Problem Statement and Goal

Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP) 1 and Business Resumption Services (BRS) 2 are both time consuming and costly processes. These, as well as the feeling that “we have never had a problem, ” have made companies hesitate in implementing plans to resume business activities to prepare for a catastrophic event. However, several factors have caused companies to change their attitude towards their need for DRP and BRS. Disasters such as earthquakes, tornadoes and hurricanes have awakened management to the realization that it could happen to them (Cerullo & McDuffie, 1994; Hiles, 1992; Garcia-Molina & Polyzois, 1990). The increasing dependence of organizations on data processing to perform the basic functions of corporate America, the fear of lawsuits by shareholders for their failure to prepare, recent accounting regulations that address an entity’s ability to survive as an “ongoing ” entity (AICPA, 1988) in event of a disaster have caused management to address the need to develop DRP and BRS, and federal regulations that call for the existence or development of DRP and BRS plans (Garcia