# BSI C5:2020 BCM-01 — Top management responsibility

- Source: https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/bsi-c5-2020/bcm-01-top-management-responsibility
- Section: [Compliance](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance) › [BSI C5:2020 (Cloud Computing Compliance Criteria)](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/bsi-c5-2020) › Business Continuity Management (BCM)
- Last updated: 2026-06-05
- Publisher: iCompaas, Inc. (https://www.icompaas.com)

**BSI C5:2020**·Criterion `BCM-01`·high·Component: **Business Continuity Management**

## What this control requires

> Assigns a top management member as process owner for business continuity, ensuring resource allocation and employee engagement. Demonstrates leadership to maintain effective continuity processes, protecting cloud customer data and services.
> 
> — BSI C5:2020, Criterion BCM-01

### In plain English

Assigns a top management member as process owner for business continuity, ensuring resource allocation and employee engagement. In practice, this means you can prove you risk cloud customer data-level controls on a defined cadence.

## Why it matters

BSI C5 is the default cloud-security baseline German public-sector buyers and many DAX-listed enterprises expect; gaps here directly block procurement in the DACH region and frequently appear as must-have items in EU public-tender documents.

This control is rated **high**. Auditors expect a named owner, a remediation SLA, and a tooling artefact that evidences continuous operation.

## What an auditor looks for

A C5 attesting auditor (under ISAE 3000 / IDW PS 860) tests both the design and — for a Type 2 — the operating effectiveness over the attestation period. For each criterion they look for both the Basic and any in-scope Additional objectives.

Within **Business Continuity Management**, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Criterion BCM-01) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

## How to implement

#### Business Continuity

**BC/DR.** Define RTO/RPO per service, test backup restoration quarterly, and run a tabletop of full-region failover annually.

**Backups.** Immutable backups (S3 Object Lock / Azure immutable storage / GCS bucket lock) plus an air-gapped copy for ransomware resilience.

#### Cloud Posture

**CSPM.** Run Wiz / Prisma / Defender for Cloud / Security Command Center over every account; auto-ticket findings above your accepted-risk threshold.

#### Policy Management

**Docs.** Keep each policy in version-controlled Markdown alongside the code that implements it; ship a signed PDF snapshot at each annual review and link the SHA into the SoA.

### Operational checklist

-   **Risk.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Responsibility.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Data.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Policy.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Process.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Scope:** cloud customer data, management responsibility, business continuity.

## Evidence to collect

-   **Policy Document.** A signed and version-controlled policy / standard / procedure document.
-   **Infra Scan.** Continuous infrastructure-posture telemetry — AWS Config, Azure Policy compliance, GCP Organisation Policy, Wiz / Prisma findings.

Signed policy or standard documents the safeguard. Focus: Top management responsibility.

## Common pitfalls

-   DR plans that have never been tested in earnest, or that depend on an MFA token only one person can produce.
-   Treating CSPM findings as a backlog instead of a hot queue: findings older than the policy SLA accumulate until the auditor asks why.
-   Policies that no engineer has read; the version in Confluence drifts from the version that's actually being enforced.

## How it maps to other frameworks

Computed from shared tags, control component and key-operation subjects — handy when you are reconciling controls across an audit.

-   [**ISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.5.30** — ICT readiness for business continuity](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-5-30-ict-readiness-for-business-continuity)
-   [**HIPAA (45 CFR Part 164) 164.308(a)(2)** — Assigned Security Responsibility](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/hipaa/164-308-a-2-assigned-security-responsibility)
-   [**NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 CP-7(2)** — Accessibility](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/cp-7-2-accessibility)

## Related controls in BSI C5:2020

-   [**Criterion BCM-02** — Business impact analysis policies and instructions](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/bsi-c5-2020/bcm-02-business-impact-analysis-policies-and-instructions)
-   [**Criterion BCM-03** — Planning business continuity](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/bsi-c5-2020/bcm-03-planning-business-continuity)
-   [**Criterion BCM-04** — Verification, updating and testing of the business continuity](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/bsi-c5-2020/bcm-04-verification-updating-and-testing-of-the-business-continuity)
-   [**Criterion HR-02** — Employment terms and conditions](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/bsi-c5-2020/hr-02-employment-terms-and-conditions)
-   [**Criterion PI-01** — Documentation and safety of input and output interfaces](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/bsi-c5-2020/pi-01-documentation-and-safety-of-input-and-output-interfaces)
-   [**Criterion COM-01** — Identification of applicable legal, regulatory, self-imposed or contractual requirements](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/bsi-c5-2020/com-01-identification-of-applicable-legal-regulatory-self-imposed-or-contractual)

## References

-   [Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI) — BSI C5:2020](https://www.bsi.bund.de/EN/Topics/CloudComputing/Compliance_Criteria_Catalogue/Compliance_Criteria_Catalogue_node.html)
-   Catalogue identifier: `Criterion BCM-01`

Topics: governance riskbusiness continuitycloud posturepolicy management

## Related compliance guidance

- [SOC 2 compliance: a practical implementation guide for cloud-native SaaS teams](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/soc-2-trust-services-criteria): Configuration checks like this one are the technical half of a SOC 2 / ISO 27001 programme — the guide shows where they fit, what else an auditor expects, and how to evidence them.
- [ISO/IEC 27001:2022 compliance: a practical implementation guide](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022): ISO 27001 Annex A.8 (technological controls) is where cloud hardening evidence lands; the guide shows how to run the ISMS around it.
