Aon Limited has launched a new pandemic business continuity review service The service is intended to help businesses assess their readiness for pandemic crises from a human capital resources perspect

The service was developed after Aon's pandemic survey revealed that more than eight in ten business leaders view a possible influenza pandemic as a threat to their business, yet fewer than six in ten have put measures in place to protect themselves against such a risk.

Pandemic Influenza: Managing the Risks of an Invisible Threat is available from sally.taylor@aon.co.uk

Your cyber liability

With 'cyber-skiving', unauthorised e-mail and internet use by employees, costing UK businesses up to £9.6bn each year, businesses are being warned that this is not the only cost they could face - they are also vicariously liable for their employees' actions.

Computer investigations company, Zentek Forensics says that CEOs need to be increasingly vigilant about internet use, with employees downloading obscene material, infringing copyright, opening up the IT network to hackers and, more alarmingly, committing fraud or taking company secrets.

Their employees' actions risk damaging the future prosperity of the business, or could land the directors in court. The Manchester Council case reported at the end of 2005 saw senior managers lose their jobs and attract damaging adverse publicity.

IT PROBLEMS

The top two IT-related problems are operational incidents and staffing issues, according to a global survey commissioned by the IT Governance Institute (ITGI). Security and compliance were reported to be among the least important problems - probably because of the significant efforts that have been put into information security projects. You can view the full results of the survey at www.itgi.org