Overview
ISO/IEC 27031:2025 - Cybersecurity - Information and communication technology readiness for business continuity - defines concepts, principles and a practical framework for ICT readiness for business continuity (IRBC). The standard helps organizations identify, specify and improve ICT capabilities so that business continuity objectives (including Minimum Business Continuity Objective (MBCO), Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO)) are met. Applicable to all types and sizes of organizations, ISO/IEC 27031:2025 explains how ICT departments should plan and prepare to contribute to overall organizational resilience.
Key topics and requirements
ISO/IEC 27031:2025 covers a comprehensive set of technical and management topics that ensure ICT continuity and readiness:
- Integration with Business Continuity Management (BCM) and governance to align ICT goals with corporate resilience objectives.
- Risk management and applicable ICT controls, including threat monitoring, detection and analysis.
- Business impact analysis (BIA) inputs to identify critical ICT services and dependencies.
- Setting ICT prerequisites: recovery capabilities, redundancy planning, scope and objectives for IRBC.
- Defining RTO and RPO targets as part of ICT continuity planning.
- IRBC strategies across people, skills, facilities, technology, data, processes and suppliers.
- Development and activation of ICT recovery plans, including temporary workarounds and escalation procedures.
- Testing, exercises and auditing: test programs, performance criteria, lessons learned and documented information control.
- Top management responsibilities for evaluating and maintaining IRBC.
Practical applications and who uses it
ISO/IEC 27031:2025 is practical for organizations wanting to strengthen ICT resilience and ensure continuity of critical services:
- CIOs, IT managers and ICT teams - design and test recovery capabilities, define RPO/RTO.
- Business continuity and resilience professionals - align ICT readiness with BCM strategies and MBCO.
- Risk managers and security officers - integrate ICT risk controls and incident management with continuity objectives.
- Auditors and compliance teams - evaluate ICT continuity plans, testing and documented evidence.
- Suppliers and service providers - demonstrate ICT readiness and contractual continuity commitments.
Use cases include emergency recovery planning after cyber incidents, natural disasters, supplier outages, and planned technology migrations.
Related standards
ISO/IEC 27031:2025 complements other management and security standards, notably:
- ISO/IEC 27001 (information security management)
- ISO 22301 (business continuity management)
Organizations commonly use ISO/IEC 27031 alongside these standards to align ICT-specific readiness with broader security and continuity programs.
Keywords: ISO/IEC 27031:2025, ICT readiness, business continuity, RTO, RPO, MBCO, ICT continuity plan, incident management, recovery planning.
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