Backup & Disaster Recovery for Financial Services Firms

We recommend quarterly testing at minimum. APRA CPS 230 expects regular testing to validate recovery capabilities. We recommend: quarterly tabletop exercises covering different disaster scenarios; semi-annual full recovery drills testing actual data restoration; annual comprehensive business continuity testing including multiple locations and recovery team coordination. Each test should update procedures, validate RTO/RPO achievement, and identify improvement areas.

RTO (Recovery Time Objective) is the target time to restore systems and resume operations after a disaster – typically 4-24 hours for financial services. RPO (Recovery Point Objective) is the acceptable data loss – how far back to the most recent backup we can restore from. For critical systems we recommend RTO under 8 hours and RPO under 1 hour. Both should be documented in your disaster recovery plan and validated through testing.

We implement multiple protections: immutable backups that cannot be deleted or encrypted by ransomware even with access to backup systems; offline copies stored separately from production systems; encryption of backups making them unreadable without encryption keys; air-gapped backup appliances isolating backups from networks; and access controls restricting who can modify backups. These layers ensure ransomware cannot destroy backup data even if it compromises production systems.

Your firm retains overall responsibility for business continuity and disaster recovery even when using cloud backup services. Providers handle technical infrastructure and backup execution. Your firm must: document recovery procedures and RTO/RPO targets; maintain contact lists and recovery team assignments; conduct regular testing; update procedures after changes; maintain off-site backup copies; and verify backup integrity. We help manage all of these responsibilities on your behalf.

Cost depends on data volume, backup frequency, retention requirements, and recovery objectives. Typical financial services practices spend $300-$2000+ monthly for comprehensive backup and disaster recovery. This includes: backup infrastructure, cloud storage, testing services, and compliance documentation. This is typically lower cost than recovering from actual data loss or ransomware attacks. We provide detailed cost modeling during audit phase with ROI analysis compared to potential loss scenarios.

Staff training is critical to recovery success. We provide: initial training on backup procedures and recovery expectations; tabletop exercise participation where teams walk through disaster scenarios; full recovery drill participation for hands-on experience with actual recovery procedures; documentation review and certification; and ongoing refresher training annually. We identify key recovery team members and ensure their understanding of critical procedures. Clear communication of what to do and when to do it during a disaster dramatically improves recovery outcomes.