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Read the Recovery Timeline

Read incident timelines: how much data was lost, how long was it down, and were the objectives met?

⚑ Complete this interactive to capture a CTF flag worth 5 points.

About this interactive

How much time, money and effort go into disaster recovery depends on two objectives, often promised to customers in a service level agreement. Picture a timeline with an incident on it, say a fire in the data center. The recovery point objective (RPO) looks backwards from the incident: how much data can you afford to lose? With an RPO of 15 minutes, a copy of the data has to be taken at least every 15 minutes, because everything since the last copy is lost. A bank that cannot lose a single transaction needs an RPO of zero: real-time copies. The recovery time objective (RTO) looks forwards: how long can you be down and still be okay? Twenty-four hours suits some customers; large companies may need an hour, or minutes. Different services can have different RTOs. Tighter objectives cost more. An RPO near zero needs data copied constantly; storage is cheap now, so this is easier than it was. An RTO of 48 hours can be met by building new cloud servers after the disaster, which is cheap. An RTO of an hour needs machines already set up and data ready, a hot site, and more staff time spent training.

What you'll learn

Aligned to

CompTIA Security+
3.4 Explain the importance of resilience and recovery in security architecture.
CompTIA Network+
3.3 Explain disaster recovery (DR) concepts.
CompTIA Server+
3.6 Explain the importance of disaster recovery.
Cisco CCST Cybersecurity
4.4 Explain the importance of disaster recovery and business continuity planning
ISC2 CISSP
7.10 Implement recovery strategies
NIST 800-53
CP-2 Contingency Plan
ISC2 CC
2.2 Understand redundancy

Key terms

Recovery Point Objective
RPO
The maximum acceptable amount of data loss measured in time, defining how far back data must be recoverable.
Recovery Time Objective
RTO
The maximum acceptable time to restore a system or service after a disruption.
Disaster Recovery
DR
The process and procedures for recovering IT systems and data following a disruptive event.
Backup Frequency
How often backup jobs are scheduled to run, determined by the criticality of the data, the organization's Recovery Point Objective (RPO), and available storage resources. Higher-frequency backups reduce the amount of data that can be lost in an incident.
Hot Site
A fully operational duplicate facility with live systems and current data that can immediately assume workloads if the primary site fails, providing the fastest possible disaster recovery time.
Service Level Agreement
SLA
A formal commitment between a provider and customer that guarantees a defined level of service uptime, including terms for compensation if the standard is not met.

Topics

Recovery Point Objective Recovery Time Objective Disaster Recovery Backup Frequency Interactive Fill In

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