BSI C5:2020 OIS-06 — Risk Management Policy

What this control requires

Documents and communicates risk management policies per SP-01, covering risk identification, analysis, evaluation, and handling for confidentiality, integrity, availability, and authenticity. Assigns risk owners, prioritizes actions, and ensures consistent documentation to mitigate risks to cloud customer data.

In plain English

Documents and communicates risk management policies per SP-01, covering risk identification, analysis, evaluation, and handling for confidentiality, integrity, availability, and authenticity. In practice, this means you can prove you information management policy-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 Information Security Governance, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Criterion OIS-06) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

How to implement

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.

Cloud Posture

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

Operational checklist

• Information. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Risk. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Documentation,. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Security. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Confidentiality. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Scope: management policy, risk management policy, cloud customer data.

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: Risk Management Policy.

Common pitfalls

• Policies that no engineer has read; the version in Confluence drifts from the version that's actually being enforced.
• Treating CSPM findings as a backlog instead of a hot queue: findings older than the policy SLA accumulate until the auditor asks why.

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.

• HIPAA (45 CFR Part 164) 164.308(a)(1)(ii)(B) — Security Management Process - Risk Management
• SOC 2 (2017 TSC) CC9.1 — Business Disruption Risk Mitigation
• NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 AC-4(5) — Embedded Data Types
• ISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.5.5 — Contact with authorities
• CIS Controls v8 3.5 — Securely Dispose of Data

Related controls in BSI C5:2020

• Criterion OIS-05 — Contact with Relevant Government Agencies and Interest Groups
• Criterion SP-03 — Exceptions from Existing Policies and Instructions
• Criterion HR-02 — Employment terms and conditions
• Criterion PI-01 — Documentation and safety of input and output interfaces
• Criterion COM-01 — Identification of applicable legal, regulatory, self-imposed or contractual requirements
• Criterion PSS-12 — Locations of Data Processing and Storage

References

• Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI) — BSI C5:2020
• Catalogue identifier: Criterion OIS-06

Topics: governance riskpolicy managementcloud posture