ISO 27001 A.5.30: technology continuity, explained for startups

A.5.30 ICT readiness for business continuity

Your information and communications technology (ICT) can be recovered as fast as the business needs. What proves it: how long each key system may be down and how much data you can afford to lose, and a test that met those targets.

A certification auditor samples recovery targets and a disaster recovery test. A file that usually does the job: a dated restore or failover test showing the time taken against your target.

How to put it in place

Each step leaves a record, and the record is what the auditor samples rather than the step itself. Inside Polara, the control card for A.5.30 walks you through it in this order.

1. Set how long each key system may be down and how much data you can afford to lose.
2. Test a recovery against those targets.
3. Record the result and fix any shortfall.

The free ISO 27001 readiness assessment asks one question that evidences it:

• Have you set a recovery time objective (RTO) and a recovery point objective (RPO), and tested them?

Policies, connectors and the SOC 2 overlap

In the ISO 27001 policy pack, the Business Continuity and ICT Readiness Policy covers A.5.30. An auditor reads the policy for the rule, then samples the records to see the rule was followed.

The same evidence counts toward SOC 2. The Trust Services criteria that cover this ground: CC7.5, incident recovery and A1.3, recovery testing.

Organizational controls

A.5.30 is one of the 37 organizational controls in Annex A. How the company runs security: policies, roles, suppliers, incidents, continuity and legal duties. Most of these are written decisions and the records that show you follow them.

Nearby controls in the same theme:

• A.5.27, learning from incidents
• A.5.28, collecting evidence
• A.5.29, security during a disruption
• A.5.31, legal and contract duties
• A.5.32, intellectual property
• A.5.33, protecting records

Before it: A.5.29, security during a disruption. After it: A.5.31, legal and contract duties. Every control, by theme, is on the Annex A controls page.