A well-defined disaster recovery (DR) plan relies heavily on a coordinated incident response team. Think of your incident response team like a pit crew. It’s easy to assume you’ll have a good race when everything is performing smoothly, but the real test comes when something goes wrong—maybe a tire blows or the engine overheats. In those moments, success isn’t about having the best tools in the garage; it’s about having the right team, working together, to quickly solve problems and get back on track.
When your team is facing a disaster recovery scenario, whether it’s a cyber attack, natural disaster, outage, or data breach, the speed and coordination of your team determines how quickly and how well you can move forward. In this post, I’m breaking down how to assemble a team that can respond with precision, minimize downtime, and keep your organization running smoothly when unexpected issues arise.
Establishing key team members, roles, and hierarchy
The incident response team (IRT) is the backbone of your DR response and is responsible for leading the recovery efforts during a disaster. Here’s a breakdown of possible key IRT roles:
- Incident commander: Oversees the entire incident response process, making critical decisions and delegating tasks to team members.
- Technical lead: Provides technical expertise, directing recovery efforts for IT infrastructure and data restoration.
- Communications lead: Handles external and internal communication, ensuring timely updates for stakeholders and mitigating potential reputational damage.
- Documentation lead: Maintains the DR runbook, ensuring its accuracy and updating it with post-incident findings.
- Legal counsel: Provides legal guidance and ensures compliance with relevant regulations during the response and recovery process.
Building redundancy
Building redundancy in your IRT allows you to account for team member absences. This includes IT leadership; don’t assume you’ll be in the office when a disaster happens. Assign backup personnel for critical roles within the team to ensure continuity in the event of unforeseen circumstances.
Establish a clear succession plan for leadership roles within the IRT. This ensures a smooth transition if the primary incident commander or other key personnel become unavailable during a disaster.
Establishing a reporting hierarchy
Clearly define a reporting hierarchy within the IRT, outlining who reports to whom and the escalation process for making critical decisions. A clear chain of command during a crisis prevents confusion and delays that could result in prolonged downtime and increased risks.
The importance of clear communication
A critical component of any DR plan is clear communication to employees and executives regarding their specific roles during a security incident. This ensures that the assigned team leader can coordinate a unified response. Remember to include guidelines about incident escalation, as well as agreed-upon methods of communication (e.g., email, direct messaging, video calls, etc.).
Executive sponsorship: Beyond awareness
Executive buy-in is paramount for a successful DR strategy. While awareness of the impact of ransomware attacks has grown over the years, contextualizing DR plans with historical financial impacts, downtime implications, and reputational risk associated with such attacks can help to communicate why DR is a top-line priority.
Tip: Educating executives
Framing the DR plan in terms of cost avoidance, user downtime minimization, and reputational risk mitigation can resonate better with executives. Quantify the potential financial losses from data breaches and system outages to garner executive support for DR initiatives.
Beyond cell phones: Communication channels
Disasters can disrupt traditional communication methods like cell phone service. Develop alternative communication channels for the IRT, such as designated email threads, satellite phones, or pre-arranged conference call bridges. It is imperative to include this information and contact details in your DR runbook for immediate accessibility during crises.
By establishing a well-defined team structure with clear roles, communication protocols, and redundancy measures, enterprise businesses can ensure a coordinated and efficient response to data disasters.
A well-prepared team leads to a resilient recovery
Your DR strategy is only as effective as the team behind it. By defining clear roles, building in redundancy, and establishing a reporting hierarchy, IT leaders can eliminate confusion and accelerate recovery efforts. Moreover, securing executive sponsorship and ensuring clear communication strengthens your ability to respond effectively. DR isn’t just about the plan on paper. It’s about how you execute that plan and set your team up for success.
