Feedback.

CIOs and Crisis Prevention

Perhaps the most important question a CEO should ask his CIO ("Put Your CIO Through the Hoops," January/February 2003) is: "How are you managing our data security risks and planning for business continuity in the event of a disaster like September 11, 2001?"

The CIO's answer should sound something like this: "Our security planning is based on an assessment of threats against the assets that are critically important to our business.

"Together with staff who have indepth knowledge of key business processes, we identified and evaluated assets; analyzed threats, vulnerabilities and risks, taking into account the latest technologies; assessed existing counter measures; and performed cost/benefit and usability analyses. Physical and logical security, how information is used and managed and 'social engineering' weaknesses also were evaluated.

"We defined and communicated acceptable use policies for all critical data and we use automated tools for ongoing security awareness and education. Our incident response procedures are well understood and clearly documented. They have been tested successfully.

"We realize that the security of our data network is only as good as its weakest link, so we've reviewed the security procedures of all customers and suppliers with which we have business links. They comply with minimal standards for data protection and infiltration prevention.

"In terms of disaster recovery, September 11 taught us that having good backup of data is not sufficient. Backup facilities must be geographically separated so that infrastructure damage to a region does not bring down the backup as well as the primary facility, and qualified people must be able to get to the backup facility to manage fail-over operations. We test disaster scenarios periodically, verifying that our backup data is correct and complete. And we make special efforts to question all assumptions with 'out of the box' thinking when planning and testing business-continuity procedures."

Martin J. Moderi

President

Luxury on Two Wheels

Six Sigma Technologies International Lisle, Ill.

Thanks for the fine article about Backroads in the Executive Life section of the January/February issue ("Taking the Back Road"). The author, however, created a major misconception about our business, which I feel compelled to correct. She writes, "Backroads doesn't gravitate to the ultra-luxurious hotels that are de rigeur for a Butterfield & Robinson trip."

This is simply not true. And while such a comparison may seem somewhat inconsequential to the casual reader, hotel quality is in fact critical to the core of the Backroads experience and the reputation that we have worked so hard to build over the past 24 years.

Many of the hundreds of hotels found on Backroads bicycling and hiking trips are members of prestigious hotel collections such as Relais & Chateaux and Small Luxury Hotels of the World.

Tom Hale Founder and President Backroads Berkeley, Calif.