IT working to keep data online, resources safe

From...

By Mark Hall

(IDG) -- Still reeling from the shock of multiple attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside of Washington, U.S. companies are responding quickly to assure that their people are safe, that IT facilities remain online and that disaster preparedness and recovery plans are in place.

Charles Schwab & Co., which has eight branch offices in New York, including one in the World Trade Center, has accounted for all of its New York staff, including 10 employees at the World Trade Center, according to spokesman Glen Mathison.

"Otherwise, we are open for business. People are able to place trades; our system is up. But with the market closed, there is no trading, trades cannot be executed. Phone service in New York has been disrupted, but everything else seems to be normal," he said. Trades will be posted when the markets reopen.

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"Our U.S. Trust subsidiary in midtown Manhattan has been evacuated. Our other major operation on the East Coast is our capital-trading and market-making activity in Jersey City. They have not been affected, but then again, the market is closed. We are just going to wait to see how things develop," Mathison said.

"My first priority is my people," said Cathie Kozik, CIO at Tellabs Inc., a telecommunications equipment company in Lisle, Ill. "I'm making sure they have access to information and that if they have friends or family who might be involved, to take care of them first."

Two of Tellabs' 268 IT staffers were sent home because they were too upset to work, said Kozik, who had come to work early Tuesday morning to get ready for a staff meeting. She found out about the attack when her administrative assistant told her. "It's a heart-stopping thing."

Tellabs immediately called several of its biggest customers, including carriers SBC Communications Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., to find out whether they need additional telecommunications gear.

So far, they don't, Kozik said. "We have systems set to ship to someplace not impacted, but we can divert them to places that need them," she said. "We have some equipment in the area of the World Trade Center. We called them right off the bat."

Unlike several other major Chicago-area companies, Tellabs hadn't shut down, as of noon CDT Tuesday. Kozik had planned to meet again with Tellabs' head of human resources, take in more radio and TV news reports "and walk the floor again and see how my folks are doing."

Sears, Roebuck and Co., which has 860 stores across the U.S., remains open, with its 1,700-member IT staff at work. Sears accounted for all of its employees who were traveling for business, then suspended all company travel for 24 hours. "We'll probably extend that [ban] tomorrow," said a spokeswoman for the Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based company, located 25 miles northwest of downtown Chicago.

IT, meanwhile, is "on alert," she said. "There hasn't been any imminent threat, but we're a company with national scope. We don't have any facilities in Manhattan but have some nearby. They need to be online to keep the business running, just like every other location."

At The Boeing Co., spokesman Robert Jorgensen said the company's disaster-recovery centers have opened and are fully manned. Representatives from IT and other company operations call in on an open 800 phone line at regular intervals to assure that systems are working. The Chicago-based aerospace giant had just completed a full test of the system two weeks ago.

"We always have the pilot on, but now we've turned on the front burner," he said. "IT assets are among the most critical areas for protection during an emergency, especially these days."

Boeing dedicated half of its disaster-recovery operations to computer systems, focusing on design data, engineering drawings and company information.

Rick Bernard, CIO at Infinium in Hyannis, Mass., said the application service provider's data center in Boston has had no disruption of communications, including with users in New York City.

In Alexandria, Va., investment advisory firm Motley Fool Inc. is next door to Reagan National Airport and just a few Metro stops from the Pentagon.

"We have a disaster-recovery plan in place -- we've had one for at least four years -- but we haven't [invoked] anything," said CIO Joel Salamone. "I got an e-mail from a friend at the Pentagon, and he says the main effort right now is to make sure people are safe."

Ytesh Mishra, chief technology officer at RagingWire Telecommunications Inc. in Sacramento, Calif., which specializes in high-security online data services, said, "We are experiencing some congestion on the Internet, but direct lines to customers remain open." He said all customers have been contacted, and all network operations are "within spec."

Jeff Battcher, director of corporate communications at BellSouth Corp. in Atlanta, said his company has increased the physical security at all data and telecommunications facilities in the nine states in which it operates.

Internally, companies are asking staff to minimize network-based activity. For example, at BellSouth, the company has asked its employees to cut back on communications. And at the University of Texas at Dallas, Paul Schmehl, supervisor of support services, said, "We were told to be especially attentive to incoming traffic and be prepared to disconnect from the Internet. But at present, we are operating normally."

After the terrorist bomb attack on the World Trade Center in February 1993, numerous IT operations came to a halt, costing companies up to $20 million a day, according to reports at the time.

Computerworld reporters Sami Lais, Pimm Fox, Kim Nash and Jennifer DiSabatino contributed to this report.