In several of our articles about IT security (which you can find in our file on Cybersecurity), you may have read “setting up a DRP ” or ” The importance of a Disaster Recovery Plan “for businesses… This process comes into play when we address the critical topic of information system security. But how does the Business Resumption Plan What does it actually consist of? Why is it important as a part of business cybersecurity strategy? Why implement it? In which cases should it be implemented? These are some of the questions we will answer below.
What is a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP)?
The Disaster Recovery Plan is a set of procedures written in order to plan the actions to be taken as soon as possible to rebuild or restart an information system affected by an incident, a cyber attack or a major disaster.
It is written taking into account all the factors likely to cause a major incident on the information system infrastructure : fire, flood, software failure, hardware failure, vandalism, backup problem, data loss, or human error, a cyber attack (malware, ransomware, phishing…).
The IT disaster recovery plan The objective of this plan is to compensate for potential computer failures or disasters. It must therefore include all the procedures that have been drawn up, describing the actions to be taken, the people involved, the time frame and, above all, the data to be transferred to the relay system as a priority.
The question is not whether your information system will be back to normal, but when it will be back.
Why set up a disaster recovery plan?
A computer disaster recovery plan is, as its name indicates, essential to enable a company to resume activity in the event of a significant disaster. Indeed, the network is the keystone of most companies. An inoperable network can paralyze all or part of an organization’s activities.
Fortunately, threats requiring the implementation of a DRP are nevertheless numerous and more and more common because of an ever more threatening cyber crime. It is estimated that more than one out of three companies has already suffered damage requiring the implementation of a disaster recovery plan.
What are the benefits of a disaster recovery plan?
Besides the fact that the implementation of a disaster recovery plan allows a company that has suffered a major incident to recover a functional is the drafting of this DRP will reassure, if necessary, investors or markets, and guarantees a high level of quality of services.
Here are some others benefits of disaster recovery planning :
- Disaster Recovery;
- Provides a sense of cybersecurity;
- Shows professionalism of the company;
- Brings a view of the entire IT infrastructure;
- Provides efficiency gains;
- Helps reduce costs;
How to implement a disaster recovery plan?
For develop a disaster recovery plan it will be essential to interview all the department managers to identify the most sensitive data to be recovered as a priority, to list all the risks that the information system could face, to list all the human and material needs to set up the necessary actions for the recovery, the cost of these processes…
The development of a disaster recovery plan must be rigorous and take into consideration all the human and material parameters and the potential risks for the information system. A methodical and comprehensive approach is required in order to:
- List all the risks of incidents or possible system breakdowns;
- Evaluate each risk to determine which data and business software may be impacted;
- Determine backup and recovery needs;
- Define costs, time frames and people involved in the disaster recovery plan;
- Test the DRP regularly and evolve it along with the information system;
- Document the DRP.
As part of the implementation of a cybersecurity strategy for an IT system the drafting of a disaster recovery plan seems to be essential. Just like the implementation of a PCA (Plan of Continuity of Activity) is.
