(ISC)2 Certified in Cybersecurity Practice Exam

A walk-through disaster recovery test is often referred to as a tabletop exercise because it involves key personnel discussing the recovery strategy and procedures in a simulated and controlled environment. During this type of exercise, participants gather around a table to walk through the steps they would take during a disaster scenario, evaluating their roles, identifying potential issues, and ensuring everyone understands the processes involved. This fosters a collaborative approach to disaster recovery planning and allows for the adjustment of procedures based on real-time feedback from all team members involved.

The other terms you might encounter differ in their applications or depth of testing. For example, a full interruption test would involve actually shutting down operations to confirm that the recovery solution works in practice. In contrast, a simulation would typically recreate an incident more dynamically, perhaps involving actual system operations or role-playing. A read-through might refer to simply reviewing the disaster recovery plan document without the interactive aspects of a tabletop exercise, lacking the critical dialogue and situational awareness fostered in a collaborative environment.