Disaster recovery planning can best be defined as an organization’s procedures for continuing operations in the event of the destruction of program and data files, as well as processing capability. In the case of any disaster or incident that causes a stop in the continuing work, businesses must be prepared with a business continuity plan, or a way to resume the activities required to keep your organization running during a period of displacement or interruption of normal operation. Due to the amount of money being dealt with and the high demand of services from banking institutions during times of a community disaster, banks must find a way to continue business. A proactive approach is critical to banks and planning is crucial to disaster recovery to avoid potential problems before they ever occur.
Banks were among the earliest adopters of information technology in the business world. They embraced the benefits of computers almost from the birth of the high-tech industry. However, being so highly dependent on technology can cause banks to suffer at a time of disaster and is the reason why they should be well prepared for it so they can minimize the damage. If a bank were without a disaster recovery and business continuity plan and disaster occurred, they would be in huge trouble as IT is an integral part of their operations. Not only would the bank suffer but the economy would as well. The cost and effort it takes to put a disaster recovery plan in place and maintain it is well worth it considering how catastrophic it would be if a bank could not operate. There are several steps and matters that must be looked into in the disaster recovery planning process. The steps in a disaster recovery plan are assessing the risks, identifying mission-critical applications and data, developing a plan for handling the mission-critical applications, determining the responsibilities of the personnel involved, and testing the