Disaster recovery (DR) is an area of security planning that aims to protect an organization from the effects of significant negative events. Having a disaster recovery strategy in place enables an organization to maintain or quickly resume mission-critical functions following a disruption.
A disruptive event can be anything that puts an organization’s operations at risk, from a cyberattack to power outages and equipment failures to natural disasters. The goal of DR is for a business to continue operating as close to normal as possible. The disaster recovery process includes planning and testing and might involve a separate physical backup site for restoring operations. An emergency communication plan is another part of a disaster recovery strategy, enabling an organization to contact staff and relevant emergency response personnel and keep them updated.