What is the role of business continuity planning (BCP) in security operations and how does it relate to disaster recovery?

• A. BCP is primarily about IT system backups.
• B. DR focuses on business process continuity.
• C. BCP and DR are unrelated.
• D. BCP ensures critical business functions continue during disruptions; DR focuses on restoring IT systems. They are complementary.

Answer: (D)

The main idea is resilience: business continuity planning ensures essential business functions keep running during any disruption, covering people, processes, facilities, and information needed to maintain operations. Disaster recovery is the IT-focused side of that effort, aiming to restore IT systems, data, and infrastructure after a disruption so the business can support its processes again. They are complementary: BCP defines what must be recovered and in what order to keep the business functioning, while DR provides the technical means to bring IT capacity back online to meet those needs. In security operations, this means BCP guides how operations continue during incidents (including communications and coordination), and DR outlines the steps to restore critical IT services after the incident.