Disaster Recovery Runbook

Aligned with NIST SP 800-34r1, FCA regulatory expectations, and best practices for operational resilience.

Document Owner: IT Continuity Lead Version: 1.0 Review Cycle: Semi-annually or post-major change Last Reviewed: [Insert Date]

1. Overview

Field	Description
Purpose	Guide the recovery of critical systems and services following a disruption.
Scope	Covers systems, applications, networks, and data critical to business operations.
Assumptions	Staff availability, backup availability, offsite access.
References	BIA Document, Crisis Comms Plan, Incident Register, Configuration Management DB.

1. Roles & Responsibilities

Role	Name	Contact	Responsibilities
DR Manager			Coordinates execution of runbook
IT Lead			Leads system recovery
Comms Lead			Handles stakeholder updates
Security Officer			Ensures security during recovery
Vendor Liaison			Engages external partners

1. DR Scenarios & Triggers

Scenario	Trigger	Examples
Cybersecurity Incident	Ransomware, DDoS	Data encrypted, systems offline
Infrastructure Outage	Power, hosting	Cloud provider outage
Data Loss	Accidental or malicious	Critical database corruption
Site Unavailability	Flood, fire, etc.	Data centre destroyed

1. Critical Assets and Recovery Details

Asset Name	Type	RTO	RPO	Recovery Steps	Location
Payment API	Application	2 hours	15 mins	See Section 6	AWS (EU-WEST)
Customer DB	Database	4 hours	1 hour	See Backup Procedure	Azure
IAM System	Security	1 hour	0 mins	Activate failover	On-prem
Jira/Confluence	Collaboration	8 hours	24 hours	Contact Atlassian support	SaaS

1. Communication Plan

Audience	Method	Frequency	Responsible
Internal Teams	Slack / Email	Hourly	DR Manager
Executives	SMS / Call	2-Hourly	Comms Lead
Customers	Status Page	As needed	Comms Lead
Regulators (e.g. FCA)	Email / Call	Within 24h	Compliance Officer

1. Step-by-Step Recovery Procedures

Example: Payment API Recovery

1. Trigger: Monitoring system flags downtime or data loss.

2. Notify: DR team via PagerDuty; escalate to DR Manager.

3. Initial Response:

   • Isolate affected VMs

   • Snapshot logs and preserve evidence

4. Activate DR site:

   • Deploy from pre-approved CloudFormation template (AWS)

5. Data Restoration:

   • Recover from S3 backup (timestamp T-15min)

6. Validation:

   • QA team runs regression test suite

7. Go/No-Go Decision: DR Manager signs off

8. Customer Notification: Update status page and email notices

9. Post-Incident Review:

   • Root cause analysis

   • Lessons learned

   • Update this runbook if needed

1. Testing & Maintenance Schedule

Test Type	Frequency	Last Performed	Next Due	Owner
Tabletop Exercise	Quarterly	[Insert Date]	[Insert Date]	IT Continuity Lead
Full DR Test	Annually	[Insert Date]	[Insert Date]	Security Officer
Backup Restore Test	Monthly	[Insert Date]	[Insert Date]	IT Ops

1. Appendices

• Appendix A: Contact Sheet

• Appendix B: Asset Configuration Docs

• Appendix C: Backup Schedules & Locations

• Appendix D: DR Site Map & Network Diagrams

• Appendix E: Incident Response Plan Link