ISO 27001 A.5.30 - ICT Readiness for Business Continuity

Requirement

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

Plain-language meaning

The organization must plan, build, maintain, and test ICT continuity capability so priority systems and services can recover in line with business continuity objectives.

Why this matters

Business processes depend on ICT. If recovery priorities, RTOs, RPOs, dependencies, suppliers, and testing are unclear, restoration will be slow, inconsistent, or focused on the wrong services.

Implementation guidance

1. Use business impact analysis and stakeholder input to identify priority services, dependencies, and recovery sequence.
2. Define ICT continuity requirements such as RTO, RPO, maximum tolerable downtime, minimum service level, data recovery needs, and graceful degradation expectations.
3. Implement recovery capabilities such as backups, redundancy, alternate processing, failover, capacity management, emergency access, supplier support, and recovery playbooks.
4. Maintain plans as systems, suppliers, architectures, and business priorities change.
5. Test ICT continuity against realistic failure modes and use results to improve plans and controls.
6. Review supplier continuity capability where the organization depends on supplier-provided ICT services.
7. Coordinate with A.5.29 so restored services also preserve confidentiality, integrity, and security controls.

Audit guidance

Auditors should verify that ICT continuity requirements are derived from business objectives, understood by stakeholders and IT, implemented in recovery processes, tested against important failure modes, and improved after tests or real events.

Evidence examples

Strong evidence

• BIA or continuity analysis identifies priority ICT services and recovery sequence.
• RTO, RPO, and service restoration expectations are documented and approved.
• Recovery playbooks are available to responders and usable under stress.
• ICT continuity tests cover important systems and likely failure modes.
• Test findings and real continuity events lead to improvements.
• Supplier ICT continuity arrangements are reviewed or tested where dependency is significant.

Weak evidence

• RTO/RPO values exist but are not tied to business priorities.
• Recovery plans are outdated or unavailable to responders.
• Backups exist but restoration has not been tested.
• Testing covers only easy scenarios.
• IT and business stakeholders disagree on restoration priorities.
• Supplier resilience is assumed from contract wording.

Common failures

Exam traps

• A.5.30 focuses on ICT availability and restoration based on continuity objectives.
• RTO and RPO must be meaningful and tied to business priorities.
• Testing and maintenance are explicit; a plan alone is weak.
• Supplier ICT continuity matters when services depend on suppliers.
• A.5.30 should be read with A.5.29 because restored services still need confidentiality and integrity.

Related controls and concepts

• A.5.29 Information Security During Disruption
• A.5.24 Information Security Incident Management Planning and Preparation
• Risk Assessment
• Management Review
• Supplier Service Review and Change Log
• Cloud Security Requirements and Exit Checklist

KB-ready summary

A.5.30 requires the organization to make continuity practical for information security. The key test is whether disruption plans, ICT recovery, suppliers, roles, tests, and improvement actions preserve the right level of security while restoring priority services.

Templates and checklists

• ICT Continuity Requirements and Test Record
• A.5.30 Audit Checklist