Testing of business continuity plans

The organization should regularly, at least annually, test and review its information security continuity plans to ensure that they are valid and effective in adverse situations.

Testing of continuity plans shall involve, as appropriate, stakeholders critical to each plan. The organisation should identify and document the necessary contacts with suppliers and partners.

In addition, the adequacy of continuity plans and associated management mechanisms should be reassessed in the event of significant changes in operations.

Continuity requirements for ICT services are derived from continuity plans that are created for core processes (e.g. related to the provision of organization's products and services) and the recovery time goals included in them.

Organization must identify what recovery times and recovery points different ICT services must be able to achieve, taking into account the defined recovery goals for related processes, and ensure the ability to achieve them.

The planning must take into account in particular:

• responsibilities are defined for preparing for, managing and responding to disruptions in ICT services
• in particular continuity plans related to ICT services have been created, approved and are regularly tested
• continuity plans contain information on performance requirements, recovery time requirements and recovery actions for each important ICT service, as well as recovery point requirements and restoring actions for each important ICT service

The organization regularly develops its continuity plans by analyzing the testing of the plans, training and their actual use in real situations.