Our Disaster Recovery Audit Work Program is designed to strengthen resilience against business disruptions by providing a structured approach to evaluating disaster recovery readiness. This audit tool equips internal auditors, risk managers and IT leaders with the guidance needed to identify vulnerabilities, assess control effectiveness, and ensure compliance with industry best practices and regulatory requirements. By systematically addressing both financial and operational risks, this program supports business continuity and also enhances organizational confidence in the ability to respond to and recover from unexpected events.

This tool includes four samples focusing on critical aspects of disaster recovery planning. Sample 1 guides users through conducting and evaluating business impact analyses and the adequacy of recovery plan documentation. Sample 2 centers on risk assessment, helping organizations pinpoint and prioritize threats ranging from environmental and man-made incidents to IT-specific risks. Sample 3 emphasizes process management, including the establishment of disaster recovery roles, policies and budget oversight. Sample 4 examines the existence and effectiveness of the current disaster recovery plan, network infrastructure resilience, and the thoroughness of testing and post-incident analysis. Together, these samples provide a practical framework for assessing and enhancing every stage of disaster recovery preparedness.

Audit steps include:

• Identify any disaster recovery plans for high-priority or critical business impact analyses that use hot sites, cold sites, work area recoveries, hot spares, etc.
• Collect surveys and average rankings into a master template.
• Verify that EOC requirements have been identified.
• Define a formal, recurring risk assessment process to identify the source, likelihood and vulnerability of specific threats that may affect IT operations and infrastructure.