What is the purpose of the Recover function in the NIST CSF, and what are typical outcomes?

Recover maintains plans for resilience and restores capabilities or services impaired by cybersecurity incidents.

The goal is timely return to normal operations — reducing the business impact of an incident.

Example outcomes:

• Recovery Planning (RC.RP) — recovery procedures are implemented and executed (backups that have actually been tested for restore, alternative infrastructure)
• Improvements (RC.IM) — recovery plans are updated with lessons learned
• Communications (RC.CO) — coordinating restoration with internal teams and external parties (ISPs, vendors, victims), and managing public relations / reputation repair

Tip: Respond and Recover share two category names (Improvements, Communications) — distinguish by prefix: RS.* happens while fighting the fire, RC.* when rebuilding the house. Recovery is closely related to BCM (Business Continuity Management) and disaster recovery — in BSI terms, standard 100-4 / 200-4 territory.