How to Build a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) Aligned With Your Cyber Incident Management

From Continuity to Recovery

In our previous article, we explored how a solid Business Continuity Plan (BCP) keeps business functions alive during a crisis.

The next step is to focus on the technical engine behind that continuity: the Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP).

If the BCP answers “How do we keep operating?”, the DRP answers “How do we bring systems and data back to life safely and completely?”

It is the structured playbook that IT and cybersecurity teams rely on to recover infrastructure, applications, and data after a major disruption.

A DRP is more than a backup schedule or an IT runbook. It is a governance document that defines who does what, in what order, and under what conditions when systems fail or must be taken offline during an incident.

Because our focus is cyber resilience, not general IT operations, we emphasize the DRP elements that best support incident management, accountability, and compliance. This ensures the recovery process is not only effective but also defensible.

01 Define What "Disaster" Means for your Organization

Every organization must start by defining what qualifies as a disaster. For some, it means the loss of an entire data center. For others, it could be a ransomware event, corruption of a key database, or the compromise of a critical cloud service, or the downtime of an operational technology (OT) machine.

Clear criteria help determine when to invoke the DRP and who has the authority to do so. This clarity avoids hesitation and confusion when time is critical.

Your definition should include both business impact thresholds (as identified in your BCP and Business Impact Analysis) and technical indicators, such as system unavailability, data loss, or security compromise.

Frameworks such as NIST SP 800-34 Rev.1 and ISO 27031 (ICT Readiness for Business Continuity) recommend defining these activation thresholds and maintaining documented activation decisions to ensure consistent, auditable activation.

02 Establish Recovery Objectives and Architecture

The foundation of any DRP lies in well-defined Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) for each critical system or dataset. These values determine how quickly services must be restored and how much data loss can be tolerated.

A system rarely exists on its own; it depends on databases, identity services, network configurations, authentication sources, and external integrations.

The real challenge is not in recovering isolated components, but in rebuilding entire systems composed of multiple interdependent assets.

Recovering each element separately may bring servers back online, but not necessarily the system as a functional whole. True recovery success must therefore be measured at the system level, not at the asset level. The objective is to restore full functionality and coherence, not just individual parts.

To achieve that, the DRP should document:

• The recovery architecture supporting backups, replication, or failover

• The grouping of assets that make up each functional system

• The dependencies between services, including network, identity, and data layers

• The sequence of restoration, ensuring prerequisites are always recovered first

Restoring components in the wrong order can cause cascading failures or data inconsistencies. This is why dependency mapping and recovery sequencing are essential.

The DRP must align these priorities with the BCP’s business objectives and the incident management team’s tactical direction. Frameworks such as ISO 27031 and NIST SP 800-34 encourage viewing recovery as a systemic effort rather than a checklist of isolated restorations. The goal is a coherent, usable environment where all interlinked systems operate reliably once recovery is complete.

03 Document Disaster Recovery Procedures and Validation Steps

Recovery procedures must be clear, actionable, and tested. Each procedure should describe:

• Where the backups or replicas are located

• How to validate integrity before restoration

• How to authenticate and authorize the recovery environment

• How to verify that systems are operational before reconnecting them to production

The goal is to create a trusted, verified path to restoration that can be executed under pressure. Each step should be explicit enough that another qualified person can perform it successfully.

Recovery procedures must describe not only how to restore individual assets, but also how to validate that full systems are operational end-to-end once restoration is complete.

A backup that restarts is not the same as a service or application that functions properly

Each procedure should explain where backups or replicas are located, how to verify their integrity, and what validation steps confirm that interdependent components communicate correctly. For example, recovering a web portal means verifying that the application, database, and identity services all synchronize successfully before declaring success.

The goal remains the same: functional recovery, not just technical restoration.

Both ISO 22313 and NIST SP 800-34 highlight the importance of repeatability. Recovery steps must be consistent, documented, and executable even when teams are under stress.

04 Align DRP With Security, Forensics, and Compliance

In a cyber context, recovery cannot happen in isolation from security or legal obligations.

Premature restoration may destroy forensic evidence, void insurance coverage, or violate regulatory preservation requirements.

The DRP should explicitly integrate with:

• The Incident Response Plan (IRP) to coordinate when recovery can begin safely (Discussed in our article about the How to build a proper IRP)

• The forensics or breach response team to ensure evidence is preserved

• The legal, insurance and compliance teams to confirm any notification, communication or other obligation requirements before taking down systems and/or returning online

This integration ensures recovery is both effective and defensible, as required by best practices frameworks.

05 Define Roles, Responsibilities, and Communication

Disaster recovery involves multiple teams working together.

The DRP should clearly identify key roles and responsibilities, such as:

• DR Manager or Coordinator: oversees complete DR execution

• System Owners: approve the access to and recovery of their systems

• Cyber Incident Commander: ensures cybersecurity considerations across DR activities (security posture of restored assets, forensics preservation, soaking of "clean" assets, etc)

• Executives: provide leadership, business priorities, strategic authorization, support

Communication protocols are essential. The DRP should specify how recovery status is reported, which channels are used, and how progress is documented.

Modern orchestration platforms simplify this coordination by providing a shared environment where all stakeholders can monitor recovery activities, approve actions, and maintain audit trails.

06 Test, Validate, and Improve

A DRP that is never tested remains theoretical.

Routine testing ensures recoverability, accuracy, and team readiness. Testing should combine scheduled technical recovery exercises with joint simulations involving the incident management and business continuity teams.

After each exercise or real recovery, perform a structured post-action review to identify what worked, what failed, and what needs improvement. This aligns with best practices frameworks, which clearly emphasize ongoing evaluation and continuous improvement.

Pro tip: use disaster recovery as an opportunity to connect people from different teams and departments. Collaborative problem-solving during testing not only strengthens recovery capabilities but also builds relationships that make everyday teamwork smoother and more effective.

Later in this series, we will explore how orchestration platforms can automate recovery workflows, monitor progress, and produce audit-ready reports that prove recoverability and compliance in measurable terms.

Tying it all together

A well-designed Disaster Recovery Plan bridges the gap between technical recovery and organizational resilience. It ensures that recovery actions are coordinated, documented, and secure, allowing leadership to restore operations with confidence and evidence.

When integrated with the BCP and Incident Response Plan (IRP), the DRP becomes an essential part of a mature resilience framework. It allows organizations to face disruption not with panic, but with structure, clarity, and composure.

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More reading? Continue with our insights about the governance items to put in place for optimal incident management.

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