Strategy for Digital Crisis Response

The Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) is in charge of digital transformation of Bahrain. With numerous eChannels and 3 business lines which include digital transformation, operations & governance, and statistics & population; a Business Continuity Management Strategy is in place to manage and coordinate efforts in the event of an emergency, crisis, or disaster. The strategy includes the following:

• Preparing and coordinating essential emergency plans for vital digital facilities and ICT infrastructure
• Following up on implementing these plans in coordination with other government entities
• Establishing a plan for critical services to ensure essential services are provided efficiently with minimal costs and maximum resilience and recovery capability

iGA's Business Continuity Management Strategy is an important part of its efforts to ensure the continuity of government services in the event of an emergency. The strategy is designed to minimize the impact of an emergency on government services and to help the government recover quickly and effectively.

The strategy enables the authority to:

1. Recover key eServices, processes, and assets.
2. Recover equipment, technology, human resources, third-party components, and provide alternative buildings (locations) for employees.
3. Provide workspace for the absolute minimum number of human resources necessary to continue critical tasks for up to one week. If the duration exceeds one week, the remaining staff can work remotely.
4. Provide a technical recovery strategy for recovering IT data centres and associated services.

The recovery strategy within the business continuity management (BCM) strategy is a key component of the BCM. The recovery strategy is designed to help the organization recover from a disaster or disruption as quickly as possible and it includes:

1. Identified and documented resource requirements based on Business Impact Analysis (BIA).
2. Conducted a gap analysis to determine gap between current capabilities and recovery requirements.
3. Explored Recovery strategy options.
4. Selected recovery strategy with management approval.
5. Implemented recovery strategy.