ITS Contingency Planning Policy

Policy Statement

To ensure that University business can continue in the event of a disaster, disaster recovery plans for all University information systems will be developed and tested on a regular basis.

Entities Affected By This Policy

All areas of Information Technology Services responsible for the administration and/or maintenance of a University information resource.

Contacts

EIU Information Security 217-581-1939

Principle

Contingency Plan

All areas of ITS that are responsible for the administration and/or maintenance of information resources must develop a contingency plan for those resource
ITS information resource contingency plans must contain:

A list of individuals responsible for system recovery
Contact information for these individuals
A list of responsibilities for these individuals
A list of hardware required for recovery
A list of software required for recovery
A list of system and/or data backups for recovery
A list of any secondary or redundant systems for recovery
A detailed explanation for the steps required for recovery

The manager overseeing the area(s) responsible for the administration and/or maintenance of the information resource is responsible for reviewing contingency plans, approving all contingency plans and distributing copies of the plans to the ITS Disaster Recovery coordinator
All contingency plans will be collected by the ITS Disaster Recovery Coordinator and stored in the departments ITS Disaster Recovery Plan
The ITS Disaster Recovery Plan must include:
- A list of emergency service contact information
- A list of the various ITS Disaster Recovery Teams, including:
- The stated goal of the ITS Disaster Recovery Plan
- Procedures for initiating all or any part of the ITS Disaster Recovery Plan
- Procedures for documenting disaster recovery procedures
- Procedures outlining disaster recovery test response testing
- All information resource specific disaster recovery plans
- All disaster recovery plan test and the outcomes
- All actual disaster recovery responses and the outcomes

Contingency Training

All areas of ITS must train individuals tasked with information resource recovery to ensure these individuals are aware of their roles and responsibilities outlined in information resource contingency plans
All contingency training exercises must include simulated events to facilitate effective response and uncover unknown issues prior to a crisis situation

Contingency Plan Testing and Exercises

ITS will conduct annual contingency plan tests and/or exercises of some set of information resources, as determined by the ITS Disaster Recovery Management Team, at least annually
Contingency plan tests and/or exercises must be conducted after major information resource changes and/or changes to the recovery procedures
All contingency plan tests and/or exercises must be constructed to simulate the failure of the primary information resource and/or a failure of the main operations area housing University information resources
Contingency plan tests and/or exercises must follow established recovery procedures for all information resources involved in the test/exercise, including the use of secondary and/or redundant resources and/or locations
The ITS Disaster Recovery Management Team will review the results of all contingency plan tests and/or exercises and will initiate any corrective actions necessary

Contingency Plan Update

The ITS Disaster Recovery Management Team will review the department contingency plan at least annually and institute any changes that need to be made
Immediately following each contingency plan test and/or exercise, the ITS Disaster Recovery Management Team, as well as the team responsible for the specific information resource(s) tested, will review the outcome of the test/exercise and determine which corrective actions to take, if necessary

Alternate Data Center

The ITS Disaster Recovery Management Team will continue to assess the viability of establishing a secondary data center to house secondary and/or redundant systems for recovery use during crisis situations

Supporting Policies, Procedures and Guidelines

TBD

Last Date Reviewed: 06/13/2024

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