Understanding Incident Response vs. Disaster Recovery

In the first 30 minutes of a ransomware detonation, two simple questions could decide the outcome: Can you stop the spread? And how fast can you get back up? And that is the line between an Incident Response Plan (IRP) and a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP). One contains a blast radius, one focuses on business restoration.

Although an IRP and a DRP both aim to protect business operations, they serve different purposes and address different scenarios. This deep-dive will clarify what each plan entails, highlight their key differences, and explain why you need both for comprehensive security and business continuity.

TL;DR

Incident Response Plans handle the heat of the moment—identifying, containing, and resolving security incidents before they spiral into full-scale crises.

Disaster Recovery Plans take over once the fire is out, restoring systems, data, and operations so the business can get back on its feet quickly.

Together, they form the backbone of operational resilience — bridging security, continuity, and compliance under frameworks like ISO 27001 and NIST.

What is an Incident Response Plan?

An Incident Response Plan (IRP) is a documented set of procedures for detecting, responding to, and recovering from cybersecurity incidents. Its primary goal is to enable a business to react swiftly to a security event such as a data breach, malware outbreak, or system intrusion in order to contain the threat and minimize damage. 

A good IRP ensures the right personnel know their roles and steps to take during an incident, reducing the incident’s impact on operations and finances. In essence, an IRP is about extinguishing the fire (the security incident) as quickly and efficiently as possible.

What is a Disaster Recovery Plan?

A Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) is a structured plan for restoring critical IT systems, data, and business processes after a major disruption or disaster. Where an IRP deals with the immediate incident, a DRP addresses the broader challenge of getting the business back to normal operations after the incident or any other catastrophe. 

This could include scenarios like prolonged system outages, data center failures, ransomware attacks that encrypt data, natural disasters, or power outages.

The objective of a DRP is to minimize downtime and data loss. In practice, this means defining acceptable Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs)—how quickly systems must be back—and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs)—how much data loss (in time) is acceptable—and then building strategies to meet those targets. 

Key differences between IRP and DRP

Incident Response Plans vs Disaster Recovery Plans can be distinguished by their focus and scope, the triggers that activate them, and their end goals. 

Aspect	Incident Response Plan (IRP)	Data Recovery Plan (DRP)
Focus	Rapid containment of cyber incidents.	Restoring systems and operations post-disruption.
Scope of events	Specific security incidents (e.g. malware, data breach, phishing).	Wide-scale disasters or outages affect critical systems.
Primary objective	Contain and eliminate threats; resume essential services quickly.	Restore full operations and data; ensure business continuity.
Activation trigger	Detection of a security incident or breach prompts IR procedures immediately	Major operational disruption or disaster that exceeds normal incident handling.
Responsible team	Incident Response Team – typically InfoSec and IT security personnel specialized in cyber incident handling.	Disaster Recovery Team – typically IT operations, infrastructure, and business continuity personnel.
Outcome	Threat neutralized, systems secured, lessons documented.	Business operations restored to normal (or to an acceptable interim state).

Why are both (IRP and IDP) critical for security and compliance?

Both an incident response plan and a disaster recovery plan are indispensable components of an organization’s resilience strategy. They are complementary, not supplementary. 

 Here’s why having both is critical:

Different threats, different responses

An IRP and DRP address different kinds of “bad days.” The IRP shines when you’re facing a security breach or cyberattack, ensuring you can quickly stop attackers and protect data. The DRP is your lifesaver when facing major outages or disasters (which might not be caused by hackers at all, think power failures or storms) to get your operations running again. 

Without an IRP, you might not be able to contain a breach before it spreads. Without a DRP, a serious incident could leave your business unable to operate for days or weeks.

Sequential and layered defense

In a worst-case scenario, both plans may be activated: first the incident response to handle the immediate crisis, and then disaster recovery to rebuild and restore. For example, during a ransomware attack, the IRP would guide you to isolate infected systems and eliminate the malware, while the DRP would help in restoring clean backups and getting servers running again. 

Business continuity and compliance 

Both IRP and DRP are often required (or at least expected) by industry standards and regulations. For instance, ISO 27001 information security certification expects organizations to have incident management and business continuity (including disaster recovery) processes in place. Regulations like healthcare’s HIPAA or financial sector rules also require contingency plans. Having both plans helps meet these compliance obligations.

Resilience to both cyber and non-cyber events 

An IRP alone won’t help if an earthquake knocks out your data center; a DRP alone won’t stop a data breach from exfiltrating sensitive info. True operational resilience comes from addressing both dimensions – the security incidents and the continuity of operations.

Aligning IRP and DRP under ISO 27001 and NIST standards

Industry standards and frameworks offer guidance on how incident response and disaster recovery should work together as part of a comprehensive security and continuity program. Two of the most influential standards are ISO 27001 (specifically Annex A.17) and NIST guidelines, which both emphasize the integration of IRP and DRP: 

ISO 27001 Annex A.17 (business continuity)

ISO 27001 is a leading standard for Information Security Management Systems (ISMS). Annex A.17 focuses on “Information Security Aspects of Business Continuity Management.” In practice, ISO 27001 expects that you have documented and tested procedures for incident response and disaster recovery as part of your Business Continuity Management System. 

The IRP would be one of the Annex A.16/A.17 controls (incident management), and the DRP falls under continuity of information systems. Annex A.17.1 specifically requires that an organization’s continuity plans incorporate information security. In other words, your BCP/DRP should include incident response measures to protect data, and vice versa, your incident response should dovetail into continuity plans. 

NIST standards (SP 800-61 & SP 800-34, Cybersecurity Framework)

The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology provides well-respected guidelines. NIST SP 800-61 is the Computer Security Incident Handling Guide, which outlines how to build an incident response capability. NIST SP 800-34 is the Contingency Planning Guide, which includes disaster recovery and business continuity planning for federal information systems.

The NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) reinforces this with its core functions: Respond (which covers incident response) and Recover (which covers disaster recovery and continuity) are distinct, yet adjacent, functions in the framework. 

To be NIST-aligned, an organization should have both capabilities. Integrating NIST 800-61 and 800-34 practices means your incident response procedures should trigger or transition to recovery actions when needed, and your recovery plan should account for scenarios that start with a security incident.

Both ISO 27001 and NIST encourage organizations to develop incident response and disaster recovery plans that work in harmony. The IRP and DRP should not be isolated silos.

Common mistakes in incident response and disaster recovery planning

Despite best intentions, organizations often make mistakes when creating or executing their IRPs and DRPs. Here are some common pitfalls to avoid:

• Not having a documented plan (or having none at all): It may sound basic, but a surprising number of businesses have no formal incident response or disaster recovery plan in writing. 
• Treating IRP and DRP as siloed or independent plans: Some organizations craft an incident response plan and a disaster recovery plan but fail to coordinate them. For example, the IRP might assume a hand-off to operations after containment, but the DRP team isn’t looped in on cyber incident scenarios. 
• Failing to test and update plans regularly: Writing a plan is just the starting point. Un-tested plans can give a false sense of security. It’s a common error to “shelve” the IRP/DRP once written and not conduct drills or updates.
  • NIST and ISO standards both emphasize testing; in fact, auditors look for evidence of regular tests and plan maintenance 
• Unclear roles and responsibilities: Another frequent mistake is not defining who exactly will do what during an incident or recovery. If your plans don’t specify ownership, team members might hesitate or assume someone else is handling a task. 
• Overlooking communication and business continuity aspects: Some tech teams focus their IRP purely on technical steps (e.g., “disconnect the server, rebuild the machine”) and the DRP on IT recovery steps, but forget about communication and non-IT operations. For instance, if your ordering system is down, can sales staff take orders manually? If the office is inaccessible due to a disaster, can employees work remotely?
• Assuming a cyber incident won’t require disaster recovery (or vice versa): In planning, teams sometimes think “DRP is for hurricanes, IRP is for hackers” and don’t contemplate overlap. But as discussed, a severe cyberattack can trigger a full disaster recovery scenario (like rebuilding systems after widespread ransomware). 

By being aware of these common mistakes, you can audit your own incident response and disaster recovery preparations and shore up any weaknesses. The key is to have well-documented, well-practiced, and cohesive plans that involve the right people and processes – so when an incident or disaster strikes, your organization avoids costly delays or oversights.

Best practices for aligning Incident Response and Disaster Recovery Plans

To build a resilient organization, having an IRP and a DRP in isolation is not enough. They must be aligned and integrated. Here are some best practices to ensure your incident response and disaster recovery plans complement each other effectively:

Develop both plans in tandem 

If you are creating or overhauling these plans, approach them as two parts of a unified strategy. Assume a security incident might have caused the disaster, and add a step to confirm the threat is neutralized with the Incident Response Team before restoring backups to avoid re-infecting systems. Similarly, the IRP should have a step to assess if disaster recovery procedures need activation (e.g., “if systems are wiped or critical data is corrupted, invoke DRP for restoration”).

Ensure clear transition triggers

Define criteria for when an incident graduates to a “disaster” and thus invokes the DRP. This could be based on downtime duration, extent of impact, or who has the authority to declare a disaster. For example: “If an incident is expected to cause more than X hours of outage or requires full restoration of servers from backup, the Incident Commander will confer with the DR Coordinator to initiate disaster recovery.”

Unified communication plan

During a crisis, both the IR team and DR team (if they are separate) must coordinate on messaging. Best practice is to have a joint communication strategy – possibly one person or team responsible for external communications (press, customers) and internal status updates.

A unified communications plan (often part of BCP) should cover what to communicate, who approves messaging (legal/PR), and when/how to do so. Practicing this coordination is key – miscommunication can exacerbate an incident.

Align with Business Continuity Plan 

The BCP is the overarching plan ensuring the business can continue operating at some level during and after incidents. Make sure the IRP and DRP are part of the BCP framework and not standalone. The IRP primarily feeds into maintaining security and protecting assets during an incident, while the DRP feeds into the continuity of operations.

Map how each critical business function would be maintained: The DRP covers IT-specific functions, and the BCP covers other departments’ continuity procedures (manual workarounds, alternate suppliers, etc). 

Defined roles and ensure cross-team alignment

Identify specific liaisons or overlap roles between the incident response team and the disaster recovery team. In some organizations, these might be the same people wearing two hats (especially in smaller companies). In larger ones, you might designate an Incident Manager and a Disaster Recovery Coordinator who regularly communicate.

Bringing an IRP and DRP into harmony is as much about discipline as documentation. You can have clear triggers, defined roles, and even perfect handoffs on paper — but when an auditor asks for proof, or when the next outage hits, the gap between policy and practice often becomes painfully visible. 

That’s where technology becomes a force multiplier. The same rigor that drives your plans needs to carry over into how you capture evidence, monitor readiness, and orchestrate recovery.

Sprinto automates evidence collection and recovery workflows

When things go wrong, it’s not the plan but the follow-through that matters. Tools like Sprinto make sure that follow-through actually happens.

Sprinto helps organizations streamline both incident response preparations and disaster recovery readiness by automating many tedious or error-prone tasks. 

1. Gather evidence: Automatically collect proof from your systems — incident drills, backup logs, and test results — to stay audit-ready for ISO 27001 or SOC 2.
2. Track incidents: Log security events, track their status, and document resolutions in Sprinto’s built-in incident management system.
3. Integrate easily: Connect with Slack, Jira, AWS, Azure, or your ID and code repositories to streamline alerts and response.
4. Start fast: Use ready-made templates for incident response and disaster recovery plans aligned with ISO and NIST standards.
5. Automate recovery: When incidents escalate, trigger predefined recovery checklists — notify key teams, verify backups, and update status pages automatically. 

Streamline IRP and DRP planning with Sprinto. Speak to our experts.

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