ISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.5.27 — Learning from information security incidents

What this control requires

Knowledge gained from information security incidents shall be used to strengthen and improve the information security controls.

In plain English

Knowledge gained from information security incidents shall be used to strengthen and improve the information security controls. In practice, this means you can prove you information information security-level controls on a defined cadence.

Why it matters

ISO 27001 certification depends on showing each Annex A control is either implemented or explicitly justified for exclusion in the Statement of Applicability (SoA). Certification bodies sample controls during surveillance audits, and a missing SoA entry — or implementation that doesn't match the SoA wording — is a finding.

What an auditor looks for

An ISO 27001 lead auditor looks for: (1) an SoA entry covering the control with justification, (2) a documented procedure or policy implementing it, (3) records that prove the procedure runs (logs, tickets, training records) and (4) management-review evidence that effectiveness is monitored.

Within Organizational controls, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Annex A A.5.27) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

How to implement

Incident Response

Runbook. Maintain a runbook keyed by incident type with named roles (IC, comms, scribe), an out-of-band comms channel, and a 72-hour timeline for external notification.

Tabletop. Run a quarterly tabletop exercise (ransomware, insider, supply-chain) and feed gaps back into the runbook.

Operational checklist

• Information. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Management. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Response. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Security. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Change. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Scope: information security, management, information security incidents.

Evidence to collect

• Ticketing Workflow. ticketing_workflow evidence

Workflow metrics (ServiceNow, Jira) show approvals and remediation. Focus: Learning from information security incidents.

Common pitfalls

• Runbooks that name a role but no person, or list a paging channel that no longer exists.

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.

• NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 IR-9(2) — Training
• BSI C5:2020 SIM-03 — Documentation and reporting of security incidents
• NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3 3.6.2 — Incident Monitoring, Reporting, and Response Assistance
• SOC 2 (2017 TSC) CC7.4 — Incident Response
• ISO/IEC 42001:2023 A.8.4 — Communication of incidents

Related controls in ISO/IEC 27001:2022

• Annex A A.5.25 — Assessment and decision on information security events
• Annex A A.5.8 — Information security in project management
• Annex A A.5.24 — Information security incident management planning and preparation
• Annex A A.5.26 — Response to information security incidents
• Annex A A.5.1 — Policies for information security
• Annex A A.5.4 — Management responsibilities

References

• ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 27 — ISO/IEC 27001:2022
• Catalogue identifier: Annex A A.5.27

Topics: incident responsechange management