KSI-RPL-TRC—Testing Recovery Capabilities
Formerly KSI-RPL-04
>Control Description
>NIST 800-53 Controls
>Trust Center Components4
Ways to express your implementation of this indicator — approaches vary by organization size, complexity, and data sensitivity.
From the field: Mature implementations express compliance currency through living dashboards — all certifications with expiration dates and audit schedules verified via certificate registry APIs, SOC 2 bridge letters generated between annual reports, and compliance questionnaire responses maintained as continuously updated artifacts. Compliance becomes a continuously verifiable property.
Compliance Certifications Dashboard
Living dashboard expressing all certifications with dates, scope, and validity status — verified via certificate registries
Audit Report Summaries
Third-party audit report summaries — SOC 2 bridge letters, ISO surveillance audit results as evidence of ongoing compliance
Compliance Questionnaire Responses
Pre-filled responses to common compliance questionnaires — maintained as continuously updated artifacts
Compliance Calendar
Compliance calendar showing audit and certification renewal schedule
>Programmatic Queries
CLI Commands
aws backup list-restore-jobs --query "RestoreJobs[].{Id:RestoreJobId,Resource:ResourceType,Status:Status,Created:CreationDate,Completed:CompletionDate}" --output table --max-results 10aws backup describe-restore-job --restore-job-id <job-id> --query "{Status:Status,Created:CreationDate,Completed:CompletionDate,RecoveryPoint:RecoveryPointArn}" --output json>20x Assessment Focus Areas
Aligned with FedRAMP 20x Phase Two assessment methodology
Completeness & Coverage:
- •Does recovery testing cover all critical failure scenarios — single-service failure, data corruption, availability zone loss, region loss, ransomware, and supply chain compromise?
- •Are all critical services and data stores included in recovery tests, or are some components tested only through tabletop exercises without actual recovery?
- •How do you ensure recovery testing validates the full recovery chain — from backup restoration through service startup through data integrity validation?
- •Are recovery tests conducted with realistic conditions (production-scale data, real dependencies, actual failover mechanisms) rather than simplified scenarios?
Automation & Validation:
- •What automated recovery testing runs on a regular schedule (automated failover drills, backup restore tests, chaos engineering experiments)?
- •How do you measure actual recovery times and compare them against defined RTOs during tests?
- •What happens when a recovery test fails to meet RTO/RPO — what remediation process triggers, and what is the deadline to retest?
- •How do you validate data integrity after recovery — confirming recovered data is complete, consistent, and not corrupted?
Inventory & Integration:
- •What tools and platforms support recovery testing (DR orchestration, chaos engineering tools, backup management consoles)?
- •How do recovery test results integrate with your recovery plan documentation to trigger plan updates when tests reveal gaps?
- •Are recovery test scenarios defined and version-controlled alongside recovery plans?
- •How do recovery test findings feed into your risk register and remediation tracking system?
Continuous Evidence & Schedules:
- •How frequently are recovery tests conducted for each critical service, and what evidence demonstrates the schedule has been followed?
- •Is recovery test data (test dates, scenarios tested, achieved RTO/RPO, issues found) available in structured format via API?
- •What evidence shows that recovery test findings have driven improvements to recovery plans and capabilities?
- •How do you demonstrate that recovery capabilities are persistently tested rather than only validated at assessment time?
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