Okuzeka
Cybersecurity vocabulary · Incident Response

Disaster recovery

Meaning in cybersecurity, with examples

nounCommon term

In cybersecurity, disaster recovery means: The plans and processes for restoring IT systems and data after a serious disruption, such as a ransomware attack, a fire or a data-centre failure.

In Turkish: felaket kurtarma, afet kurtarma

How it is used

Often shortened to DR, as in 'DR site' or 'DR test'. Two key measures are RTO (how quickly a system must be back) and RPO (how much data loss is acceptable). It is part of the wider business continuity plan.

Example sentences

  1. We failed over to the disaster recovery site in under two hours.

  2. The annual disaster recovery test showed that the restore took longer than our RTO.

Common collocations

  • disaster recovery plan
  • DR site
  • DR test
  • RTO and RPO
  • business continuity
  • backupA copy of data or systems kept separately so that it can be restored if the original is lost, damaged or encrypted by an attacker.
  • ransomwareMalware that encrypts a victim's files or systems and demands a payment, usually in cryptocurrency, in exchange for the key to unlock them.
  • incidentAn event that threatens or harms the confidentiality, integrity or availability of systems or data, such as a malware infection or an unauthorised login.
  • containmentThe stage of incident response in which the team stops an attack from spreading or causing more damage, for example by isolating infected machines.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Incident Response

Practise with graded reading

Reading at the right level is the fastest way to make new words stick. Pick free English books by level: