Frank Ianna: President of AT&T Network Services, expert in telecom network disaster recovery.
By LOUIS HAU
Published June 9, 2003
Q. Has your job changed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks?
It hasn't. Our disaster recovery capability started in 1992 (because) we had a question from our board about what would happen if part of our network or our company were destroyed. We had to architect our network such that any destruction of fiber facilities would be restored quickly and in large part, like 90 percent. We developed disaster recovery (with regional divisions) - in the Northeast, in the South, in the Midwest and the far West. We have over 300 trailers that are used to rebuild what was in a central office or to augment the central office. The logistics of this is pretty daunting. You have to know where you're going to go, where you have space, where the fibers are in the ground, so you plug them into the trailers.
Q. Is the business world adequately prepared for potential attacks on their information-technology infrastructure?
They're certainly more aware since September 2001. It varies by company and it varies by industry. In the financial industry, you have a lot of "back up everything." In hospitals, you have emergency power.
Q. What impact has the Internet revolution had on ensuring the security of your networks?
It absolutely is a bigger challenge. The key here is as networks are newer, you have less experience in how they can fail. (With older systems,) you know how the software interacts, how people can get to it. As you grow new networks, you have to continuously keep up with how people can get into your network and disrupt it. There are more access points.
