The set of policies, tools, and procedures for restoring IT infrastructure, systems, and data to normal operations after a catastrophic disruption such as a ransomware attack.
Disaster Recovery (DR) focuses specifically on restoring IT systems and data after a major disruption. While business continuity addresses how the organization operates during an outage, disaster recovery addresses how IT infrastructure is rebuilt and restored to normal operations. A DR plan defines the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) — how quickly systems must be back online — and Recovery Point Objective (RPO) — how much data loss is acceptable — for each critical system.
For ransomware scenarios, disaster recovery is uniquely challenging because the disruption is adversarial. Unlike natural disasters or hardware failures, ransomware actively targets recovery capabilities: encrypting backup servers, deleting shadow copies, and destroying system state data. This means DR planning for ransomware must account for the possibility that standard recovery mechanisms have been compromised, requiring layered backup strategies, isolated recovery environments, and procedures for rebuilding from bare metal when necessary.
The value of a disaster recovery plan is only proven through testing. Organizations should conduct DR tests annually at minimum, with tabletop exercises quarterly. Tests should validate actual recovery capabilities: Can you restore domain controllers from backup? How long does it actually take to rebuild your ERP system? Can you meet your stated RTO? DR tests frequently reveal gaps — incorrect backup configurations, missing documentation, outdated procedures — that are far better discovered during testing than during a real ransomware incident.