Which testing method must be conducted to validate the effectiveness of a business continuity plan?

The method that must be conducted to validate the effectiveness of a business continuity plan is failover testing. This testing simulates a disaster or a failure scenario to determine how well the business continuity plan functions under pressure. During failover testing, systems are intentionally brought down or simulated to fail to assess whether the backup systems and processes are able to take over seamlessly. It helps organizations understand the resilience of their infrastructure and the capability of their recovery strategies. Essentially, failover testing evaluates the entire response of the business continuity plan, ensuring that critical functions can continue in the event of an unexpected disruption.

In comparison, penetration testing focuses on identifying vulnerabilities in systems and infrastructure, while Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) and Static Application Security Testing (SAST) evaluate software applications for security flaws. These methods are essential for security assessment but do not specifically test the business continuity plan's effectiveness in maintaining operations during failures or disruptions. Therefore, failover testing is uniquely suited to validate business continuity plans.