Incident Response Plan vs Disaster Recovery Plan

The principles of incident response and disaster recovery are similar but the same. Learn how incident response and disaster recovery plans for data breaches are both beneficial in cyber incident recovery.

If your business keeps digital records, you’re probably aware of the importance of not only protecting your data, but also backing it up. With malware, hacking, and phishing scams on the rise, it is more important than ever to have a comprehensive risk management plan in place to mitigate damages. Two of the most critical aspects of creating a plan to keep core business functions intact are an incident response plan and disaster recovery plan for data breaches.

The principles of incident response and disaster recovery are similar. They both aim to mitigate the risks and damage a data security breach has on your business. However, there are critical differences between the two approaches.

Having a well-thought-out disaster recovery plan for data breaches is critical for successful cyber incident recovery. Just as beneficial is a cohesive incident response plan. The key difference in the principles of incident response and disaster recovery is the focus of their response. An incident response handles countermeasures that mitigate the risks of an active data breach. Disaster recovery plans reduce risks and damage caused by unexpected disasters like weather events, equipment damage, or human errors that have negative business impacts.

An incident response plan ensures that in the event of a security breach, the right personnel and procedures are in place to effectively deal with a network security incident as it occurs. Having an incident response plan in place provides a targeted response to contain and remove the threat.

A proper incident response starts by determining your most critical data and backing it up in a remote location like the cloud. The most vital systems and data should receive prioritized backups. Along with backing up data, you should have a backup plan until critical systems and functions are restored. Employees understanding their roles and knowing how to execute them during a breach is also crucial for quick cyber incident recovery.

IT disaster recovery is the practice of anticipating, planning for, surviving, and recovering from a disaster that may affect a business. A disaster recovery plan allows companies to respond immediately to reduce damage and resume core business functions as quickly as possible.

The foundation of a high-quality disaster recovery plan has a way to replicate and recover your most critical applications, documents, and data immediately. The quicker you regain access to your data, the shorter your downtime in an emergency is. Like an incident response plan, disaster recovery plans should lay out a clear outline of what employees and recovery teams should do in times of disaster. By identifying vulnerabilities within computer systems, you can build strategies for the recovery process.

You should test your disaster recovery plan regularly. Performing simulated disasters helps not only keep your employees informed of their roles but identifies any missing parts of your plan.

As you can see, both plans are designed to minimize the impact of an unexpected event. However, it would be best not to look at it as an incident response plan vs disaster recovery plan. By creating both, you set yourself up for a quick and effective cyber incident recovery scenario.

A business continuity plan is like an umbrella covering the principles of incident response and disaster recovery by forming a cohesive cyber incident recovery strategy. The main focus of a business continuity plan is to allow a company to continue operating in the event of a disaster or cyber attack.

A comprehensive business continuity plan will include numerous elements, including:

• Defined Roles for Employees
• A communication plan
• Diligent planning
• Regular testing
• Access to backed up data and resources
• Offsite backups for continues IT operations
• Recovery objectives
• Business impact analysis reports

Don’t let a disaster or data breach leave you up IT creek without a paddle. The experts at ITque can help you set up incident response and disaster recovery plans for data breaches and catastrophes. To learn more, reach out today.