Which Plan Covers It? — TechKnowSurge

About this interactive

The Contingency Planning lesson separates plans by how far a problem reaches. Incident response plan: responding to something that has happened, by troubleshooting, containing and working out what is going on. It is the first plan to reach for. Disaster recovery plan: the next level. When things are drastic enough that systems or data are lost, the plan covers recovering them: restoring from backup, rebuilding, or failing over to another site. It is about the systems. Business continuity plan: keeping the business going after a disruption. It goes beyond the systems to the workforce: where people work, how key functions continue, who covers for whom. A plan for staff after an earthquake belongs here because it keeps the workforce working. Contingency planning: the video calls a plan for one event, such as an earthquake, a contingency plan, and says the business continuity plan is made of them. NIST SP 800-34 Rev. 1 (section 2.2) notes that there are no universally accepted definitions for these plans, and draws the line by what a plan covers: continuity planning applies to the mission or business itself, and contingency planning applies to information systems, recovering them after an emergency. On that reading, a plan that keeps staff working after an earthquake is continuity planning, and the business continuity plan is where it belongs. This activity keeps to the three plans the lesson compares, so it has no contingency-plan bin. The tests for each card: is the team handling an incident as it happens (incident response)? Is it getting lost systems or data back (disaster recovery)? Or is it keeping the business and its people working while that happens (business continuity)?

What you'll learn

Distinguish what an incident response plan, a disaster recovery plan and a business continuity plan each cover
Recognize a plan that keeps staff working after an event such as an earthquake as business continuity: continuity planning applies to the business itself, contingency planning to its information systems (NIST SP 800-34 Rev. 1, section 2.2)

Aligned to

CompTIA Security+

3.4 Explain the importance of resilience and recovery in security architecture.

4.8 Explain appropriate incident response activities.

Key terms

Incident Response Plan: An Incident Response Plan is a documented set of procedures that defines the roles, processes, and communication protocols an organization follows to detect, contain, eradicate, and recover from security incidents in a coordinated manner.
Disaster Recovery Plan: A Disaster Recovery Plan is a documented set of procedures for restoring IT systems and data following a disruptive event, defining recovery time objectives, roles, and step-by-step recovery actions.
Business Continuity Plan: A documented strategy for maintaining essential business functions during and after a disaster or disruption.
Contingency Planning: Contingency Planning is the process of developing strategies and procedures for responding to system disruptions, encompassing backup, alternate processing, and recovery operations.
Failover: The automatic switching to a redundant system or component when the primary one fails.

Topics

Contingency Planning Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Incident Response Interactive Categorize

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