# BSI C5:2020 BCM-04 — Verification, updating and testing of the business continuity

- Source: https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/bsi-c5-2020/bcm-04-verification-updating-and-testing-of-the-business-continuity
- 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-04`·high·Component: **Business Continuity Management**

## What this control requires

> Annually reviews and tests continuity plans, involving customers and third parties. Documents results to improve measures, ensuring robust recovery capabilities to protect cloud customer data and maintain service availability.
> 
> — BSI C5:2020, Criterion BCM-04

### In plain English

Annually reviews and tests continuity plans, involving customers and third parties. In practice, this means you can prove you risk measures-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-04) 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.

#### Code Review Testing

**Pipeline.** Require at least one human reviewer plus passing CI (lint, type, unit, security scan) before merge — protected branches enforce this.

### Operational checklist

-   **Risk.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Review.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Verification.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Data.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Business.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Scope:** measures, cloud customer data, business continuity, management.

## Evidence to collect

-   **Policy Document.** A signed and version-controlled policy / standard / procedure document.

Signed policy or standard documents the safeguard. Focus: Verification, updating and testing of the business continuity.

## 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.

## Related controls in BSI C5:2020

-   [**Criterion BCM-03** — Planning business continuity](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/bsi-c5-2020/bcm-03-planning-business-continuity)
-   [**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-01** — Top management responsibility](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/bsi-c5-2020/bcm-01-top-management-responsibility)
-   [**Criterion OPS-07** — Data Backup and Recovery - Monitoring](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/bsi-c5-2020/ops-07-data-backup-and-recovery-monitoring)
-   [**Criterion OPS-01** — Capacity Management - Planning](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/bsi-c5-2020/ops-01-capacity-management-planning)
-   [**Criterion OPS-19** — Managing Vulnerabilities, Malfunctions and Errors - Penetration Tests](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/bsi-c5-2020/ops-19-managing-vulnerabilities-malfunctions-and-errors-penetration-tests)

## 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-04`

Topics: governance riskbusiness continuitybackup recoverycloud posturecode review testing

## 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.