Every organization today relies on its digital ecosystem. When it comes to business continuity and regulatory compliance, failing to meet data and privacy protection standards often leads to hefty fines, making it crucial to safeguard your data against cyber threats.

Prevention is always better than cure, but no one—and no system—is completely unhackable. Think of it like the human world: as soon as you interact with others, you’re exposed to potential viruses. The only way to nearly eliminate the risk is to live as a hermit, avoiding all contact. The same principle applies to data. The moment you share it, there’s a risk of viruses or hacking.

Even with the best security measures, hacks can still happen. That’s why it’s vital to be prepared by securely storing critical data and minimizing potential losses in the event of an attack. A strong cyber recovery strategy acts like a virtual moat around your business. In this article, we’ll show you how to create an effective crisis plan for your data using the right steps and tools for cyber recovery.

What is cyber recovery?

Cyber recovery refers to the processes and measures organizations use to restore and recover critical digital assets and information after a cyberattack or data breach. It includes strategies and technologies designed to bring systems, data, and operations back to normal after being compromised.

The main components of cyber recovery are:

Backups and data restoration: Ensures systems can quickly return to operation or revert to a previous state. Storing external backups across various secure environments helps distribute risk.

Incident response planning: A detailed playbook outlining steps and instructions for responding swiftly and effectively to cyber incidents, helping to minimize damage.

Redundancy and resilience: By duplicating data, you ensure availability even during failures or disasters, allowing operations to resume more quickly.

Why is cyber recovery important?

Cyber recovery is a critical part of any robust security strategy. Here’s why:

Rising cyber threats: Cyberattacks are growing in both frequency and sophistication. Cybercrime has evolved into a professionalized business model, with a range of threats like denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, ransomware, malware, and phishing becoming increasingly common.

Modern cybercriminals: Many hackers are full-time professionals capable of orchestrating multiple attacks simultaneously. Some even sell proven tools, enabling less experienced individuals to launch effective attacks.

Financial impact: Cyber incidents are costly. They can halt production, delay processes, and lead to hefty fines. In the Netherlands, the average cost of a cyberattack is estimated at €270,000. As a data owner, you’re responsible for protecting the data you collect. Failure to do so can result in negligence charges.

Protecting your reputation

No business wants to be labeled as “the company that failed to secure its data.” A solid cyber recovery strategy reduces the chance of exposed data, helping maintain trust and a strong reputation.

Meeting regulatory requirements

Data and privacy laws, such as GDPR, are stricter than ever. Compliance with these regulations is easier with a robust cyber recovery plan. Non-compliance can lead to significant fines—up to €20 million or 4% of annual turnover—alongside reputational damage.

Ensuring operational continuity

An effective cyber recovery system minimizes downtime by enabling faster restoration of data and processes. This also helps mitigate income losses caused by prolonged outages.

Protecting intellectual property

Your intellectual property—creations, ideas, and methods—are foundational to your business success. A strong recovery plan safeguards these critical assets during cyber incidents.

Steps to develop an effective crisis plan

An effective crisis plan lays the groundwork for successful cyber recovery. Here’s how to create one:

Conduct a risk analysis and vulnerability assessment

Examine your IT landscape for weaknesses, identifying areas that need extra protection.

Define goals and security levels

Establish recovery objectives, such as acceptable downtime (Recovery Time Objective or RTO) and data loss (Recovery Point Objective or RPO). Prioritize protecting the most sensitive and critical data.

Create a response and recovery team

Build a team with expertise in cybersecurity, business processes, and backup/recovery solutions. Include external specialists if necessary.

Determine backup strategies and frequency

Decide where to store backups and how often to update them. The 3-2-1 strategy is effective: three copies of your data on different media, with one stored offsite.

Define recovery procedures

Document clear steps for data and system recovery, ensuring all employees understand their roles during a cyber incident.

Implement preventive measures

Engage the entire organization to prevent disruptions. Plan carefully to integrate security measures without affecting regular operations.

Create a communication plan

Ensure everyone knows how to report cyber incidents and activate recovery protocols promptly.

Focus on training and adoption

Equip employees with the knowledge to handle cyber threats effectively. Regular training minimizes human error, often the weakest link in cybersecurity.

Collaborate with external experts

Partner with specialists in cybersecurity and recovery to build a comprehensive support network.

Document and evaluate

Maintain detailed records of your recovery strategies and continuously refine them through testing and simulations.

Cyber Recovery in Action: The Cyber Recovery Vault

Cyber recovery goes beyond traditional disaster recovery by rebuilding hacked systems from the ground up. One example is Digital Realty’s Cyber Recovery Vault, which emphasizes both digital and physical data protection.

Here’s how it works: critical data is identified and moved to a staging area (a secure cleanroom for recovery). From there, it passes through an air gap—an isolated environment—to a secure digital vault. Specialists in a dedicated "war room" review and recover data, rebuilding systems in clean environments before restoring them to your infrastructure.

How Digital Realty can help

Building a strong digital vault and war room requires expertise and specialized hardware. Digital Realty offers the knowledge and infrastructure to simplify this process. Shared facilities can also provide financial benefits while maintaining robust security.

“With us, you can rely on a powerful and extensive partner ecosystem. We handle the IT and infrastructure, so you can focus on protecting your data,” says Erwin uit de Bos, solution architect at Digital Realty.

Want to learn more?

Cyber recovery is a vital part of your digital defense strategy. Digital Realty is here to help you integrate this into your security policies. To learn more about our Cyber Recovery Vault and other services, call +31 (0)20 880 77 00 or email salesnl@digitalrealty.com.

Cyber ​​recovery: a crisis plan for your data

Cyber recovery: a crisis plan for your data