Managing Risks Across Widespread Remote Infrastructure
The district's vast collection system includes over 200 unstaffed remote sites vulnerable to physical damage and cyber disruptions. Natural disasters or cyber-attacks could jeopardize data acquisition and process operations, requiring a structured approach to ensure rapid recovery and minimize service impacts.
Implementing a Site-Specific Disaster Recovery Roadmap
The solution focused on identifying failure risks at every site type within the district’s network. Our team developed a DRP that defines immediate actions for temporary staffing and identifies essential supplies to return sites to normal operation. By analyzing Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) interactions and existing programs, the project created a clear path from system status to prioritized action. This plan uses data to determine response time and recovery time objectives, bridging the gap between an incident and a stabilized system. The approach emphasizes provisioning securely stored spare parts, ready-to-run backup components, and software backups. This structured planning ensures that the most critical functions receive the highest level of response, reducing the effort required to recover from unanticipated cyber disruptions or physical disasters like floods or fires. The strategy enables the district to maintain data integrity during unforeseen events.
Reduced Recovery Time and Enhanced Resilience
Effective response planning has significantly reduced the potential downtime of critical assets. The district gained a clear logistics roadmap for recovery, ensuring staff can confidently maintain site operations and restore data integrity quickly after a disaster or cyber incident.
