In this guide, I will show you exactly how to implement ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 and ensure you pass your audit. You will get a complete walkthrough of the control, practical implementation examples, and access to the ISO 27001 templates and toolkit that make compliance easy.
I am Stuart Barker, an ISO 27001 Lead Auditor with over 30 years of experience conducting hundreds of audits. I will cut through the jargon to show you exactly what changed in the 2022 update and provide you with plain-English advice to get you certified.
Key Takeaways: ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 Incident Management Planning and Preparation
ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 requires organizations to plan and prepare for managing information security incidents by defining, establishing, and communicating incident management processes, roles, and responsibilities. As the saying goes, “security is not 100%,” and incidents are inevitable. This corrective control ensures that when a breach occurs, your response is quick, effective, consistent, and orderly. Proper preparation minimizes damage, ensures legal compliance (e.g., GDPR reporting), and protects your organization’s reputation.
Core requirements for compliance include:
- Incident Management Process: You must have a documented process covering detection, prioritization, triage, analysis, communication, and coordination of incidents.
- Defined Roles & Responsibilities: You must establish an Incident Response Team (IRT) with clearly allocated roles. These roles must be communicated across the organization so everyone knows who to contact during a crisis.
- Reporting Procedures: There must be a common, well-communicated way for employees and third parties to report security events (e.g., a dedicated email address or ticketing system).
- Training & Competency: Personnel handling incidents must be competent and receive periodic training. The standard encourages identifying specific certifications or development paths for the IRT.
- Service Level Objectives: You should define priority levels (e.g., P1 to P4) with specific target response and resolution times agreed upon with management.
- Scenario Planning: Your incident management plan should consider various scenarios, such as data breaches, malware infections, or natural disasters.
Audit Focus: Auditors will look for “The Readiness Evidence”:
- Staff Awareness: An auditor will likely ask any random employee: “If you think your laptop has been hacked or you’ve lost a USB drive, how do you report it?”
- Process Verification: “Show me your Incident Management Plan. When was it last reviewed and approved by management?”
- Role Clarity: “Show me the list of members in your Incident Response Team. Do they have the necessary authority to shut down a service during a major breach?”
Table of contents
- What is ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24?
- Watch the ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 Tutorial
- ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 Podcast
- ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 Implementation Guidance
- How to implement ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24
- IRT Roles Table
- How to comply
- How to pass an ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 audit
- What an auditor will check
- Top 3 ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 Mistakes People Make and How to Avoid Them
- Applicability of ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 across different business models.
- Fast Track ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 Compliance with the ISO 27001 Toolkit
- ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 FAQ
- Related ISO 27001 Controls
- Further Reading
- ISO 27001 controls and attribute values
What is ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24?
ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 is about information security incident management planning and preparation which means you must have a process and people to handle and manage information security incidents.
ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 Information security incident management planning and preparation is an ISO 27001 control that requires an organisation to plan and prepare for managing information security incidents.
ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 Purpose
The purpose of ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 is a corrective control that ensures quick, effective, consistent and orderly response to information security incidents, including communication on information security events.
ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 Definition
The ISO 27001 standard defines ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 as:
The organization should plan and prepare for managing information security incidents by defining, establishing and communicating information security incident management processes, roles and responsibilities.
ISO 27001:2022 Annex A 5.24 Information security incident management planning and preparation
Watch the ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 Tutorial
In the video ISO 27001 Information Security Incident Management Planning and Preparation Explained I show you how to implement it and how to pass the audit.
ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 Podcast
In this episode: Lead Auditor Stuart Barker and team do a deep dive into the ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 Information Security Incident Management Planning and Preparation. The podcast explores what it is, why it is important and the path to compliance.
ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 Implementation Guidance
Roles and Responsibilities
You are going to work out the roles and responsibilities for the incident management processes and procedures that you are going to write and implement. Those roles and responsibilities are going to be communicated.
Usually you communicate reasonably frequently, say once every 3 months, how to raise an incident and who is responsible for information security in the organisation. Depending how complex the team is and how complex the organisation is you may have to do some additional targeted communications.
Ideally we want a common way to report information security incidents and have a point of contact.
The process of incident management is well documented elsewhere but the process is going to be cover documentation, how we detect incidents, how we prioritise them, if relevant how we triage the incidents, how we analyse incidents, how and to whom we communicate them and how we co-ordinate interested parties.
The standard wants us, rightly, to provide the capability to assess, respond and learn from security incidents. We won’t get things right all the time. Incidents will happen. As long as we plan and are prepared and can respond effectively we will be fine.
When it comes to the who, we are going to make sure that only competent personnel handle issues. Usually this means that they are subject matter experts and or trained in their field. These people will be communicated to and provided the process and procedure documents and will be given periodic training in information security.
As an add in, the standard wants us to consider identifying the training, certification and ongoing development of the incident response assigned people. A great way to do this is via the competency matrix.
Incident Management Procedures
The incident management processes and procedures you write will have priorities and service level’s agreed with management based on agreed objectives for information security incident management. Consider implementing priority levels with definitions of what each priority means and the expected time to resolve an incident at that level.
The incident management plan will consider different scenarios.
If we were to set out the activities that require process and procedure we would include
- Evaluation: The evaluation of incidents and understanding which incidents are information security incidents.
- Monitoring: The human and automated ability to detect, classify, analyse and report events and incidents.
- Managing: The management of incidents that includes response and escalation and knowing when to invoke crisis management and business continuity.
- Coordinating: The coordination of internal and external interested parties and resources
- Logging: The logging of incidents and associated activity.
- Handling of evidence: The handling of evidence and the potential to get specialist help where that evidence may lead to legal action.
- Root Cause Analysis: The ability to get to the root, the core, of what happened and why it happened.
- Lessons Learned: The ability to learn lessons and make improvements to reduce or eliminate it from happening again.
Reporting Procedures
We need to ability to effectively report on incidents and consider the types of reports that we will create.
We include how to report an incident, the use of incident forms and the creating of incident reports.
External reporting requirements and time frames are considered. A good example is reporting data breaches that come under the GDPR to the supervisory body.
The standard that relates to information security management for further reading if required is ISO/IEC 27035
How to implement ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24
Implementing ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 requires a proactive shift from reactive firefighting to structured governance. By establishing a robust planning and preparation framework, organisations ensure they possess the necessary authority, communication channels, and technical readiness to mitigate security threats effectively. Following these steps will help you build an auditor-ready incident management programme that satisfies the 2022 standard requirements.
1. Formalise the Incident Management Policy
Establish a comprehensive policy that defines the organisation’s approach to identifying and managing security events. This action provides the mandatory governance layer required to ensure a consistent and legally defensible response to breaches.
- Define clear criteria for distinguishing between a security event and a confirmed security incident.
- Specify the legal and regulatory notification obligations, including the 72 hour GDPR reporting window.
- Document the “Rules of Engagement” (ROE) for internal investigators to maintain the integrity of evidence.
2. Provision a Multi-Disciplinary Incident Management Team (IMT)
Appoint and train a dedicated team with the authority to make critical decisions during a crisis. This result-focused step ensures that technical response is supported by legal, HR, and senior leadership expertise.
- Assign specific IAM roles and “Break Glass” accounts with elevated privileges for emergency incident response.
- Formalise a contact directory including external forensic experts, legal counsel, and law enforcement agencies.
- Establish an out-of-band communication channel to ensure the IMT can coordinate safely if primary systems are compromised.
3. Standardise Incident Reporting and Escalation Channels
Deploy a single, centralised channel for all employees and third parties to report suspected security weaknesses. This ensures that the detection-to-triage time is minimised, reducing the potential impact of an attack.
- Configure automated alerting from SIEM and SOC tools to feed directly into a secure incident register.
- Publish clear internal instructions for manual reporting via a dedicated security email or helpdesk portal.
- Implement an escalation matrix that defines when senior management and the DPO must be briefed based on incident severity.
4. Formalise Forensic Readiness and Documentation Procedures
Establish protocols for the identification and preservation of evidence before an incident occurs. This ensures that all data collected during a response is admissible for legal proceedings or insurance claims.
- Define the technical requirements for bit-for-bit imaging and cryptographic hashing of compromised assets.
- Standardise the use of Chain of Custody logs for every piece of hardware or digital evidence seized.
- Ensure all system logs (Annex A 8.15) are synchronised to a reliable time source to provide an accurate timeline of events.
5. Execute Tabletop Simulations and Capability Testing
Conduct regular simulation exercises to validate the effectiveness of the incident management plan. This action identifies procedural gaps and ensures the IMT remains familiar with their specific roles and tools.
- Simulate high-risk scenarios such as ransomware, data exfiltration, or a “Man-in-the-Middle” (MitM) attack.
- Test the recovery time objectives (RTO) for restoring critical services from air-gapped backups.
- Document the “Lessons Learned” from every simulation to drive continuous improvement of the management framework.
IRT Roles Table
| Role | Responsibility | Who (Example) | ISO 27001:2022 Control |
|---|---|---|---|
| Incident Manager | Leads the response; makes the “shutdown” call. | CISO / IT Director. | Annex A 5.24 |
| Lead Investigator | Technical forensics; log analysis. | Senior SysAdmin. | Annex A 5.24 / 5.28 |
| Scribe | Documents every action taken (for legal evidence). | Junior Admin / Ops. | Annex A 5.24 / 5.28 |
| Communications | Talks to customers, press, and regulators (GDPR). | Marketing / Legal. | Annex A 5.24 / 5.3 |
| HR Rep | Handles internal disciplinary issues (if insider threat). | HR Manager. | Annex A 5.24 / 6.4 |
How to comply
To comply with ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 you are going to implement the ‘how’ to the ‘what’ the control is expecting. In short measure you are going to:
- Define and allocate roles and responsibilities
- Write and implement your incident management processes and procedures
- Communicate incident management to interested parties
How to pass an ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 audit
To pass an audit of ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 Information security incident management planning and preparation you are going to make sure that you have followed the steps above in how to comply.
What an auditor will check
The audit is going to check a number of areas. Lets go through the main ones
1. That you have documented your roles, responsibilities and process
The audit will check the documentation, that you have reviewed it and signed and it off and that it represents what you actually do not what you think they want to hear.
2. That you can demonstrate the process working
They are going to ask you for evidence to the incident management process and take one example. For this example you are going to show them and walk them through the process and prove that you followed it and that the process worked.
3. That you can learn your lesson
Documenting your lessons learnt and following this through to continual improvements or incident and corrective actions will be checked. They want to see that not only did you respond but that you learnt from it and did something to improve that reduced or eliminated the possibility of it happening again.
Top 3 ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 Mistakes People Make and How to Avoid Them
The top 3 Mistakes People Make For ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 are
1. You didn’t learn your lesson
Not learning and improving is a big mistake. Having your documentation to evidence that you made a corrective action or continual improvement will be key.
2. You didn’t tell people how to raise and incident
The auditor will likely ask everyone they meet, not just you, how to raise an incident. This is bread and butter stuff for them. Everyone being audited as a minimum should know how to raise an incident.
3. Your document and version control is wrong
Keeping your document version control up to date, making sure that version numbers match where used, having a review evidenced in the last 12 months, having documents that have no comments in are all good practices.
Applicability of ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 across different business models.
| Business Type | Applicability | Examples of Control Implementation |
|---|---|---|
| Small Businesses | Highly applicable for ensuring the business can survive a major breach. The focus is on a simple “who-to-call” list and basic reporting procedures so staff know exactly how to escalate a lost laptop or suspicious email without delay. |
|
| Tech Startups | Critical for managing cloud-based risks and maintaining customer trust. Compliance involves formalizing the Incident Response Team (IRT) and establishing technical “Playbooks” for high-likelihood scenarios like ransomware or API leaks. |
|
| AI Companies | Vital for protecting specialized AI assets and research data. Focus is on planning for adversarial attacks and ensuring “Forensic Readiness” for high-performance computing (HPC) environments. |
|
Fast Track ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 Compliance with the ISO 27001 Toolkit
For ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 (Information security incident management planning and preparation), the requirement is to plan and prepare for managing incidents by defining, establishing, and communicating processes, roles, and responsibilities. This ensures a quick, effective, and orderly response when security events inevitably occur.
| Compliance Factor | SaaS Compliance Platforms | High Table ISO 27001 Toolkit | Audit Evidence Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strategy Ownership | Rents access to your emergency response strategy; if you cancel the subscription, your documented roles and plans vanish. | Permanent Assets: Fully editable Word/Excel Incident Management Policies and IRT Tables that you own forever. | A localized “Incident Management Policy” defining the criteria for a “Major Incident” vs. a standard security event. |
| Operational Readiness | Attempts to “automate” crisis leadership via dashboards that cannot make critical “shutdown” calls or lead a response team. | Governance-First: Formalizes your existing technical workflows and communication channels into an auditor-ready framework. | A completed “Incident Response Team (IRT) Roles Table” identifying key decision-makers across IT, Legal, and HR. |
| Cost Efficiency | Charges an “Incident Volume Tax” based on the number of breach logs or responders, creating perpetual overhead. | One-Off Fee: A single payment covers your planning governance whether you manage 2 incidents or 2,000. | Allocating budget to cyber-insurance or resilient backup systems rather than monthly “orchestration” dashboard fees. |
| Strategic Freedom | Mandates rigid reporting structures that may not align with your agile business model or unique technical environment. | 100% Agnostic: Procedures adapt to any environment—dedicated SOCs, lean IT teams, or specialized third-party labs. | The ability to evolve your crisis strategy and call-tree procedures without reconfiguring a rigid SaaS compliance module. |
Summary: For Annex A 5.24, the auditor wants to see that you have a formal incident management plan and proof that people know their roles and how to raise an incident. The High Table ISO 27001 Toolkit provides the governance framework to satisfy this requirement immediately. It is the most direct, cost-effective way to achieve compliance using permanent documentation that you own and control.
ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 FAQ
What is ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24?
ISO 27001 Annex A 5.24 is a foundational security control that requires organisations to plan and prepare for managing information security incidents by establishing policies, roles, and procedures before an event occurs.
- Establishes the governance framework for incident handling.
- Defines the specific roles and responsibilities of the response team.
- Mandates the creation of reporting channels and escalation paths.
- Ensures the organisation is “forensically ready” for an audit.
Is an Incident Management Policy mandatory for ISO 27001?
Yes, a documented Information Security Incident Management Policy is a mandatory requirement to satisfy Annex A 5.24 and ensure a consistent organisational response to threats.
- It serves as the “Primary Directive” for all incident-related activities.
- It provides auditors with proof of a formalised, repeatable process.
- It defines what constitutes an incident versus a standard security event.
- It aligns the organisation with legal and regulatory notification requirements.
How does Annex A 5.24 differ from Annex A 5.26?
The primary difference is that Annex A 5.24 focuses on the proactive planning and preparation phase, whereas Annex A 5.26 focuses on the active response to an identified incident.
- 5.24: Strategic planning, policy writing, and team training.
- 5.26: Operational execution, containment, and restoration.
- 5.24 is the “Manual” while 5.26 is the “Action.”
Who should be part of the Incident Management Team?
A competent Incident Management Team (IMT) should be a multi-disciplinary group comprising internal stakeholders and, where necessary, external specialists to cover technical and legal impacts.
- Technical Leads: Responsible for forensic analysis and containment.
- Legal and Compliance: Manages regulatory notifications and data privacy.
- Senior Management: Authorises emergency budgets and business pivots.
- HR and Communications: Manages staff impact and external reputation.
How often should you test your incident management plan?
Organisations should test their incident management plan at least annually or whenever significant changes occur to the infrastructure or threat landscape to ensure operational readiness.
- Conduct tabletop exercises to simulate high-impact scenarios.
- Perform functional tests on backup restoration and failover systems.
- Review and update the plan based on “Lessons Learned” from tests.
- Ensure contact lists and escalation paths are still accurate.
How do you report an information security incident?
Incident reporting should be conducted through a single, clearly defined channel that is accessible to all employees, contractors, and relevant third parties.
- Utilise a centralised helpdesk or a dedicated security email address.
- Establish anonymous whistleblowing lines for sensitive internal issues.
- Ensure automated alerts from SIEM or SOC tools feed into the register.
- Define clear timeframes for reporting to meet statutory obligations.
What tools are required for Annex A 5.24 preparation?
While Annex A 5.24 is process-heavy, specific tools are required to facilitate communication, logging, and evidence preservation during the preparation phase.
- Secure Incident Register: To log and track every event through closure.
- Out-of-band Communication: Tools like Signal or physical “War Rooms.”
- ISO 27001 Toolkit: Pre-written policy templates and reporting logs.
- Forensic Toolkits: For safe acquisition of digital evidence.
Related ISO 27001 Controls
ISO 27001 Clause 7.5.1 Documented Information
ISO 27001 Clause 7.4 Communication
ISO 27001 Annex A 5.26 Response To Information Security Incidents
Further Reading
The complete guide to ISO/IEC 27002:2022
Business Continuity Incident Action Log Template
ISO 27001 controls and attribute values
| Control type | Information security properties | Cybersecurity concepts | Operational capabilities | Security domains |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corrective | Confidentiality | Respond | Governance | Defence |
| Integrity | Recover | Information Security Event Management | ||
| Availability |
