Disaster Recovery Plan Policy

Disaster Recovery Plan Policy

Authorized By: Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)

Purpose/Overview

Safire acknowledges that significant service interruptions, whether environmental, technical, or malicious, pose an existential threat to the organization. The purpose of this policy is to mandate a governance framework that ensures the resiliency of Safire’s critical operations.

This policy requires the development, implementation, and testing of a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) to ensure that IT Systems, Applications, and Data can be recovered within acceptable timeframes (RTO/RPO) following a major outage.

Scope

This policy applies to all critical IT infrastructure, software, and data repositories managed by or on behalf of Safire.

Governance & Authority

• The Senior Executive Team: Accountable for approving the business continuity strategy and authorizing the financial resources required to meet recovery objectives.
• The CISO: Responsible for the design, maintenance, and oversight of the Disaster Recovery program.
• The Oversight Group (CISO, IT, Compliance): Responsible for validating that plans meet regulatory and business requirements.

Policy

Business Impact Analysis (BIA)

A BIA must be conducted annually to identify critical services. Management must define the Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) for all critical systems.

Required Plan Components

The Oversight Group must ensure the DRP includes, at minimum:

• Activation Protocols: Criteria for declaring a disaster and mobilizing the recovery team.
• Succession of Leadership: Delegation of authority if key leadership is incapacitated.
• Restoration Procedures: Step-by-step technical guides for recovering systems from backups or alternative sites.
• Communication Strategy: Protocols for internal and external communication (Media/Clients) during a crisis.
• Vendor & Supply Chain: Strategies for rapid hardware replacement and vendor support.

Testing and Validation

A plan that is not tested is invalid. The following testing cadence is mandatory:

• Tabletop Exercises (Semi-Annual): Discussion-based scenarios for leadership to test decision-making.
• Operational Simulation (Annual): Technical recovery simulation to validate backup integrity and RTO adherence.
• Post-Mortem Reporting: Results of all tests, including gaps and remediation costs, must be reported to the CEO within 30 days of completion.

Compliance

Compliance Measurement

The policy owner will verify compliance through methods such as business tool reports and internal and external audits. Oversight is provided by CISO, IT, and Compliance functions. Enforcement of this policy is coordinated through Human Resources and Executive Management.

Exceptions

Any exceptions must be approved by the Policy Owner in advance.

Non-Compliance

An employee found to have violated this policy may be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment.

Related Standards, Policies, Plans, and Procedures

Data Breach Incident Response Plan

Data Classification Policy

Revision History

2026-08-20 — Darren Rush

Merge pull request #2 from safire-dev/dev (16cb681)

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