Before sending backup drives to an offsite storage facility, the most important thing to do is to encrypt the drive with strong protection standards. This is because encryption ensures effective security where information cannot be intercepted and used to harm the organization or its customers. Encryption also protects the data from unauthorized access, modification, or deletion in case the drive is lost, stolen, or damaged during transit or storage. Encryption of backup drives is especially important for public safety organizations that handle sensitive or personally identifiable information, such as medical records, criminal records, or emergency communications12.

The primary factor to determine system criticality within an organization is the maximum allowable downtime (MAD). MAD is the maximum time frame during which recovery must become effective before an outage compromises the ability of an organization to achieve its business objectives and/or survival. MAD reflects the business impact of a system outage on the organization's operations, reputation, compliance, and finances. MAD can help to prioritize system recovery efforts, allocate resources, and establish recovery objectives.