Threats to your business operations come in many forms, including natural disasters that risk life and property such as the historic flooding from Hurricane Harvey in Texas, the risks from Hurricane Irma, or this summer's wildfires in California. Threats to business continuity also include intrusions on your company's network, such as the May 2017 WannaCry ransomware attack, and cyberattacks on your company's webpage and web services, such as last October's extensive DDoS campaign.

While these threats are each quite different, they all disrupt the flow of communications between your employees and customers, and risk both access to and the loss of valuable corporate data.

Conducting a risk assessment and putting a business continuity plan in place now might mean the difference between hours out of operation and days out of operation. Such planning should also encompass disaster recovery — a company's ability to save and restore its data.

This Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Checklist from Carlton Fields can help your company assess its readiness.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.