Disaster Recovery Plan

1. Purpose

The Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) defines how the organization will restore critical technology services, information, infrastructure, and supporting systems following a major disruption or disaster.

The plan is intended to enable the organization to:

Restore critical technology services within defined recovery objectives.
Protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information during recovery.
Recover systems from trusted and validated sources.
Protect backups and recovery infrastructure.
Coordinate technical recovery activities.
Maintain appropriate security controls during recovery.
Validate recovered systems before returning them to production.
Document recovery decisions, actions, and evidence.
Learn from recovery events and improve resilience.

The DRP supports the organization’s Business Continuity Plan (BCP) but focuses specifically on technology and information-system recovery.

2. Scope

This plan applies to critical technology services and supporting infrastructure, including:

Cloud infrastructure
Production applications
Databases
Storage
Networks
DNS
Identity and access management
Security infrastructure
Backup systems
Monitoring and logging
CI/CD platforms
Source-code repositories
Infrastructure-as-Code
Secrets-management systems
Encryption/key-management services
Critical SaaS platforms
Endpoints where required for recovery
Critical third-party technology dependencies

3. Disaster Recovery Objectives

The objectives of disaster recovery are to:

Protect personnel and information.
Stabilize affected technology services.
Contain active security threats.
Protect recovery resources and backups.
Restore critical systems according to priority.
Recover data within defined RPO requirements.
Restore services within defined RTO requirements.
Verify security before production restoration.
Minimize customer and business impact.
Document recovery actions and improve recovery capability.

4. Disaster Scenarios

The DRP should consider scenarios relevant to the organization’s risk profile.

Examples include:

Major cloud outage
Cloud region failure
Cloud account compromise
Ransomware
Malware
Data corruption
Database failure
Accidental deletion
Storage failure
Network failure
DNS failure
Application failure
CI/CD compromise
Source-code compromise
Encryption-key failure
Secrets compromise
Backup failure
Critical SaaS provider outage
Supplier technology failure
Physical infrastructure failure
Natural disaster
Major power or connectivity failure

The organization should periodically reassess disaster scenarios as technology and threats change.

5. Recovery Principles

The organization shall apply the following principles:

5.1 Recover Critical Services First

Recovery priority should be based on business impact and service dependencies.

5.2 Protect Backups

Backups should be protected from the same failure or attack affecting production wherever practical.

5.3 Recover From a Trusted State

Systems should not automatically be restored without considering whether the recovery source may contain the original compromise or corruption.

5.4 Security During Recovery

Emergency recovery must maintain appropriate security controls.

5.5 Verify Before Production

A technically restored system is not automatically a secure or business-ready system.

5.6 Document Recovery

Important recovery decisions and actions should be recorded.

5.7 Test Regularly

Recovery procedures should be tested to establish whether they actually work.

6. Disaster Recovery Activation

The DRP may be activated when:

Normal operational recovery is insufficient.
A critical service cannot be restored through normal procedures.
A major cloud or infrastructure failure occurs.
A critical database or storage system is unavailable.
A ransomware attack requires rebuilding systems.
A major security incident requires recovery from trusted infrastructure.
A disaster affects the primary operating environment.
Management determines that formal disaster recovery is required.

Activation should be based on impact and risk.

7. Recovery Roles

Role	Responsibility
Executive Management	Major business and risk decisions
Disaster Recovery Coordinator	Coordinates DR activation and recovery
Incident Commander	Coordinates recovery where disaster is security-related
IT/Cloud Lead	Infrastructure recovery
Application/DevOps Lead	Application and deployment recovery
Database Owner	Database recovery and validation
Security Lead	Security controls and security verification
Business Owner	Business-service validation
Supplier Owner	Supplier/cloud-provider coordination
Privacy/Legal	Regulatory, privacy and contractual advice
Communications/Customer Success	Stakeholder communication

One person may perform multiple roles in a startup.

8. Disaster Recovery Lifecycle

The recovery lifecycle is:

Detect
→ Assess
→ Declare
→ Contain
→ Protect Backups
→ Plan Recovery
→ Prepare Recovery Environment
→ Restore Infrastructure
→ Restore Data
→ Restore Applications
→ Secure
→ Validate
→ Return to Service
→ Monitor
→ Learn
→ Improve

9. Step 1 — Detect and Record

The disaster may be detected through:

Monitoring
Security alert
Employee report
Customer report
Cloud-provider notification
Supplier notification
Infrastructure failure
Application failure
Backup failure
Incident response

Create or update the relevant incident/disaster record.

Record:

Date/time
Description
Detection source
Affected service
Affected systems
Initial business impact
Initial security impact
Responsible owner
Initial recovery decision

10. Step 2 — Assess the Situation

Determine:

What failed?
Why did it fail?
Is the failure still active?
Is an attacker involved?
Which systems are affected?
Which data is affected?
Are backups affected?
Are recovery systems affected?
Are customers affected?
Is there a risk of further damage?
Can normal recovery procedures resolve the issue?
Is DR activation required?

If the event is security-related, activate the Incident Response Procedure in parallel.

11. Step 3 — Declare Disaster Recovery

The authorized decision-maker should determine whether formal DR activation is required.

The declaration should record:

Disaster ID
Date/time
Reason
Affected services
Initial severity
DR team
Recovery objectives
Initial recovery strategy
Decision authority

Example:

DR-2026-0001

Production AWS database infrastructure unavailable following a major infrastructure failure. Customer-facing service affected. DR activation approved to restore production from the latest trusted recovery point.

12. Step 4 — Stabilize and Contain

Before recovery, determine whether further damage must be prevented.

Actions may include:

Isolate compromised systems.
Disable compromised accounts.
Restrict network access.
Stop destructive processes.
Protect backups.
Preserve evidence.
Disable compromised integrations.
Stop affected deployment pipelines.
Prevent synchronization of corrupted data.

For ransomware or compromise:

Do not immediately restore production without determining whether the attacker still has access.

13. Step 5 — Protect Recovery Resources

Before recovery begins:

Protect backup credentials.
Restrict recovery-environment access.
Verify backup availability.
Protect immutable backups.
Verify recovery storage.
Protect encryption keys.
Verify secrets-management capability.
Protect infrastructure-as-code repositories.
Preserve relevant evidence.

Recovery resources should not depend unnecessarily on credentials or infrastructure that may have been compromised.

14. Step 6 — Identify the Trusted Recovery Point

Select the appropriate recovery source based on:

Backup date/time
RPO requirement
Data integrity
Security status
Malware risk
Known compromise timeline
Configuration integrity
Business requirements

For security incidents, the newest backup is not automatically the best recovery source.

The recovery decision should be documented.

15. Step 7 — Prepare the Recovery Environment

Before restoring production services, establish the recovery environment.

Verify where applicable:

Cloud account
Region
IAM
MFA
Network
Security groups
Firewall
Encryption
KMS
Secrets
Logging
Monitoring
DNS
Backup access
Infrastructure-as-Code

The recovery environment should follow approved secure configuration standards.

16. Step 8 — Recover Identity and Access

Identity services are often dependencies for other systems.

Recovery should address:

Identity provider
SSO
MFA
Administrative accounts
Service accounts
IAM roles
Privileged access
API credentials
Secrets
Tokens
Access keys

After a security incident, credentials should be reviewed and rotated where appropriate.

17. Step 9 — Recover Core Infrastructure

Recover infrastructure in dependency order.

Typical sequence:

Cloud account/environment
Network
DNS
Security controls
Storage
Database infrastructure
Application infrastructure
Supporting services
Monitoring
Integrations

Infrastructure-as-Code should be used where practical to improve consistency and repeatability.

18. AWS SaaS Recovery Example

A typical AWS SaaS recovery sequence may be:

AWS Account
↓
IAM / Security Controls
↓
VPC / Network
↓
Security Groups / WAF
↓
S3 / Storage
↓
RDS / Database
↓
ECS/EKS/EC2 Application
↓
Secrets / KMS
↓
Load Balancer
↓
DNS
↓
Monitoring / Logging
↓
Customer Service Validation

The exact order depends on the application’s architecture.

19. Step 10 — Recover Data

Data recovery should consider:

Recovery point
Backup integrity
Encryption
Data classification
Customer data
Personal data
Database dependencies
Replication status
Data consistency

After restoration:

Validate database availability.
Validate schema.
Validate record integrity.
Validate application connectivity.
Check for corruption.
Check for unauthorized changes.
Confirm expected data volume where practical.

20. Step 11 — Recover Applications

Application recovery may involve:

Source code
Build environment
Container images
Dependencies
Configuration
Environment variables
Secrets
Infrastructure-as-Code
Deployment pipelines

Before deployment:

Validate source-code integrity.
Validate dependencies.
Confirm approved version.
Verify secrets.
Verify security configuration.
Review emergency changes.

21. Step 12 — Recover CI/CD

Where CI/CD is required for recovery:

Verify repository access.
Verify administrator access.
Review pipeline configuration.
Verify build agents/runners.
Verify deployment credentials.
Rotate compromised credentials where required.
Verify branch protections.
Verify deployment approvals.
Review recent deployments.

If the CI/CD environment may have been compromised, treat it as part of the security investigation.

22. Step 13 — Restore Security Controls

Before production use, verify:

Identity

MFA
Least privilege
Privileged accounts
Service accounts

Network

Firewall
Security groups
Network segmentation
WAF

Data

Encryption
KMS
Database permissions
Storage permissions

Monitoring

CloudTrail
Application logging
Security alerts
Monitoring
Backup monitoring

Configuration

Secure baseline
Approved configuration
Vulnerability status

23. Step 14 — Security Validation

The Security Lead should verify, where applicable:

No known attacker access remains.
Compromised credentials are addressed.
Unauthorized accounts are removed.
Privileged access is reviewed.
Security configuration is correct.
Logging is operational.
Monitoring is operational.
Critical vulnerabilities are addressed or risk accepted.
Encryption is enabled.
Secrets are protected.
Backups remain protected.

For a security-related disaster, recovery should not be approved solely by the technical recovery team where independent security validation is reasonably practicable.

24. Step 15 — Application and Business Validation

The Business Owner and technical team should verify:

Application is accessible.
Authentication works.
Customer workflows work.
Data is available.
Transactions/processes function.
Integrations work.
Notifications work.
Customer support can operate.
Expected service level is restored.

The service should not be declared fully recovered until business functionality has been validated.

25. Step 16 — Recovery Testing

Before declaring full recovery:

Technical Tests

Infrastructure health
Database connectivity
Application health
Network connectivity
DNS
Authentication
API functionality

Security Tests

IAM
MFA
Access control
Logging
Monitoring
Encryption
Security alerts

Business Tests

Customer login
Critical workflows
Data access
Transactions
Integrations
Support

All significant recovery tests should be recorded.

26. Step 17 — Return to Production

The authorized recovery owner should approve production restoration after:

Technical recovery is complete.
Security verification is complete.
Business validation is complete.
Critical monitoring is active.
Recovery risks are understood.
Required communications are completed or planned.

The decision should be documented.

27. Step 18 — Enhanced Monitoring

After recovery, increase monitoring where appropriate.

Monitor:

Authentication
Privileged access
Cloud activity
Network activity
Application errors
Security alerts
Data access
Configuration changes
Backup activity
Customer-impact indicators

Enhanced monitoring should continue until the responsible team determines that the environment is stable.

28. Step 19 — Remove Temporary Recovery Controls

After stabilization:

Remove temporary accounts.
Remove temporary privileges.
Revoke temporary credentials.
Remove temporary network rules.
Remove temporary infrastructure.
Remove emergency configurations.
Restore standard security baselines.
Close emergency access.

Any permanent change should be moved into normal change management.

29. Step 20 — Recovery Closure

Recovery should be formally closed only when:

Critical services are restored.
Data integrity is verified.
Security controls are functioning.
Monitoring is functioning.
Emergency access is removed.
Temporary controls are removed or formally accepted.
Customer impact is assessed.
Required communications are completed.
Remaining risks are documented.
Corrective actions are assigned.

30. Disaster Recovery Decision Record

For significant recovery decisions, record:

Field	Description
Decision ID	Unique identifier
Disaster ID	Related disaster
Date/Time	Decision time
Decision	What was decided
Reason	Why
Evidence	Supporting information
Options Considered	Alternatives
Risk	Risk of decision
Approver	Authorized person
Owner	Responsible person
Outcome	Result
Follow-up	Required action

This is particularly important where recovery involves accepting temporary security or business risk.

31. Communication During Recovery

Communication should be coordinated with the Business Continuity Plan and Incident Response Communication Procedure.

Potential communications include:

Internal recovery status
Management updates
Customer updates
Supplier communications
Cloud provider escalation
Regulatory/legal communications where required
Service restoration notification

Communications should distinguish:

Confirmed facts + Current impact + Actions underway + Known limitations + Next update

Avoid speculation.

32. Disaster Recovery and Security Incidents

Where a disaster is caused by cybersecurity compromise:

Detect
→ Validate
→ Classify
→ Contain
→ Preserve Evidence
→ Investigate
→ Protect Backups
→ Identify Trusted Recovery Point
→ Rebuild/Restore
→ Secure
→ Verify
→ Recover Business Service
→ Monitor
→ Root Cause
→ Corrective Action

Incident response and disaster recovery should operate together.

33. Ransomware Recovery Example

For a ransomware event:

Activate incident response.
Identify affected systems.
Isolate compromised systems.
Disable/restrict compromised accounts.
Preserve evidence.
Protect backup infrastructure.
Determine whether backups were compromised.
Identify a trusted recovery point.
Rebuild clean infrastructure where required.
Restore data.
Rotate credentials.
Reapply security controls.
Verify monitoring.
Test application.
Validate business functionality.
Restore customer service.
Increase monitoring.
Perform root-cause analysis.
Track corrective actions.

Do not treat successful restoration as proof that the original compromise has been eliminated.

34. Cloud Region Failure Example

If the primary AWS region becomes unavailable:

Provider Incident Identified
→ Impact Assessed
→ BCP/DR Activated
→ Alternate Region Assessed
→ Recovery Environment Prepared
→ Infrastructure Deployed
→ Data Restored/Replicated
→ Application Deployed
→ Security Controls Verified
→ DNS/Traffic Redirected
→ Application Tested
→ Customer Service Restored
→ Monitoring Increased
→ Primary Region Status Monitored
→ Return Strategy Determined

The actual feasibility depends on the architecture, data replication strategy, service dependencies, and AWS service capabilities.

35. Backup Restoration Test

A backup restoration test should record:

Test ID
Date
System
Backup selected
Backup date
Recovery point
Recovery target
Restoration start time
Restoration completion time
Data validation
Application validation
Security validation
Issues encountered
RTO achieved
RPO achieved
Corrective actions
Approval

36. Disaster Recovery Testing

Testing should be performed periodically based on risk.

Testing methods may include:

Tabletop Exercise

Discuss the disaster and recovery decisions.

Backup Restore

Restore selected data.

Application Recovery

Recover an application in a controlled environment.

Infrastructure Recovery

Rebuild infrastructure using approved automation.

Failover Test

Switch to an alternate environment.

Partial Disaster Simulation

Test selected critical recovery procedures.

Full DR Exercise

Perform a broader recovery simulation where justified.

Testing should produce documented evidence and corrective actions.

37. DR Test Example

Scenario

Production database is unavailable and the primary environment cannot provide service.

Test

Declare DR.
Identify latest trusted backup.
Restore database.
Deploy application.
Configure network.
Configure secrets.
Verify IAM.
Enable logging.
Test application.
Validate customer workflow.
Measure recovery time.
Document gaps.

Evidence

Test record
Recovery timestamps
Backup record
Configuration evidence
Screenshots/logs where appropriate
Test results
Issues
Corrective actions
Management review

38. Recovery Metrics

The organization may monitor:

Metric	Purpose
RTO Achievement	Did service recover within target?
RPO Achievement	Was data loss within target?
Recovery Time	Actual recovery duration
Backup Success Rate	Reliability of backups
Restore Success Rate	Ability to restore
Recovery Test Frequency	Testing discipline
Recovery Failures	Identify weaknesses
Critical Services Tested	Coverage
Security Validation Completion	Recovery security
Open DR Actions	Outstanding weaknesses

39. Recovery Dependencies

The organization should maintain a dependency map for critical services.

Example:

Customer SaaS

→ DNS
→ Identity
→ Network
→ Load Balancer
→ Application
→ Database
→ Storage
→ Secrets
→ KMS
→ Monitoring
→ CI/CD
→ Critical Suppliers

A dependency failure may prevent recovery even when the primary application itself is healthy.

40. Disaster Recovery Checklist

Activation

Disaster identified.
Disaster record created.
Business impact assessed.
Security impact assessed.
DR activation approved.
Recovery team activated.

Containment

Active threat contained.
Compromised systems isolated.
Backups protected.
Evidence preserved where applicable.

Recovery Preparation

Trusted recovery point identified.
Recovery environment prepared.
IAM secured.
Network secured.
Recovery credentials secured.
Monitoring prepared.

Recovery

Infrastructure restored.
Storage restored.
Database restored.
Application restored.
CI/CD restored.
Integrations restored.
Security controls restored.

Validation

Data integrity verified.
Application tested.
IAM verified.
MFA verified.
Logging verified.
Monitoring verified.
Encryption verified.
Vulnerabilities reviewed.
Business functionality verified.

Closure

Service restored.
Temporary access removed.
Emergency changes reviewed.
Enhanced monitoring completed.
Customer impact assessed.
Residual risk documented.
Corrective actions assigned.
Lessons learned recorded.
DR record closed.

41. Relationship With Other ISMS Documents

Document	Relationship
Business Continuity Policy	Defines overall continuity requirements
Business Continuity Plan	Defines business-level continuity
Information Security During Disruption Procedure	Protects security during disruption
Incident Response Procedure	Manages security incidents
Incident Response Playbooks	Handles specific attack scenarios
Backup and Recovery Procedure	Defines backup/recovery operations
Cloud Backup and Recovery Procedure	Defines cloud-specific recovery
Cloud Exit Checklist	Supports cloud-provider transition
Emergency Change Procedure	Controls emergency changes
Security Log Retention Standard	Supports recovery investigations
Evidence Collection Procedure	Protects recovery/investigation evidence
Risk Management Procedure	Supports recovery risk decisions
Corrective Action Tracker	Tracks recovery improvements
Lessons Learned Register	Captures recovery lessons

42. Startup Implementation

A startup does not need a complex enterprise disaster-recovery environment to establish a useful DR capability.

A practical AWS SaaS model can be:

Infrastructure-as-Code

Automated Backups
Protected Recovery Copies
Documented Dependencies
Secure IAM
Central Logging
Monitoring
Recovery Runbook
Tested Restoration
Defined RTO/RPO

The most important question is:

If our production environment disappeared today, could we rebuild a trusted environment, restore our data, validate security, and resume critical customer services?

The answer should be demonstrated through testing rather than assumed.

43. ISO 27001 Alignment

This Disaster Recovery Plan supports the organization’s implementation of ISO/IEC 27001:2022 in areas including:

Information security during disruption
ICT readiness for business continuity
Backup
Redundancy
Access control
Privileged access
Logging and monitoring
Configuration management
Change management
Incident management
Supplier security
Risk management
Continual improvement

The specific controls applicable to the organization should be determined through its risk assessment and Statement of Applicability (SoA).

The DRP should also align with:

Business Impact Assessment
Business Continuity Plan
Risk Register
Recovery objectives
Customer commitments
Supplier requirements
Applicable legal and regulatory requirements

44. Audit Evidence

Typical audit evidence includes:

Approved Disaster Recovery Plan
Critical Service Register
RTO/RPO records
System dependency documentation
Backup configuration
Backup monitoring
Backup restoration tests
DR test records
Tabletop exercises
Failover/recovery test evidence
Infrastructure-as-Code
Recovery runbooks
AWS/cloud configuration
IAM configuration
Logging configuration
Monitoring configuration
Recovery decision records
Incident records
Evidence preservation records
Recovery verification records
Lessons Learned Register
Corrective Action Tracker
Risk reassessment
Management review

An auditor should be able to see not only that a DR plan exists, but also that the organization has tested its ability to recover.

45. Final Audit Trail

Disaster Detected
→ Disaster Recorded
→ Business Impact Assessed
→ Security Impact Assessed
→ DR Activation Approved
→ Recovery Team Activated
→ Threat Contained
→ Evidence Preserved
→ Backups Protected
→ Trusted Recovery Point Identified
→ Recovery Environment Prepared
→ Identity Secured
→ Infrastructure Restored
→ Data Restored
→ Applications Restored
→ Security Controls Restored
→ Logging & Monitoring Verified
→ Data Integrity Verified
→ Business Functionality Verified
→ Service Restored
→ Enhanced Monitoring
→ Temporary Controls Removed
→ Residual Risk Assessed
→ Corrective Actions Assigned
→ Lessons Learned
→ Management Review
→ DR Closed

46. Final Principle

Disaster recovery is not simply restoring servers. It is the controlled restoration of trusted technology, data, security controls, and business services.

Contain → Protect → Recover → Secure → Validate → Restore → Monitor → Improve

The ultimate objective is:

Recover from a trusted state + protect information + restore critical services within defined objectives + verify security and business functionality + improve before the next disruption.

ISO/IEC 27001