ISO 27001 Annex A 5.30 ICT Readiness For Business Continuity

In this article I lay bare ISO 27001 Annex A 5.30 ICT Readiness for Business Continuity.

Using over two decades of experience on hundreds of ISO 27001 audits and ISO 27001 certifications I am going to show you what’s new, give you templates, an ISO 27001 toolkit, show you examples and do a walkthrough.

In this ISO 27001 certification guide I show you exactly what changed in the ISO 27001:2022 update. 

I am Stuart Barker the ISO 27001 Ninja and this is ISO 27001 Annex A 5.30 ICT Readiness for Business Continuity.

What is ISO 27001 Annex A 5.30 ICT Readiness For Business Continuity?

ISO 27001 Annex A 5.30 ICT Readiness for Business Continuity is an ISO 27001 control that wants you to plan, maintain and test ICT readiness based on business continuity objectives and continuity requirements.

ISO 27001 Annex A 5.30 Purpose

The purpose of ISO 27001 Annex A 5.30 ICT Readiness for Business Continuity is to ensure the availability of the organisations information and other associated assets during disruption.

ISO 27001 Annex A 5.30 Definition

The ISO 27001 standard defines ISO 27001 Annex A 5.30 as:

ICT readiness should be planned, implemented, maintained and tested based on business continuity objectives and ICT continuity requirements. 

ISO 27001:2022 Annex A 5.30 ICT Readiness for Business Continuity

Requirements

This ISO 27001 controls wants you to understand what your requirements are and to implement plans and processes for ICT Readiness. This will involve having an adequate structure in place to prepare, respond and mitigate disruption supported by people and teams with the responsibility, authority and competence.

You will undergo a Business Impact Assessment (BIA).

You will have plans for ICT continuity, response and recovery procedures that are regularly tested to evaluate them and that they are approved by management.

For those plans you are going to include performance and capacity specifications to meet the BCP requirements and objectives that you set out in your Business Impact Assessment (BIA). The plans will have Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and procedures for resorting components. The Recovery Point Objective (RPO) will be defined and procedures for restoring information will be in place.

Benefits

Other than your ISO 27001 certification requiring it, the following are the top 5 benefits of ISO 27001 Annex A 5.30 ICT Readiness for Business Continuity: 

1. You cannot get ISO 27001 certification without it.
2. Improved security: You will have an effective information security response to a disruption
3. Reduced risk: You will reduce the information security risks of a disruption and maintain and recover system and data availability
4. Improved compliance: Standards and regulations require an effective business continuity be in place
5. Reputation Protection: In the event of a breach having an effective business continuity system in place will reduce the potential for fines and reduce the PR impact of an event

Why is ISO 27001 Annex A 5.30 important?

ISO 27001 Annex A 5.30 ICT Readiness for Business Continuity is important as it allows you to respond and recover from disruption to ICT services regardless of the cause. It ensures continuity of prioritised activities by required ICT services. It allows you to respond before a disruption occurs and when you detect an incident that can result in disruption. You will maintain the availability of systems and data, respond to major incidents with the minimum impact following agreed and documents plans and procedures.

Implementation Guide

It is my experience that the best way to implement Annex A 5.30 ICT Readiness for Business Continuity is to implement business continuity aligned to the standard for business continuity, ISO 22301.

ISO 27001 Templates

All of the business continuity documents that you need are included in the ISO 27001 Toolkit.

How to comply

To comply with ISO 27001 Annex A 5.30 ICT Readiness for Business Continuity you are going to implement the ‘how’ to the ‘what’ the control is expecting. In short measure you are going to:

1. Have an ISO 27001 topic specific policy for business continuity
2. Conduct a Business Impact Assessment (BIA)
3. Implement a process for business continuity and disaster recovery based on the BIA
4. Incorporate that process into your business operations

How to pass an audit

To pass an audit of ISO 27001 Annex A 5.30 ICT Readiness for Business Continuity you are going to make sure that you have followed the steps above in how to comply and be able to evidence it in operation.

1. Have a business impact assessment (BIA)
2. Have a business continuity plan and disaster recovery plan
3. Test the plans
4. Test the information security requirements are in place as designed

You are going to check that it is working by first conducting an internal audit, following the How to Conduct an ISO 27001 Internal Audit Guide.

Top 3 common mistakes people make

The most common mistakes people make for ISO 27001 Annex A 5.30 ICT Readiness for Business Continuity are

1. Not having a documented disaster recovery and business continuity policy and plans.

This is the most common mistake made by organisations. Documentation is essential for effective business continuity and ICT Readiness.

2. Not having a business impact assessment (BIA)

Not understanding and not having a business impact assessment (BIA) that is documented and agreed with no link to the prioritisation of activities in the business continuity plans and no goals and targets for recovery.

3. Not Testing

It is important to monitor its effectiveness of the information security during a disruption. This means reviewing the process, conducting internal audits and reviewing actual incidents for lessons learnt. The number one thing to do it test and be able to evidence the test.

By avoiding these mistakes, you can ensure that you have an effective collection of evidence plan in place.

What are the lessons learned from organisations that have successfully complied?

The main lesson learnt from organisations that have implemented and complied successfully with Annex A 5.30 ICT Readiness for Business Continuity is to have a business impact assessment (BIA) and base plans on the needs and objectives of the organisation that is tested and evidenced as tested.

How can I monitor the effectiveness of ISO 27001 Annex A 5.30?

You can monitor the effectiveness of Annex A 5.30 ICT Readiness for Business Continuity in a number of ways. The most common ways are:

• You have a process of internal audit that audits Annex 5.30 ICT Readiness for Business Continuity on a periodic basis
• Your business continuity test include a root cause and lessons step that allows you to check that everything worked as intended identify opportunities for improvement.

Who is responsible for ISO 27001 Annex A 5.30?

Accountability for ISO 27001 Annex A 5.30 ICT Readiness for Business Continuity lies with the senior leadership team. Responsibility is often assigned to the business continuity manager.

What are the consequences of not implementing?

The main consequence is that when required you will not know what the priorities of the organisation are or what the recovery targets are. Recovery will happen in an adhoc unstructured way that could harm the organisation objectives.

What are examples of a violation?

Not having a business impact assessment (BIA) or business continuity and disaster recovery plans in place.

What will an auditor check?

The audit is going to check a number of areas. Lets go through the main ones

1. That you have documented your business continuity and disaster recovery plans

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 information security during a disruption and take at least 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.

Where can I get help with ISO 27001 Annex A 5.30 ICT Readiness for Business Continuity?

You can arrange a free 30 minute ISO 27001 strategy call to get the help with ISO 27001 Annex A 5.30 ICT Readiness for Business Continuity.

Matrix of ISO 27001 Controls and Attribute values

Control type	Information security properties	Cybersecurity concepts	Operational capabilities	Security domains
Corrective	Availability	Respond	Continuity	Resilience