# ISO/IEC 42001:2023 A.8.4 — Communication of incidents

- Source: https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-42001-2023/a-8-4-communication-of-incidents
- Section: [Compliance](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance) › [ISO/IEC 42001:2023 (AI Management System) Annex A Controls](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-42001-2023) › Organizational controls
- Last updated: 2026-06-05
- Publisher: iCompaas, Inc. (https://www.icompaas.com)

**ISO/IEC 42001:2023**·Annex A `A.8.4`·high·Component: **Organizational controls**

## What this control requires

> AI-related incidents and significant events shall be communicated to relevant stakeholders in a timely and controlled manner.
> 
> — ISO/IEC 42001:2023, Annex A A.8.4

### In plain English

AI-related incidents and significant events shall be communicated to relevant stakeholders in a timely and controlled manner. In practice, this means you can prove you communicate incidents-level controls on a defined cadence.

## Why it matters

ISO 42001 is the first audited evidence regulators, customers and investors can ask for that you are managing AI risk. Each Annex A control is a check-box in that audit; it is also the management system enterprises are starting to require from AI vendors before an MSA can be signed.

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 42001 auditor verifies you have an AI policy, a risk-based system of impact assessments for each AI system, lifecycle controls from data acquisition through retirement, and third-party-AI controls that pierce the vendor's wrapper to underlying model behaviour.

Within **Organizational controls**, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Annex A A.8.4) 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.

#### 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

-   **Communicate.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Scope:** incidents.

## Evidence to collect

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

Workflow evidence should demonstrate communication of AI-related incidents and significant events to relevant stakeholders, while policies define timeliness, ownership, and escalation criteria. Focus: Communication of incidents.

## Common pitfalls

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

-   [**ISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.5.24** — Information security incident management planning and preparation](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-5-24-information-security-incident-management-planning-and-preparation)
-   [**ISO/IEC 27701:2025 A.3.12** — Response to incidents](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27701-2025/a-3-12-response-to-incidents)
-   [**CIS Controls v8 17.4** — Establish and Maintain an Incident Response Process](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/cis-controls-v8/17-4-establish-and-maintain-an-incident-response-process)
-   [**BSI C5:2020 SIM-01** — Policy for security incident management](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/bsi-c5-2020/sim-01-policy-for-security-incident-management)

## Related controls in ISO/IEC 42001:2023

-   [**Annex A A.8.3** — External reporting](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-42001-2023/a-8-3-external-reporting)
-   [**Annex A A.3.3** — Reporting of concerns](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-42001-2023/a-3-3-reporting-of-concerns)
-   [**Annex A A.8.5** — Information for interested parties](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-42001-2023/a-8-5-information-for-interested-parties)
-   [**Annex A A.2.2** — Policies for the responsible development or use of AI systems](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-42001-2023/a-2-2-policies-for-the-responsible-development-or-use-of-ai-systems)
-   [**Annex A A.2.3** — Alignment with other organizational policies](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-42001-2023/a-2-3-alignment-with-other-organizational-policies)
-   [**Annex A A.2.4** — Review of policies for responsible AI](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-42001-2023/a-2-4-review-of-policies-for-responsible-ai)

## References

-   [ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 42 — ISO/IEC 42001:2023](https://www.iso.org/standard/81230.html)
-   Catalogue identifier: `Annex A A.8.4`

Topics: incident responsestakeholder communicationgovernance riskevent alertpolicy management