{"id":62036,"date":"2022-06-14T14:14:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-14T14:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commvault.com\/blogs\/cyber-recovery-and-disaster-recovery"},"modified":"2023-11-30T12:25:19","modified_gmt":"2023-11-30T17:25:19","slug":"cyber-recovery-and-disaster-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commvault.com\/blogs\/cyber-recovery-and-disaster-recovery","title":{"rendered":"Cyber Recovery and Disaster Recovery – Are They One and the Same?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
How are you protecting your data from a ransomware attack or natural disaster? What is your recovery plan? Is your disaster recovery plan the same as your cyber recovery plan? The steps you take to protect your data might be the same, but your recovery efforts may vary. Both types of disasters could be devastating to your business, but what\u2019s critical is recovery. The average cost of downtime for large enterprises is more than $11,600 per minute,1<\/sup> and 40-60% of small businesses won\u2019t reopen after data loss.2<\/sup> So, the way you think about recovery matters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Gartner defines a ransomware attack as \u201ccyber extortion that occurs when malicious software infiltrates computer systems and encrypts data, holding it hostage until the victim pays a ransom.\u201d3<\/sup> A cyberattack is very different from a natural disaster attack. In this instance, your data is intentionally infiltrated. Bad actors have proactively gained access and placed malware into your environment, locking up your systems, hijacking critical data, and seeking ransom. It is estimated that a ransomware attack occurs every 11 seconds.4<\/sup> <\/p>\n\n\n\n When a disaster strikes, such as a flood, earthquake, fire, or storm, your data environments are inadvertently shut down or even destroyed. In this instance, your data is not intentionally infiltrated. In 2021, there were 401 natural disaster events worldwide.5<\/sup> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Disaster recovery is the ability to regain access and functionality of critical data systems and IT infrastructure as soon as possible after a natural disaster occurs. It relies upon the replication of data from an off-premises location or cloud environment, where the data is backed up and not impacted by the natural disaster. In a disaster recovery situation, the goal is to restore business operations efficiently with minimal downtime and zero data loss, as the business readiness of the data is considered pre-qualified for recovery. In a disaster recovery situation, your efforts are centered on the efficiency of restoring operations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cyber Recovery aims to provide the ability to regain access and functionality of critical data systems and IT infrastructure as soon as possible after a cyberattack such as ransomware occurs. In a cyber recovery situation, your objectives are to get your business backup and running from an air-gapped and immutable copy of data, which assures you of data integrity. Data protection solutions with the implementation of zero trust architecture assure you a layered approach to defense even for your backup environment. However, \u201cseeing is believing\u201d and this is where it is important to ensure you are frequently validating the business-readiness of the data as part of the cyber recovery tabletop exercises. This can be achieved by performing application validation of the data using custom scripts in a network-quarantined sandbox environment. By doing so, you can prevent any potential re-infection of the environment and thereby contain the \u201cblast radius\u201d after an attack. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cyber recovery and disaster recovery differ. With disaster recovery, the focus is on the Mean Time to Recovery (MTTR) of operations and the smooth functioning of business. In a best-case disaster recovery scenario, data is not compromised. As for cyber recovery, it is all about your business survival, focusing on data, applications, infrastructure and more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
What is a Cyberattack?<\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What Is a Natural Disaster?<\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What Is Disaster Recovery?<\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What Is Cyber Recovery?<\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
How do Cyber Recovery and Disaster Recovery Differ?<\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Characteristics of Disaster Recovery vs. Cyber Recovery<\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/th> Disaster Recovery<\/strong> <\/th> Cyber Recovery<\/strong> <\/th><\/tr><\/thead> Principle requirement<\/strong> <\/td> Rapid means to recovery of business operations with minimal downtime. It is typically assumed that there is zero data loss. <\/td> Rapid recovery of business and its data, with zero data loss, and the assurance that data has not been manipulated or tampered with. <\/td><\/tr> Recovery objective expected <\/strong> <\/td> Recovery to the closest point in time. <\/td> Recovery to the closest point in time from an air-gapped immutable copy. <\/td><\/tr> Tools used<\/strong> <\/td> Typically requires replication tools to aid data replication between sites and locations, complete with orchestration to aid seamless failover and failback operations <\/td> Requires a host of tools and processes to confirm data has not been manipulated for the protection of applications, networks, use of SIEM\/SOAR ecosystem solutions for forensics & analytics, and network monitoring tools. <\/td><\/tr> Frequency of testing recovery runbook<\/strong> <\/td> Typically, once every six months to a year. <\/td> As frequently as possible to validate the business readiness of data. Exercises include processes that engage incident response teams (IRT), legal, corporate, public relations, communications, third-party insurance, and IT teams. These tabletop exercises help minimize downtime during times of crisis so that it becomes collective muscle memory when it comes to recovery. <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n What Is an Incident Response Plan?<\/strong> <\/h3>\n\n\n