Disaster Recovery Audit

Identify gaps in your disaster recovery plan before a crisis exposes them. A systematic evaluation of your data protection and business continuity readiness.

The 3-Step Disaster Recovery Audit Process

  1. Identify all data and IT-related functions your business relies on, including credit card processing, file servers, customer portals, CRM systems, critical applications, and communications platforms.
  2. Classify the importance of each data asset and function to your business operations, revenue, and compliance obligations.
  3. Apply an appropriate backup and disaster recovery plan matched to the value and importance of each asset.

Impact Assessment Rating Scale

Use this framework to evaluate the impact to your business if you suffered a significant outage or complete loss of each system or data set:

0%Zero Impact 20%Annoying but Recoverable 40%Minor Damage with Loss 60%Disaster with Considerable Loss 80%Major Disaster with Significant Loss 100%Total Loss

When assessing costs, factor in loss of sales, client goodwill, costs for data re-entry or recovery, and legal costs associated with failure to deliver on contractual obligations or regulatory requirements.

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Let our team help you identify and close the gaps in your disaster recovery plan.

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Or call: 919-348-4912

What Is a DR Tabletop Exercise?

A disaster recovery tabletop exercise is a guided simulation where your leadership team and key stakeholders walk through realistic disaster scenarios without activating actual recovery systems. These exercises reveal gaps in your disaster recovery plan that are invisible in documentation alone, such as unclear roles and responsibilities, missing communication chains, outdated contact lists, and recovery procedures that depend on employees who have since left the organization.

PTG conducts tabletop exercises tailored to your industry and risk profile. Scenarios may include ransomware attacks that encrypt production servers, extended power outages at primary data centers, insider threat events involving data exfiltration, natural disasters affecting physical infrastructure, and supply chain compromises that disable critical vendor services. Each scenario is designed to test your Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO) targets against real-world conditions.

After the exercise, PTG delivers a detailed findings report with prioritized remediation recommendations, a gap analysis comparing your current capabilities to industry frameworks such as NIST SP 800-34 and ISO 22301, and a revised disaster recovery plan that addresses every identified weakness. Many compliance frameworks including HIPAA, CMMC 2.0, and SOC 2 Type II require documented DR testing, and our tabletop exercises satisfy those requirements.

What the Disaster Recovery Audit Covers

Our disaster recovery audit is a comprehensive evaluation of your organization's ability to resume operations after a disruptive event. The audit examines every layer of your technology infrastructure and business processes to identify single points of failure, inadequate backup coverage, and recovery procedures that would not meet your business requirements under real conditions.

  • Backup verification — Are your backups actually restorable? We test random restores to confirm data integrity and measure actual recovery times against your stated RTOs.
  • Network and infrastructure mapping — Complete inventory of servers, switches, firewalls, cloud services, and SaaS applications with dependency mapping to identify cascading failure risks.
  • Communication plans — Review of emergency notification systems, escalation procedures, and out-of-band communication methods when primary channels are unavailable.
  • Vendor and third-party dependencies — Assessment of SLAs, failover capabilities, and contractual obligations with cloud providers, ISPs, and critical software vendors.
  • Regulatory compliance alignment — Verification that your DR plan meets the requirements of applicable frameworks including HIPAA, CMMC, SOC 2, PCI DSS, and FTC Safeguards Rule.
  • Documentation review — Evaluation of runbook accuracy, last-updated dates, staff training records, and evidence of prior testing.

The final deliverable is an executive summary with a risk-prioritized remediation roadmap, estimated costs for each improvement, and a recommended testing schedule to maintain readiness over time.

Related Services

Data Backup & Disaster Recovery → Data Breach Forensics → Incident Response → Cybersecurity Services → Digital Forensics → Cybersecurity Risk Assessment → Cloud Backup Solutions → Security & Compliance →

Why Choose Petronella Technology Group

Petronella Technology Group has been a trusted IT and cybersecurity partner for businesses across Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary, Apex, and the Research Triangle since 2002. Led by CEO Craig Petronella, an NC Licensed Digital Forensics Examiner (License# 604180-DFE), CMMC Certified Registered Practitioner, Cybersecurity Expert Witness, Hyperledger Certified, and MIT-certified professional in cybersecurity, AI, blockchain, and compliance, PTG brings deep expertise to every engagement.

With BBB accreditation since 2003 and more than 2,500 businesses served, PTG has the experience and track record to deliver results. Craig Petronella is an Amazon number-one best-selling author of books including "How HIPAA Can Crush Your Medical Practice," "How Hackers Can Crush Your Law Firm," and "The Ultimate Guide To CMMC." He has been featured on ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and WRAL, and serves as an expert witness for law firms in cybercrime and compliance cases.

PTG holds certifications including CCNA, MCNS, Microsoft Cloud Essentials, and specializes in CMMC 2.0, NIST 800-171/172/173, HIPAA, FTC Safeguards, SOC 2 Type II, PCI DSS, GDPR, CCPA, and ISO 27001 compliance. Our forensic specialties include endpoint and networking cybercrime investigation, data breach forensics, ransomware analysis, data exfiltration investigation, cryptocurrency and blockchain analysis, and SIM swap fraud investigation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a disaster recovery audit?
A disaster recovery audit is a systematic evaluation of your organization's ability to recover critical IT systems, data, and business operations after a disruptive event such as a ransomware attack, hardware failure, natural disaster, or extended power outage. The audit examines your backup systems, recovery procedures, communication plans, and vendor dependencies to identify gaps that could prevent timely recovery. PTG conducts disaster recovery audits for businesses across Raleigh, Durham, and the Research Triangle, delivering a prioritized remediation roadmap aligned with frameworks such as NIST SP 800-34 and ISO 22301.
How often should we test our disaster recovery plan?
Industry best practices and most compliance frameworks recommend testing your disaster recovery plan at least once per year. Organizations in regulated industries such as healthcare (HIPAA), government contracting (CMMC), and financial services (PCI DSS, SOC 2) may need to test quarterly or after any significant infrastructure change. Testing should include both tabletop exercises, where stakeholders walk through scenarios in a conference room setting, and partial or full recovery tests that actually restore systems from backups. PTG helps businesses establish a testing cadence that satisfies compliance requirements while validating that recovery procedures actually work under realistic conditions.
What is the difference between RTO and RPO?
Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is the maximum acceptable amount of time your business can be without a particular system or service before the impact becomes unacceptable. Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is the maximum acceptable amount of data loss measured in time, meaning how far back your most recent usable backup goes. For example, an RTO of four hours means you need the system running again within four hours, while an RPO of one hour means you cannot lose more than one hour of data. During a disaster recovery audit, PTG helps you define realistic RTO and RPO targets for each critical system and then evaluates whether your current backup and recovery infrastructure can actually meet those targets.
What is a tabletop exercise for disaster recovery?
A tabletop exercise is a guided discussion-based simulation where your leadership team, IT staff, and key stakeholders walk through a realistic disaster scenario step by step without actually activating recovery systems. A facilitator presents the scenario, such as a ransomware attack encrypting all production servers, and participants describe what actions they would take, who they would contact, and what resources they would need. The exercise reveals gaps in your plan that are invisible on paper, such as unclear responsibilities, missing contact information, outdated procedures, and assumptions about systems that no longer exist. PTG facilitates tabletop exercises tailored to your industry and risk profile, with a detailed findings report and remediation recommendations delivered afterward.
Does our business need a disaster recovery plan if we use cloud services?
Yes, absolutely. Cloud services reduce certain risks but introduce others. Cloud providers are responsible for the availability of their infrastructure, but you are responsible for your data, configurations, access controls, and the ability to operate if the cloud service experiences an extended outage. Major cloud outages at AWS, Microsoft 365, and Google Workspace have demonstrated that even the largest providers experience multi-hour disruptions. A disaster recovery plan for cloud-dependent businesses should address data export and portability, alternative communication methods, local copies of critical data, and procedures for operating without cloud access. PTG evaluates your cloud dependencies during the audit and ensures your DR plan accounts for cloud-specific failure scenarios.

How PTG Managed IT Services Work

PTG managed IT services provide businesses with a complete technology management solution that replaces or supplements in-house IT staff. Our approach begins with a thorough technology assessment and documentation of your entire IT environment, including hardware, software, network infrastructure, cloud services, and security controls. This creates a comprehensive baseline that enables proactive management and rapid troubleshooting when issues arise. We document everything so that your technology environment is never dependent on a single person's knowledge.

Our proactive monitoring systems watch your servers, workstations, network equipment, and cloud services around the clock, identifying and resolving potential problems before they impact your business. Automated alerts notify our team of hardware failures, software errors, security events, backup failures, and performance degradation. Many issues are detected and resolved automatically through our management platform, while others are escalated to our technicians for manual intervention. This proactive approach typically prevents more than eighty percent of the IT problems that plague businesses relying on reactive support models.

When your employees need help, our help desk provides responsive support through multiple channels including phone, email, chat, and remote desktop assistance. Our technicians are experienced professionals who resolve most issues on the first contact, minimizing downtime and keeping your team productive. For issues that cannot be resolved remotely, we dispatch on-site technicians throughout the Research Triangle area. Our ticketing system tracks every request from submission to resolution, providing full transparency into support activities and response times.

Beyond day-to-day support, PTG provides strategic technology guidance through our virtual CIO and virtual CISO services. Our technology advisors work with your leadership team to develop IT roadmaps, evaluate technology investments, plan for growth, and align technology strategy with business objectives. Regular technology reviews ensure that your infrastructure remains current, secure, and capable of supporting your business as it evolves. This strategic partnership ensures that technology serves as a competitive advantage rather than a source of frustration and unexpected costs.

Our Approach to Cybersecurity

At Petronella Technology Group, cybersecurity is not just about installing antivirus software or setting up a firewall. We take a comprehensive, layered approach to security that addresses people, processes, and technology. Our methodology is built on industry-standard frameworks including NIST Cybersecurity Framework, CIS Controls, and MITRE ATT&CK, ensuring that your security program is aligned with the same standards used by Fortune 500 companies and government agencies. Every engagement begins with a thorough assessment of your current security posture, followed by a prioritized remediation roadmap that addresses your most critical risks first.

Our security operations team provides continuous monitoring through our Security Information and Event Management platform, which correlates events across your entire environment to detect threats in real time. When a potential threat is identified, our analysts investigate and respond immediately, often containing threats before they can cause damage. This proactive approach dramatically reduces the risk of successful cyberattacks and provides the rapid response capability that is essential in today's threat landscape.

We believe that employee awareness is one of the most important layers of defense. Human error remains the leading cause of data breaches, and no amount of technology can fully compensate for untrained employees. PTG provides comprehensive security awareness training programs that educate your team about phishing, social engineering, password security, data handling, and incident reporting. Our training programs include simulated phishing campaigns that test employee readiness and identify areas where additional education is needed, helping organizations build a strong security culture from the ground up.

Beyond prevention, PTG prepares organizations for the reality that breaches can occur despite the best defenses. Our incident response planning services help businesses develop, document, and test response procedures so that when an incident does occur, your team knows exactly what to do. From tabletop exercises to full incident simulations, we ensure that your organization is prepared to respond quickly and effectively, minimizing damage, preserving evidence, and meeting all regulatory notification requirements within required timeframes.

Additional Questions and Answers

What are the most common cybersecurity threats facing businesses today?
The most common cybersecurity threats include ransomware attacks, phishing and social engineering, business email compromise, insider threats, and supply chain attacks. Ransomware alone costs businesses billions of dollars annually, with the average ransom demand exceeding two hundred thousand dollars. Phishing remains the primary attack vector, responsible for over ninety percent of successful breaches. PTG helps businesses in Raleigh, Durham, and the Research Triangle defend against all of these threats through layered security controls, employee training, and continuous monitoring provided by our managed security operations center.
How often should a business conduct cybersecurity assessments?
Best practices recommend conducting comprehensive cybersecurity assessments at least annually, with vulnerability scans performed quarterly or monthly. Businesses in regulated industries such as healthcare, finance, and government contracting may need more frequent assessments to maintain compliance with frameworks like HIPAA, PCI DSS, CMMC, and SOC 2. PTG provides ongoing security assessment services that help organizations identify and remediate vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by threat actors, using industry-standard tools and methodologies aligned with NIST Cybersecurity Framework guidelines.
What is the difference between a vulnerability assessment and penetration testing?
A vulnerability assessment systematically scans your network, systems, and applications to identify known security weaknesses and misconfigurations. A penetration test goes further by actively attempting to exploit those vulnerabilities to determine the real-world impact of a breach. Both are essential components of a mature cybersecurity program. PTG offers both services, providing detailed reports with prioritized remediation recommendations tailored to your specific environment and risk profile. Our penetration testing team uses the same techniques as real-world attackers to give you an accurate picture of your security posture.
How can small businesses afford enterprise-grade cybersecurity?
Small and mid-sized businesses can achieve enterprise-grade security through managed security service providers like PTG. Rather than hiring a full in-house security team costing hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, businesses can leverage PTG's expertise, tools, and twenty-four-seven monitoring at a fraction of the cost. Our managed security packages are designed specifically for SMBs in the Research Triangle, providing comprehensive protection including endpoint detection and response, SIEM monitoring, email security, and compliance management at predictable monthly costs that fit small business budgets.
What should a business do immediately after discovering a data breach?
Upon discovering a data breach, businesses should immediately activate their incident response plan, isolate affected systems to prevent further data loss, preserve all evidence for forensic analysis, notify legal counsel, and begin documenting the timeline of events. Depending on the type of data compromised, regulatory notification requirements under HIPAA, state breach notification laws, or other frameworks may apply with strict deadlines. PTG provides incident response services and digital forensics to help businesses contain breaches, investigate root causes, fulfill all notification obligations, and implement measures to prevent future incidents.

Ready to Get Started?

Contact Petronella Technology Group today for a free consultation. Serving Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, and the Research Triangle since 2002.

919-348-4912 Schedule a Free Consultation

5540 Centerview Dr., Suite 200, Raleigh, NC 27606