Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Checklist

Threats to your business operations come in many forms, including natural disasters that risk life and property such as the historic flooding from Hurricane Harvey in Texas, the risks from Hurricane Irma, or this summer's wildfires in California. Threats to business continuity also include intrusions on your company's network, such as the May 2017 WannaCry ransomware attack, and cyberattacks on your company’s webpage and web services, such as last October's extensive DDoS campaign.

While these threats are each quite different, they all disrupt the flow of communications between your employees and customers, and risk both access to and the loss of valuable corporate data.

Conducting a risk assessment and putting a business continuity plan in place now might mean the difference between hours out of operation and days out of operation. Such planning should also encompass disaster recovery — a company’s ability to save and restore its data.

This Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Checklist from Carlton Fields can help your company assess its readiness.

©2026 Carlton Fields, P.A. Carlton Fields practices law in California through Carlton Fields, LLP. Carlton Fields publications should not be construed as legal advice on any specific facts or circumstances. The contents are intended for general information and educational purposes only, and should not be relied on as if it were advice about a particular fact situation. The distribution of this publication is not intended to create, and receipt of it does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship with Carlton Fields. This publication may not be quoted or referred to in any other publication or proceeding without the prior written consent of the firm, to be given or withheld at our discretion. To request reprint permission for any of our publications, please use our Contact Us form via the link below. The views set forth herein are the personal views of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the firm. This site may contain hypertext links to information created and maintained by other entities. Carlton Fields does not control or guarantee the accuracy or completeness of this outside information, nor is the inclusion of a link to be intended as an endorsement of those outside sites.