Which statement is true regarding the relationship between downtime costs and the recovery time objective?

The statement that downtime costs increase with time is accurate because as an organization experiences downtime, the costs associated with that downtime—such as lost revenue, decreased productivity, and potential damage to the company's reputation—tend to grow over time. The longer systems are unavailable, the more significant the financial impact can become. This relationship underscores the importance of establishing an appropriate recovery time objective (RTO), which is the targeted duration of time to restore services after a disruption. Properly setting an RTO is critical in minimizing downtime costs and ensuring the organization can resume operations efficiently.

In the context of the other statements, the first suggests that downtime costs decrease as the recovery point objective increases, which misinterprets the relationship between recovery point objective and downtime costs. Recovery point objective refers to the maximum tolerable period in which data might be lost, not directly tied to downtime costs. The third statement about recovery costs being independent of time contradicts the principle that longer downtimes lead to accumulating costs. Lastly, the notion that recovery costs can only be controlled on a short-term basis overlooks the fact that organizations should also implement long-term strategies to manage and mitigate downtime costs effectively.