How is Cyber Recovery Different from Disaster Recovery and Backup & Recovery?

In an era where cyber threats are constantly evolving, understanding the differences between cyber recovery, disaster recovery (DR), and backup & recovery is critical to ensuring an organization’s resilience and security. These concepts share common goals, but they focus on distinct aspects of protection and recovery, each with its own approach and methodology.

What Is Cyber Recovery?

Cyber recovery refers to the strategies, tools, and processes used to restore data, systems, and operations after a cyberattack. Unlike traditional DR, which typically focuses on recovering from natural disasters or system failures, cyber recovery is specifically designed to address the complexities of cyber incidents like ransomware attacks, data breaches, and malware attacks. Its focus is not only on recovering data but also on ensuring that systems are secure and uncompromised post-recovery.

A strong cyber recovery plan—sometimes referred to as a “cybersecurity disaster recovery plan”— includes advanced tools such as a “cyber vault,” which isolates critical data and applications from the primary system to protect them from cyber threats. Solutions like the Zerto Cyber Resilience Vault offer an added layer of protection, ensuring that even in the event of a severe breach, core assets remain untouched and recoverable.

Cyber Recovery vs. Disaster Recovery

While both cyber recovery and DR aim to restore operations after an event, the key difference lies in the nature of the events they target. DR primarily focuses on restoring systems after physical incidents such as floods, fires, or hardware failures. It ensures that an organization can quickly bring its infrastructure back online following an incident.

Cyber recovery is tailored to combat cyberattacks. It involves identifying compromised systems, isolating threats, and restoring data while ensuring the security of the restored environment. Cyber recovery also emphasizes threat mitigation during recovery, while DR focuses on system functionality. For example, a DR plan for cyber security may restore servers after a system failure, but a cyber recovery plan ensures that those servers are secure, free from malware, and protected against future attacks.

Cyber Recovery vs. Backup & Recovery

Backup & recovery is often confused with cyber and disaster recovery, but it serves a different purpose. Backup refers to storing copies of data that can be used in the event of data loss (typically due to user error, hardware failure, or corruption). While backups are a critical component of both cyber recovery and DR, they are reactive by nature.

Cyber recovery goes beyond simple backups by actively defending against cyber threats and recovering data with security in mind. Additionally, cyber recovery solutions, such as a cyber vault, store copies in isolated environments to prevent them from being compromised in a cyberattack. Traditional backups lack this defensive layer, making them vulnerable to sophisticated attacks.

Protecting your data on a cyber vault solution can provide immutability to a backup copy, introducing a critical layer of defense in cyber recovery. With immutable backups, data cannot be altered or deleted during a specified retention period, ensuring that even if an attacker gains access to the system, the backup remains untouched and recoverable. This adds significant protection against ransomware, as the immutable backup can be used to restore systems without the risk of corrupted or compromised data, further strengthening an organization’s resilience against sophisticated cyberattacks.

Disaster Recovery vs. Backup

Disaster recovery encompasses a broader approach than backup alone. While backup provides data copies, DR focuses on restoring not only data, but entire systems, networks, and applications after an incident. DR solutions integrate system restoration, failover procedures, and network rebuilding, making them crucial for organizations that require business continuity after major disruptions.

Although backup is an important element of disaster recovery—itself a part of a business continuity strategy— it is only one part of the broader DR plan. DR ensures that data and systems are restored efficiently and consistently, allowing operations to resume without delay.

How Long Does It Take to Recover from a Cyber Attack?

The time it takes to recover from a cyberattack depends on the severity of the attack, the preparedness of the organization, and the recovery tools in place. Organizations with a robust cyber recovery vault solution may restore operations in hours or days. However, full recovery and system security checks can take weeks, depending on the extent of the damage and the complexity of the recovery process.

Conclusion

In today’s threat landscape, distinguishing between cyber recovery, disaster recovery, and backup & recovery is essential for ensuring complete protection. While cyber recovery focuses on recovering from malicious attacks, DR is geared toward physical disruptions and backup & recovery ensures data preservation. Implementing a comprehensive plan that integrates all three approaches will safeguard your business against a wide range of potential threats.

For further insights on building a resilient recovery strategy, explore Zerto’s resource center for DR and for cyber resilience. Interested in using a cyber vault solution, check out the Zerto Cyber Resilience Vault.

Cyber Recovery Frequently Asked Questions

How Does Cyber Recovery Work?

Cyber recovery works by isolating, identifying, and recovering compromised data and systems after a cyberattack. By deploying pre-packaged data vaulting solutions like the Zerto Cyber Resilience Vault, organizations can protect their most critical assets in an isolated environment, ensuring that recovery is possible even if the main system is compromised. It involves scanning systems for vulnerabilities, restoring data from secure backups, and validating that the restored environment is secure.

What Is the Difference Between Disaster Recovery and Cyber Recovery?

DR focuses on restoring operations after physical or environmental events, while cyber recovery specifically targets the recovery of systems and data compromised in cyberattacks. While both aim to restore functionality, cyber recovery ensures that the restored systems are not just operational but also secure from future threats.

How Much Does It Cost to Recover from a Cyber Attack?

The cost of recovering from a cyberattack varies depending on the extent of the damage, the tools and technologies used, and the speed of recovery. Factors include downtime, lost revenue, legal penalties, and the expenses of restoring systems. Organizations with a strong cyber recovery strategy can significantly reduce these costs by minimizing downtime and ensuring a secure recovery process.

Anthony Dutra