Resilience by Design — Intelligence Applied

Your Organization Has Invested in Security.
The Harder Question Is Whether You Can Recover.

Most organizations are not prepared to restore critical services after a severe cyber outage — one where primary systems, backups, and conventional recovery tools fail simultaneously.

8 min

to complete the free Cyber Recovery Readiness Assessment

1–5

your recovery readiness score, across five dimensions

5

dimensions that determine whether you actually survive

0

registration required to take the self-assessment

Why Most Plans Fail When It Matters Most

Traditional Business Continuity Plans are built around applications and assets, not business outcomes. When a severe outage hits every system at once, application-centric plans have no answer for immediate survival.

The result: systems are restored in priority order while customers wait, regulators ask questions no one can answer, and boards discover that the plan they approved does not work for the attack that actually happened.

Most boards do not know their organization's true recovery exposure. Most CISOs are measured on security investment, not recovery readiness. The gap between perceived and actual resilience is where the greatest risk hides.

Outcome-Based Resilience, Validated Independently

We start with one question: what is the minimum your organization must deliver to remain viable? Dependency mapping, restoration protocols, tested recovery velocity, and Board-level accountability all follow from that answer.

AI-assisted tools make this faster and more accurate than ever — and keep your plan current as your environment changes.

Resilience by Design builds on the framework the U.S. financial sector chose for severe-outage recovery — Sheltered Harbor, now managed by FS-ISAC. Our founder created it.

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We Built Sheltered Harbor — Now We're Bringing That Expertise to You

In 2015, the U.S. financial sector realized that they didn't have a plan for how to maintain customer confidence if a financial institution was operationally knocked out by a cyber attack. The sector created Sheltered Harbor, committed over 300 subject matter experts to find a solution for the problem and three months later hired Carlos Recalde to define the approach and make it real. His team is now available as Resilience by Design and it's turbo charging the solution for critical sector organizations of all sizes.

Meet Carlos Recalde →

Founded by the creator of Sheltered Harbor — the framework selected by the U.S. financial sector to address severe-outage recovery readiness, now owned and managed by FS-ISAC. Our work is grounded in direct experience building the sector's primary recovery resilience mechanism, and in the recognition that AI makes genuine resilience achievable at a fraction of the previous cost and time.

Six Ways We Help Organizations Build Genuine Resilience

Cyber Recovery Readiness Assessment

A free, 10-question self-assessment that reveals where your organization stands across five dimensions of recovery readiness. Takes 8 minutes. No registration required.

Resilience Journey Assessment

A facilitated leadership workshop for your board and C-suite that validates your actual recovery readiness and produces a prioritized roadmap. Delivered by our founder.

Board & Executive Advisory

Strategic resilience advisory helping boards understand their exposure, mandate the right investments, and hold leadership accountable for genuine recovery readiness.

Dependency Management

AI tools that translate your minimum viable operation into a continuously maintained system for managing risk, dependencies, and recovery readiness as your environment evolves.

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Latest Thinking on Resilience & Risk

June 8, 2026 Leadership

Leadership is a Risky Business

Here's the risk no one puts in the register: your risk management function. Most enterprises today employ more people managing risk and compliance than they have people who actually understand and run the critical functions that create value.

Read the Article →
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Know Your Score Before Someone Else Finds It Out for You

The Cyber Recovery Readiness Assessment is free, takes 8 minutes, and requires no registration. It reveals where your organization stands — and where your floor is.

Take the Free Cyber Recovery Readiness Assessment →

Takes 8 minutes  ·  No registration  ·  Immediate results