A new international standard focusing on IT business continuity and disaster recovery has been launched.

According to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), ISO/IEC 24762:2008, Information technology - Security techniques - Guidelines for information and communications technology disaster recovery services, aims to offer guidance on the services necessary for disaster recovery as part of business continuity management.

The standard states that business continuity is an integral part of any risk management process and should involve identify potential threats, providing a framework for resilience and providing suitable facilities and process for disaster recovery.

Philip Sy, project editor of ISO/IEC 24762:2008, said: "This next generation standard takes into account today’s technological developments to minimize damage in a crisis situation from an information security and communication standpoint."

He added that disaster recovery and business continuity is increasingly important due to the threat of terrorism, natural disasters and piracy.

On Wednesday, a study by IDC and BT found that one in five firms in the UK lack a comprehensive business continuity plan.

A recent survey for Connect found that one in ten companies has lost important data as a result of a backup failure. The company has now developed a unique online backup service - http://www.totalrecall.co.uk – for SMEs to ensure they can survive any disaster.