Business continuity and disaster recovery planning

Key Insights about Business continuity and Disaster recovery:

1. Preparation: Building a Resilient Framework, and resilient strategy based on threat landscape, budget & business impact and business functions

- Assign specialized security roles.

- Conduct BIA Business Impact Assessment to prioritize the critical assets according the impact for business, determine RTO and RPO

- Define Business Recovery and Continuity Strategies (select recovery strategy and solution, recovery site)

- Safeguard critical business operations.

- Develop communication blueprints.

- Initiate frequent staff cybersecurity training to leverage the security awarness

- Enforce foundational security protocols, you can refer to ISO27k, protect the 7 layers OSI (implement EDR, AV update, Zero trust design, backup solution, sanitize the backup data, etc)

Example: leverages cloud backup, ensuring operational continuity during system failures, Do regular restore to test backup

2. Readiness: Proactive Vigilance

- Conduct regular security assessments.

- Compile comprehensive IT emergency contact lists.

- End to end testing simulation

- Alternative site, offsite backup, etc

Example: consistent phishing simulations fortify staff's real-time threat neutralization capabilities and have some KPI like reported as phish email vs click on links.

3. Response: Effective Crisis Navigation

- Assemble an agile IT emergency response unit and update incident response plan

- in case of crisis, if the server is affected by virus or ransomware, then isolate the affected servers from network

- Harvest real-time feedback and anomaly reports.

- Preserve detailed incident logs for investigative analysis.

- rebuild the affected server(s)

4. Post-Processing: Turning Insight into Action

- Conduct post-incident reviews.

- Enhance surveillance, targeting known weak points.

- Update emergency guidelines to match evolving threat landscapes.

Example: Post-breach, communication plan

5. Tech Dependency vs. Holistic Strategy

- IT resilience is crucial, yet insufficient alone

- ISO 27001 and ISO 22301 framework are a pivotal move towards a robust iT emergency strategy

Closing Thought: Business continuity and disaster recovery plans are crucial as both digital and physical sites are susceptible to potential disaster, including cyber attacks and natural disasters which can significantly disrupt business operations.

Business continuity could involves manual workarounds or outsourcing to external companies based on risk assessment, however the most crucial aspect is to recover the data of the affected server and to recover the affected site with essentials business functions as disaster recovery plan