In this ultimate how to implement guide to ISO 27001 Annex A 8.13 Information Backup, you will learn directly from an ISO 27001 Lead Auditor:
- The requirement of the control
- The required implementation steps
- The minimum requirement
I am Stuart Barker, the ISO 27001 Lead Auditor and author of the Ultimate ISO 27001 Toolkit.
Using over 30 years of industry experience across hundreds of audits, I’m giving you the exact templates, walkthroughs, and practical examples you need to achieve ISO 27001 certification.
Table of contents
- ISO 27001 Information Backup Implementation Checklist
- 1. Define RPO and RTO per Asset
- 2. Implement the 3-2-1 Backup Strategy
- 3. Enable Immutable (WORM) Storage
- 4. Encrypt Backups at Rest and in Transit
- 5. Backup SaaS and Cloud Applications
- 6. Verify Backup Integrity Automatically
- 7. Schedule and Document Full Restoration Tests
- 8. Secure the Backup Management Plane
- 9. Monitor Job Failures and Storage Capacity
- 10. Backup Configuration and Metadata
- ISO 27001 Annex A 8.13 SaaS / GRC Platform Implementation Failure Checklist
Implementing ISO 27001 Annex A 8.13 is a critical resilience control that mandates the regular creation and testing of information backups to ensure data recoverability. By defining Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) and Recovery Time Objectives (RTO), organizations protect against data loss, ransomware, and system failures, ensuring business continuity through proven restoration capabilities.
ISO 27001 Information Backup Implementation Checklist
Use this implementation checklist to achieve compliance with ISO 27001 Annex A 8.13. Compliance requires a proven, tested capacity to restore operations after a catastrophic failure, not just a screenshot of a “Job Successful” notification in a backup console.
1. Define RPO and RTO per Asset
Control Requirement: Backup policies must be defined based on business requirements.
Required Implementation Step: Consult asset owners to define the Recovery Point Objective (RPO – how much data can we lose?) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO – how long can we be down?) for every critical system. Hardcode these metrics into your backup software schedules (e.g., SQL logs every 15 minutes for low RPO).
Minimum Requirement: Differentiate between “Critical” (hourly backups) and “Archive” (weekly backups); a blanket policy is inefficient.
2. Implement the 3-2-1 Backup Strategy
Control Requirement: Ensure redundancy of data copies.
Required Implementation Step: Re-architect your backup storage to maintain three copies of data, on two different media types (e.g., Disk and Tape/Cloud), with one copy stored strictly offsite. Ensure the offsite copy is geographically separated to survive a physical site disaster.
Minimum Requirement: Storing backups on a partition of the same production server is a failure.
3. Enable Immutable (WORM) Storage
Control Requirement: Protect backup information against malware and ransomware.
Required Implementation Step: Configure “Object Lock” or Write-Once-Read-Many (WORM) settings on your backup repository (e.g., AWS S3 Object Lock or hardened Linux repositories). This prevents ransomware—and rogue administrators—from encrypting or deleting the backup chain.
Minimum Requirement: Backups must be read-only for a defined retention period.
