This policy ensures your organization can maintain critical business operations and recover essential IT services during and after disruptive events like ransomware attacks, system failures, or power outages.
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Define Clear Recovery Steps
Establish a formal Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and Disaster Recovery (DR) playbooks with clear roles, responsibilities, and communication plans.
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Ensure Timely Recovery
Set and test predefined Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) to get your critical systems back online fast.
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Test Your Readiness
Mandate annual BC/DR testing, including tabletop exercises and backup restoration drills, to ensure your plans work when you need them most.
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Maintain Compliance
Meet mandatory requirements under ISO 27001:2022, GDPR, NIS2, and DORA for operational resilience and data protection during a crisis.
Read Full Overview
The Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Policy tailored for SMEs is an essential tool for maintaining operational resilience in the face of unforeseen disruptions. This policy is meticulously designed to aid small and medium-sized enterprises, particularly those without dedicated IT teams, in sustaining business operations and ensuring seamless recovery of critical IT services. It addresses potential threats such as power outages, cyberattacks, ransomware infections, and system failures, providing a clear roadmap for business continuity and disaster recovery planning. At the core of this policy is a commitment to aligning with international standards and regulations, including ISO 27001:2022, GDPR, NIS2, and DORA. This ensures compliance with data protection laws and operational resilience mandates, crucial for maintaining customer trust and meeting legal obligations. The policy covers backup management, business continuity planning, disaster recovery operations, staff training and testing, and legal and regulatory response procedures. The policy delineates comprehensive roles and responsibilities. The General Manager owns the BC/DR process and oversees the approval and maintenance of the Business Continuity Plan (BCP). IT providers are tasked with maintaining backups and executing recovery procedures, while department heads ensure local continuity workarounds and participate in annual drills. A significant benefit of this policy is its focus on predefined Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs), which guarantee timely recovery of systems and data. This focus on precision and preparedness helps SMEs navigate crises with minimal confusion and disruption. For SMEs, this policy is not just about compliance; it's about instilling confidence and clarity in operational resilience strategies. By implementing such a robust framework, SMEs can turn potential vulnerabilities into strengths, ensuring that they remain agile and responsive in a rapidly evolving risk landscape. In sum, this policy empowers SMEs to face disruptions with a tested, practical, and regulatory-compliant strategy, transforming uncertainty into operational certainty.
What’s Inside
- Purpose, Scope, and Objectives
- Roles and Responsibilities (GM, IT Provider, Team Leads)
- Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Contents
- Disaster Recovery (DR) Playbooks
- Procedures for Ransomware, Cloud Outages & Site Loss
- Annual Testing Requirements
- Risk Treatment and Enforcement
Built for Leaders, By Leaders
This isn't just a document; it's a defensible business tool. Written by certified cybersecurity experts, this policy is designed to be practical for small and medium enterprises. It provides clear, actionable steps that you can implement without a large security team, giving you the confidence that your continuity plans are effective and compliant under audit.
Framework Compliance
🛡️ Supported Standards & Frameworks
This product is aligned with the following compliance frameworks, with detailed clause and control mappings.
| Framework | Covered Clauses / Controls |
|---|---|
| ISO/IEC 27001:2022 |
Clauses 6.1, 6.3, 8.1
|
| ISO/IEC 27002:2022 |
Controls 5.29, 5.30
|
| NIST SP 800-53 Rev.5 |
CP-2
CP-4
CP-6
CP-7
|
| EU GDPR |
Articles 32, 33
|
| EU NIS2 |
Article 21(2)(f)
|
| EU DORA |
Article 10
|
| COBIT 2019 |
DSS04
|
Part of a Complete ISMS Toolkit
This policy is one of 37 documents in our complete ISMS for SME Toolkit, designed for comprehensive compliance.
100%
ISO 27001:2022
95%
EU NIS2
90%
EU GDPR
85%
EU DORA
Related Policies
This policy is tightly integrated with the following SME policies to form a cohesive, audit-ready framework for resilience, accountability, and control continuity.
Incident Response Policy (P30S)
Directly precedes activation of the recovery process in the event of cyber or operational incidents.
Backup and Restore Policy (P15S)
Provides specific technical procedures for safeguarding data availability and recovery.
Risk Management Policy (P6S)
Forms the foundation for identifying, evaluating, and prioritizing continuity-related risks.
Access Control Policy (P4S)
Enables emergency revocation or restoration of user access during disruption scenarios.
Information Security Policy (P1S)
Defines the high-level security objectives that continuity practices must support.
Data Protection and Privacy Policy (P17S)
Ensures continuity planning respects personal data protections and complies with GDPR.
Information Security Awareness and Training Policy (P8S)
Ensures employees are prepared to act during disruptions and understand the BCP.
About This Policy
The Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BC/DR) Policy for SMEs provides a comprehensive framework to ensure your business can withstand and recover from significant disruptions. It establishes clear, practical procedures for responding to events like cyberattacks, hardware failures, and power outages, tailored for organizations without a dedicated IT department. The primary goal is to maintain critical operations and protect data, minimizing downtime and financial impact.
This policy covers all business-critical systems, employees, and IT providers. It mandates the creation of a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and Disaster Recovery (DR) playbooks, defines Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs), and requires annual testing of all continuity arrangements. By aligning with standards like ISO 27001:2022, GDPR, and DORA, this policy helps your SME build demonstrable operational resilience, meet regulatory requirements, and maintain customer trust.
