Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan

Background:

SolveTech Inc. is a (fictional) medium-sized software development company

specializing in cloud-based application for various industries. They have a

team of 150 employees working across multiple locations. Their systems

store sensitive client data and proprietary software code.

Disaster/Disruption:

A sophisticated ransomware attack targeted SolveTech’s main servers,

encrypting critical databases, including client information, software codes,

and operational data. The attack led to a complete system shutdown,

a􀆯ecting all ongoing projects and rendering the company’s IT infrastructure

inaccessible.

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan 

I: Situational Analysis

SolveTech is a mid-sized cloud software development company, operating across numerous industries. The company which operates across multiple locations has experienced a substantial ransomware attack targeting its main servers. The attack has cut off access to critical systems and data, leading to a complete shutdown of the organization’s operations. The situation poses a substantial threat to SolveTech’s organizational health in a variety of different risk categories. The incident highlights several areas of improvement to facilitate a more robust business continuity plan.

Operational Continuity: The ransomware attack has resulted in a complete disruption of SolveTech’s core business operations. Loss of access to the organization’s infrastructure has stalled projects and crippled the many business functions that rely on internal technology to operate. The drastic stopping power of the incident highlights significant organizational vulnerabilities that can have cascading effects in other risk categories.

Reputation: The attack poses significant threat to the organization’s reputation as a reliable steward of sensitive client data. Breaches of this magnitude can dissolve the trust that is foundational to maintaining and growing the organization’s client base. Clients may become hesitant to engage in business with SolveTech if they view their services as unsecure or the company as negligent.

Regulatory: Depending on the exact nature of the sensitive client data exposed in the breach, SolveTech may be at risk of violating privacy or industry specific regulations. The penalties for such violations range in nature from monetary fines to legal action.

Human Element: Internally, with critical systems offline, employees are likely to experience stress and uncertainty amidst project delays and companywide outages. Externally, the breach may raise concerns among key stakeholders of the company’s overall risk profile and security resilience.

Financial: In the aftermath of the incident, SolveTech is likely to incur a wide range of financial impacts across both short- and long-term time horizons. Immediately, the company may find itself subject to expenses for legal counsel, incident response teams, regulatory fines or even the ransom payment itself. Further on, the company may experience financial consequences related to lost revenue from delayed projects or lost customers. Following the breach, the company may be compelled or required to fortify their IT infrastructure, further adding to the financial burden.

 

II: Business Impact Analysis

Software Development and Cloud-Based Service

Software development and the delivery of custom cloud-based services is a core value proposition for SolveTech. This function is directly tied to the company’s primary revenue streams.

        Dependencies: The continuous development of custom software requires access to various components within the company’s compromised infrastructure. This includes proprietary code or other supplemental systems such as project management tools or testing environments. Additionally, providing cloud-based services requires access to affected internal hosting platforms and associated databases.

        Loss Impact: The ransomware attack has rendered many of these critical systems inaccessible, halting primary business operations. The downtime could lead to delays in project delivery and service disruptions with cascading effects such as contract violations or canceled projects.

Data Management

SolveTech’s ability to store and manage client data is central to its business model. Beyond hosting sensitive client data, the company relies on management of secure internal databases to protect proprietary custom code and maintain normal operations.

Dependencies: This function relies on secure databases and storage systems necessary for holding and processing sensitive client and internal data as required for normal operations. This includes access to secure servers with proper encryption and validation protocol.

Loss Impact: The ransomware attack has compromised access to these systems, raising the risk of exposure of client information. Likewise, the breach heightens the risk of potentially detrimental internal data loss or corruption.

Relationship Management

SolveTech’s ability to manage client relationships effectively through the customer lifecycle is essential in supporting the company’s business continuity. The company’s relationship management functions ensure that client needs are met, and new business is generated.

Dependencies: Relationship management relies on operational systems supported by the IT infrastructure such as CRM’s, client information databases, and communication tools. These systems manage client-side interactions and guide customer engagement.

Loss Impact: Disruption of the IT infrastructure risks breakdown of all relationship management channels – preventing client inquiries, the tracking of service issues, and hindering the acquisition of new customers. This can negatively impact existing client satisfaction and contribute to lost revenue.

Administrative Operation

SolveTech’s administrative operations provide the internal infrastructure necessary to support the organization’s general function. These critical business functions ensure that employees are paid, compliance obligations are met, and broad organizational goals are maintained.

Dependencies: Internal functions such as payroll or internal communication systems may rely on internal IT infrastructure. Similar systems such as those which process client payments may also be affected.

Loss Impact: Incidents which compromise the stability of internal IT infrastructure vital to normal operation can cause substantial disruptions across the business. Potential risks include the delay of employee payroll processing or even the inability to collect payment from clients. Issues impacting these support operations can substantially hinder the company’s ability to respond to a crisis.

III: Risk Assessment and Mitigation Strategies

IT Infrastructure Vulnerabilities

SolveTech’s core business operations critically rely on dependable access to a centralized IT infrastructure. The infrastructure supports essential operations across the organization affecting areas ranging from project delivery to internal communications. In this case, overreliance on a single infrastructure source has led to the prevalence of a single source of failure. Threats that compromise the infrastructure risk leading to an organization-wide shutdown as teams are unable to progress active projects or support client needs. Lack of proper redundancy or continuity aimed initiatives contribute to this issue substantially increasing the company’s exposure to systemic risk.

Mitigation:

To address SolveTech’s overreliance on a single-source centralized infrastructure, the company must prioritize strategies to improve operational resilience and redundancy. For example, diversification of key operational systems amongst different environments and platforms allow normal operations to continue amidst localized incidents. Further, this type of infrastructure segmentation aids in preventing the spread of attacks thus limiting the impact if a breach was to occur. The company should implement ongoing stress tests to assure the functionality of critical systems amid crisis conditions and assess for overreliance on any single internal system components.

Data Management – Loss or Breach

The security breach resulting in the encryption and potential exfiltration of sensitive internally held data presents a serious risk to SolveTech’s business. The firm’s ability to securely manage large amounts of client and proprietary data is foundational to their core business. Breaches, like the one that the company experienced can trigger events with substantial long-term downside risk such as regulatory action or reputational damage. Further, the compromise of internal proprietary data risks corruption of the companies longer-term competitive positioning. The attack underscores substantial risks surrounding SolveTech’s data management practices and systems.

Mitigation:

To effectively mitigate the risks associated with breaches or loss of operational data, the company must fortify organizational data management and security protocols. For instance, one strategy that can mitigate risks associated with data breaches involves the use of internal data encryption. This ensures that if a breach occurs and data is exfiltrated, it remains inaccessible to unintended parties. Likewise, the company should ensure that adequate measures are in place to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive information, including threat detection mechanisms. Additionally, given the sensitive nature of and high risks surrounding the company’s proprietary stored data, SolveTech is advised to create robust backups of any mission critical data or systems.

Compliance and Legal Exposure

The recent ransomware attack highlights significant compliance and legal risks that SolveTech must promptly address. As a developer and cloud service provider, the sensitive data that the organization deals with may be subject to numerous data protection or cybersecurity regulations. Beyond regulatory risk, the incident also highlights the company’s significant exposure to legal liability. Clients with compromised sensitive data may pursue litigation to recover damages resulting from the breach or subsequent operational shutdown.

Mitigation:

To reduce compliance and legal liabilities stemming from incidents like the ransomware breach, SolveTech is advised to adopt a proactive and diligent approach to regulatory and security compliance. For example, depending on the specifics of the data in question, the company may consider auditing its current compliance with applicable regulations. SolveTech could also consider engaging legal counsel to provide similar guidance on ways to limit legal liability, such as contract modifications intended to protect the company’s interests. Critically, the company must ensure that it is taking logical and prudent steps to demonstrate their efforts in compliance. Training in industry specific data management guidelines, for instance, can go a long way to dispel claims of negligence from tort-wielding clients if a breach occurs. 

IV: Business Continuity and Recovery Plan

A.      Activation Procedures:

Level 1 – Minor Disruption

BCDR Plan Deployment: Not Deployed

Activation Criteria:

Minor disruptions are those that are relatively routine in nature and do not materially impact service delivery or system integrity. Isolated network interruptions, physical asset outages, and even routine slowdowns are examples of minor disruption.

Response:

·       Internal teams may conduct basic triage to resolve the issue within standard operating procedures.

·       The employee or team discovering the issue logs it with the appropriate vendor or help desk.

Notification:

·       No escalation beyond the appropriate vendor or business support team is required.

·       Internal log is generated for tracking and pattern analysis.

Level 2- Intermediate Disruption

BCDR Plan Deployment: Partial Implementation

Activation Criteria:

Intermediate disruptions are those which present a moderate impact to continued normal business operations. Examples of intermediate disruptions include outages that are sweeping or frequent in nature. Likewise, the detection of suspicious activity in internal systems lacking true confirmation of a data breach could be considered an intermediate disruption.

Response:

·       Managers conduct diagnosis of disruption to assess scope, coordinate the appropriate resources to diagnose and rectify issues as fit.

·       Managers may initial partial BCDR plan activation as required to resume normal business operations.

Notification:

·       The issue is reported to the appropriate vendor and help desk and escalated to appropriate SolveTech management personnel for review.

·       Key company leaders, such as CTO, are notified and given milestone updates.

·       Updates are to be issued to impacted teams via established internal channels.

Level 3 – Major Disruption

BCDR Plan Deployment: Full BCDR Plan Activation

Activation Criteria:

Major disruptions are those which constitute a significant and critical system compromise which has the potential to materially impact normal business operations. Examples of major disruptions include system breaches such as ransomware attacks, or widespread loss of access to critical business systems.

Response:

·       Key organizational leaders and specialists are notified of the incident and convene an Incident Response Team (IRT)

·       Affected systems are isolated if necessary to prevent additional compromise.

·       Legal counsel or third-party experts are engaged (as necessary)

·       Emergency declared as required.

Notification:

·       Highest organizational levels of leadership are alerted of the disruption.

·       Emergency communication plans are put into effect.

·       Communications to clients, employees, or other stakeholders must be approved by appropriate senior leadership or IRT.

B.      Recovery Strategies by Critical Function

Software Development and Cloud-Based Service Delivery

Priorities:

·       Isolate affected systems to avoid system-wide exposures or failures.

·       Restore access to affected systems and data repositories as quickly as possible.

·       Resume normal access to development infrastructure or operational data.

Strategy:

The recovery of affected critical business infrastructure will center on the company’s ability to quickly identify infrastructure issues and provide prompt restoration. Modular recovery techniques such as retaining up-to-date backups of critical systems can minimize downtime and accelerate recovery efforts. Take special care to avoid creating opportunities for single sources of failure, for instance by storing those backups off-site or creating duplicate copies. Emphasis will be placed on recovering highest value and most critical projects and systems.

Data Management

Priorities:

·       Ensure the integrity of sensitive internal data stores.

·       In the event of loss or breach - identify nature and extent.

·       Recover lost or exfiltrated data.

·       Reinstate data protection protocols following the breach.

Strategy:

SolveTech will implement a proactive strategy aimed at preserving data integrity and prioritizing means for facilitating restorations as well as unauthorized access. To be successful, the data management recovery strategy must be especially forward-looking and multifaceted. In addition to internal processes and technologies that will be deployed to recover mission critical data, appropriate communication strategies must be employed to apprise stakeholders of company sponsored updates.

Relationship Management

Priorities:

·       Reconnect client facing systems and platforms.

·       Resume the normal operation of internal relationship management systems.

·       Prioritize systems which materially affect client experience or revenue generation.

Strategy:

Maintaining client trust and continuity of normal business operations, the recovery strategy for SolveTech will focus on the expedited re-engagement of clients. SolveTech should employ alternate communication channels, segmented to host client communication in the interim of recovery completion. Additionally, the organization should explore means to triage and engage clients impacted by the disaster to reduce overall impact of a disaster.

Administrative Operations

Priorities:

·       Reinstate internal infrastructure critical to operations.

·       Prioritize activities that provide inputs to high-revenue business functions.

Strategy:

Like other critical business functions that currently rely on a centralized internal IT infrastructure, SolveTech must prioritize resiliency and redundancy with respect to mission critical business applications. Critical business processes should be examined for alternative workflows that can be deployed in the wake of a disaster. Where feasible, manual processes will be developed as a redundancy measure, ensuring the company can maintain a minimum operational capacity during a disaster.

C.     Emergency Response

SolveTech’s emergency response procedures are designed to safeguard personnel, company assets, and initiate recovery actions in the event of disruptive incidents. The following are key elements of the SolveTech emergency response plan.

The safety and security of personnel is the top priority during any emergency. As part of the emergency response protocol, the organization will provide prompt and clear communication to notify key personnel and staff of the incident. Upon confirmation of a critical event, key internal personnel will be mobilized and begin conducting assessment measures to determine the extent of the damage. If possible, affected systems will be isolated to prevent further damage. Non-essential access to any compromised systems will be immediately disabled to prevent further operational risk. The Emergency Response Team will be activated based on the disruption level and on an as required basis. The emergency response team will begin the process of stabilization and begin transitioning affected operational elements to recovery status.

V: Implementation, Testing, and Training

 

SolveTech’s business continuity and disaster recovery plan must be supported by systems and processes across the organization. The following outlines general strategies for plan implementation, testing guidelines, and training measures that are designed to minimize organizational risk when disruptions occur.

A.      Implementation Strategy

1.       Sponsorship Alignment

One of the most critical steps in implementing a successful BCDR plan is ensuring the commitment of organizational sponsors. Senior leadership will not only be the party to formally adopt any plans, but they also set all important “tone at the top”. Senior leadership will be responsible for assigning ownership of different areas of business continuity and will also serve as a central point of contact for incident coordination.

2.       Organizational Alignment

Following leadership buy-in and executive planning, SolveTech will focus on aligning the broader organization with business continuity and recovery efforts. Next-line or departmental managers play a vital role, serving as a linkage between front line employees and senior leadership. SolveTech will promote an organizational culture of disaster preparedness by integrating elements of BCDR into regular communications. This includes the introduction of relevant training programs and simulations, ensuring that BCDR efforts are supportive of SolveTech’s organizational risk goals.

3.       Infrastructure Alignment

With the human-focused elements of the implementation strategy addressed, SolveTech will take next steps to evaluate the health and security of internal IT infrastructure. The company will analyze components of the system both in isolation and in global contexts to ensure that technology requirements support priorities as defined in the Business Impact Analysis (BIA).

4.       Documentation and Distribution

Finally, the BCDR plan will be made readily available to all stakeholders. The full plan will be stored in multiple secure and accessible formats - including offline physical copies and cloud storage solutions. This ensures that the plan is accessible and actionable both before and during a potential disruption.

B.      Testing and Validation

Paper (Tabletop) Exercises

·       Will be used to walk teams through simulated disruptions.

·       Useful to workshop decision making and recovery logic errors.

·       Post-Exercise reviews can be facilitated by third party experts

Infrastructure (Technical) Drills

·       Involves taking select systems offline to test capacity and recovery strategy.

·       Simulated attacks can be useful to simulate isolated disaster conditions.

·       Technical drills can be cost prohibitive, prioritize critical business functions.

Full-Scale Simulation

·       No less than once per year, SolveTech will conduct a comprehensive continuity test – involving numerous departments and systems.

·       The simulation will include activating the Emergency Response Team, testing emergency communication platforms, and initiating restoration of normal business functions.

·       Full scale simulations, while cost prohibitive, present the most realistic testing environment for BCDR plan evaluation.

·       Following any test or confirmed incident, SolveTech will conduct an after-action-review to revise procedures to improve operational resilience.

C.     Training

Ongoing training will be essential to ensure that all employees within SolveTech understand their roles and responsibilities during a disruption or emergency. SolveTech will provide annual business continuity training in accordance with the testing and validation strategies noted above. New hires will receive continuity training and disaster preparedness skills as part of their onboarding process. Periodic refresher courses and simulations will be made available to employees to enhance their skills and awareness.