# ISO/IEC 27701:2025 A.3.12 — Response to incidents

- Source: https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27701-2025/a-3-12-response-to-incidents
- Section: [Compliance](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance) › [ISO/IEC 27701:2025 PIMS Controls](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27701-2025) › Security considerations
- Last updated: 2026-06-05
- Publisher: iCompaas, Inc. (https://www.icompaas.com)

**ISO/IEC 27701:2025**·Annex A `A.3.12`·critical·Component: **Security considerations**

## What this control requires

> Respond to incidents related to PII according to documented procedures. Implementation: Implement response steps, notification templates and forensic logging. Justification: Proper response includes notification, mitigation and recordkeeping.
> 
> — ISO/IEC 27701:2025, Annex A A.3.12

### In plain English

Respond to incidents related to PII according to documented procedures. In practice, this means you can prove you implement response to incidents-level controls on a defined cadence.

## Why it matters

ISO 27701 is the international way to evidence the GDPR principle of accountability: certified PIMS controls translate directly into the records, contracts and rights-handling that supervisory authorities want, and into the privacy-engineering evidence SOC 2 + Privacy auditors and enterprise procurement teams ask for.

This control is rated **critical** in the source catalogue. Treat gaps here as production incidents in the risk register, not housekeeping.

## What an auditor looks for

PIMS auditors expect ISO 27001 to be implemented first and then the 27701-additional controls tested. For PII controllers they look at lawful-basis and rights-handling evidence; for PII processors they look at customer-instructions, sub-processor controls and return/transfer/disposal evidence.

Within **Security considerations**, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Annex A A.3.12) 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

-   **Implement.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Document.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Log.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Scope:** response to incidents.

## Evidence to collect

-   **Ticketing Workflow.** `ticketing_workflow` evidence
-   **Policy Document.** A signed and version-controlled policy / standard / procedure document.

Signed policies, procedures, and registers document the safeguard. Service management or request-handling tickets prove timely handling. Focus: Response to 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.

-   [**ISO/IEC 42001:2023 A.8.4** — Communication of incidents](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-42001-2023/a-8-4-communication-of-incidents)
-   [**NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 IR-4(15)** — Public Relations And Reputation Repair](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/ir-4-15-public-relations-and-reputation-repair)
-   [**India DPDP Act 2023 IR-001** — Personal Data Breach - DPB Notification](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/india-dpdp-act-2023/ir-001-personal-data-breach-dpb-notification)
-   [**SOC 2 (2017 TSC) CC7.4** — Incident Response](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/soc-2-trust-services-criteria/cc7-4-incident-response)
-   [**CIS Controls v8 17.8** — Conduct Post-Incident Reviews](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/cis-controls-v8/17-8-conduct-post-incident-reviews)

## Related controls in ISO/IEC 27701:2025

-   [**Annex A A.3.11** — Incident management planning](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27701-2025/a-3-11-incident-management-planning)

## References

-   [ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 27 — ISO/IEC 27701:2025](https://www.iso.org/standard/85819.html)
-   Catalogue identifier: `Annex A A.3.12`

Topics: incident responsedata protectionevent alert