Real events from the GCC and around the world over the last ten years, grouped by the kind of risk they show, and what each one means for business continuity.
Business continuity and operational resilience are about being ready to keep important services running when something goes wrong. Real events show what that looks like in practice: which dependencies gave way, how quickly normal routes closed, and what organisations needed in the first hours and days.
This section collects public examples from roughly October 2016 to October 2026, one page for each theme below. Each example has a short factual summary, what it means for continuity and a link to a public source. The list is a selection for awareness, not a ranking or a complete record, and it makes no comment on causes or on the parties involved.
New to the subject? Read What is Business Continuity? and What is Operational Risk?
Each theme has its own page with GCC and global examples, in ADVOX’s own words, with sources.
Ransomware, destructive malware and software failures that look like attacks.
4 examples
The events differ, and the same themes come back. These are ADVOX’s own reading of the sources on the theme pages, as a starting point for your own questions.
Abqaiq and Khurais, the Strasbourg data centre fire and the Suez Canal blockage show how much can rest on one location or one route. Map what your important services depend on and look for single points of failure.
WannaCry, NotPetya, the Saipem attack, Colonial Pipeline and the July 2024 software update show that IT can fail by attack or by accident. Tested backups, clear restoration priorities and practised recovery matter in both cases.
The NAO’s review of WannaCry found email down and staff turning to phones. Agree back-up ways to reach staff, customers and suppliers, and who speaks for the organisation when normal channels fail.
A plan that has not been tested is a hope. The NHS had a plan that had not been rehearsed locally. Regular exercises show who leads, what is missing and what needs to be fixed before the real day.
COVID-19 in the Gulf, the UAE floods and the Strasbourg fire all removed access to a place or a system. Being able to move critical work to another site or to remote working keeps services going.
A shipping route, a software vendor or a cloud provider can each be the cause of a disruption you did not plan for. Know which third parties sit behind your critical services and what they would do in an incident.
Trace the people, processes, technology and suppliers behind each important service.
Know where a supplier or a route could fail, and how to keep services running.
The digital side of disruption: attacks, outages and recovery.
Rehearse a scenario so roles and decisions are tested before they are needed.
A plain introduction to the subject.
Where operational risk comes from and how it is described.
ADVOX’s summary of the BCI framework for resilience.
The BCI research report on the threats organisations face (PDF, opens in a new tab).
This page is ADVOX’s own summary, written in its own words. The sources remain the reference. The examples are public events, included for awareness. ADVOX was not involved in any of them. ADVOX is not affiliated with or endorsed by the organisations named as sources. It is general information, not legal, regulatory or professional advice. Copyright in the sources named above belongs to their owners.
We aim to reply to your enquiry within 2 hours.