtime, is huge.
2. Limit Access to Sensitive Systems
Mission critical data and technology that requires skilled labor to operate and maintain should be secure and accessed by only a few well-trained employees. Develop a badge or sign-in restriction for systems that are sensitive to error. Reducing the access to these systems will reduce the likelihood of human error.
3. Develop a Strong Disaster Recovery Plan
Developing a strong DR plan, where steps are taken to identify and mitigate potential risks, can help to ensure that all of your employees are on the same page with regards to preventing (or quickly addressing) human error. Make sure that employees handling the most delicate systems read and understand the DR Plan.
Answer:
The Beirut explosion reminded us that man-made disasters aren’t just a risk to our environment. They are often a major risk to public health and people's lives. Some examples illustrate both the health risks and the preventative action needed:
Bhopal Gas Disaster
In 1984, ~40 tonnes of methyl isocyanate (MIC), a toxic tear gas, was released from the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, India. During the disaster, ~500,000 people were exposed to MIC. This caused the immediate death of ~3,800 people and the death of thousands more over subsequent weeks, as well as adverse health effects including reduced lung function, COPD, chronic conjunctivitis, and impaired motor skills. Following the disaster, UCIL halted operation of the plant but failed to completely clean the industrial site, allowing organochlorine compounds to contaminate surrounding communities. The Bhopal disaster continued to impact the health of future generations. Children were born with an elevated risk of cancer and congenital defects to parents exposed to MIC and organochlorine compounds.