ISO/IEC 27001:2022·Annex A A.8.13·high·Component: Technological controls

What this control requires

Backup copies of information, software and systems shall be maintained and regularly tested in accordance with the agreed topic-specific policy on backup.
— ISO/IEC 27001:2022, Annex A A.8.13

In plain English

Backup copies of information, software and systems shall be maintained and regularly tested in accordance with the agreed topic-specific policy on backup. In practice, this means you can prove you policy information-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.

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

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 Technological controls, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Annex A A.8.13) 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.

Operational checklist

  • Policy. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
  • Information. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
  • Management. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
  • Information Backup. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
  • Scope: information, management, software.

Evidence to collect

  • Infra Scan. Continuous infrastructure-posture telemetry — AWS Config, Azure Policy compliance, GCP Organisation Policy, Wiz / Prisma findings.

Backup platform telemetry (AWS Backup, Rubrik) shows scheduled jobs and successful restore tests.

Common pitfalls

  • 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.

Related controls in ISO/IEC 27001:2022

References

Topics: governance riskbackup recoverypolicy management