Use ISO 22301:2019 to manage continuity of products and services through disruption. Use ISO/IEC 27001:2022 to manage information security risks to confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
The standards can share governance, supplier, incident, audit, and testing evidence, but each record must support the scope and requirement claimed. One certificate does not establish conformity with the other standard.
ISO 22301:2019 specifies requirements for a business continuity management system (). ISO/IEC 27001:2022 specifies requirements for an information security management system (). Both published editions have a 2024 climate-action amendment. ISO/IEC 27001 Annex A includes control 5.30 on ICT readiness for business continuity, but that control does not supply ISO 22301's full BIA, continuity strategy, plans, exercise programme, and recovery requirements. Use one coordinated programme if helpful, with separate scopes, criteria, and conformity claims.
Side-by-side comparison
ISO 22301 vs ISO/IEC 27001: BCMS scope, ISMS scope, evidence, and certification boundaries
This comparison helps decide which standard owns the work, what evidence can be reused, and where separate and records are still required.
Business continuity management system requirements for continuing products and services through disruption using BIA, recovery priorities, strategies, plans, exercises, audit, management review, and improvement.
Second framework
ISO/IEC 27001
Information security management system requirements for assessing and treating information security risks using risk criteria, risk assessment, risk treatment, controls, , audit, management review, and improvement.
ISO 22301 vs ISO/IEC 27001: BCMS scope, ISMS scope, evidence, and certification boundaries
The scope must define its boundaries and applicability, identify the parts of the organization included, and account for relevant products, services, locations, and interested-party requirements. Any exclusion must be documented and explained and cannot undermine the organization's continuity responsibilities.
The scope must define its boundaries and applicability after considering internal and external issues, interested-party requirements, and interfaces and dependencies with activities performed by the organization or others. The documented scope determines which information, processes, systems, locations, and organizational units are covered.
A shared department, cloud service, or supplier may sit in both scopes, but the scope statement and certificate claim need to say what each management system actually covers.
Establish, implement, maintain, and continually improve a that prepares the organization to continue and recover products and services during disruption.
Choose ISO 22301 when the question is continuity capability. Choose ISO/IEC 27001 when the question is information security risk and control assurance.
ISO/IEC 27001 centers security analysis on information security risk assessment and risk treatment, then uses Annex A and other controls to avoid omitted necessary controls.
Do not substitute an RTO table for an information security risk treatment plan, and do not substitute an Annex A control list for BIA and recovery strategy evidence.
ISO 22301 uses disruption response, warning and communication, continuity procedures, recovery arrangements, exercises, and post-incident evaluation to prove readiness.
evidence includes BIA results, continuity objectives, MTPD and RTO assumptions, dependency maps, selected strategies, plans and procedures, exercise reports, post-incident reviews, audits, management reviews, and corrective actions. RPO may be useful for ICT or data recovery, but ISO 22301:2019 does not define it.
ISO 22301 audits and management reviews should test conformity, BIA/risk assessment currency, exercise results, continuity strategy adequacy, and improvement actions.
ISO/IEC 27001 audits and management reviews should test conformity, risk assessment and treatment status, accuracy, control performance, and improvement actions.
Customer-facing assurance should list each certificate, its certified scope, certification body, validity dates, stated exclusions or boundaries, and supporting evidence separately.
ISO/IEC 27001 looks at whether supplier access, cloud services, ICT supply chain dependencies, and service arrangements create information security risks that need controls.
Use ISO 22301 as the lead standard when the deliverable is continuity of products and services, recovery strategy, exercise evidence, or certification readiness.
The scope must define its boundaries and applicability, identify the parts of the organization included, and account for relevant products, services, locations, and interested-party requirements. Any exclusion must be documented and explained and cannot undermine the organization's continuity responsibilities.
The scope must define its boundaries and applicability after considering internal and external issues, interested-party requirements, and interfaces and dependencies with activities performed by the organization or others. The documented scope determines which information, processes, systems, locations, and organizational units are covered.
A shared department, cloud service, or supplier may sit in both scopes, but the scope statement and certificate claim need to say what each management system actually covers.
Establish, implement, maintain, and continually improve a that prepares the organization to continue and recover products and services during disruption.
Choose ISO 22301 when the question is continuity capability. Choose ISO/IEC 27001 when the question is information security risk and control assurance.
ISO/IEC 27001 centers security analysis on information security risk assessment and risk treatment, then uses Annex A and other controls to avoid omitted necessary controls.
Do not substitute an RTO table for an information security risk treatment plan, and do not substitute an Annex A control list for BIA and recovery strategy evidence.
ISO 22301 uses disruption response, warning and communication, continuity procedures, recovery arrangements, exercises, and post-incident evaluation to prove readiness.
evidence includes BIA results, continuity objectives, MTPD and RTO assumptions, dependency maps, selected strategies, plans and procedures, exercise reports, post-incident reviews, audits, management reviews, and corrective actions. RPO may be useful for ICT or data recovery, but ISO 22301:2019 does not define it.
ISO 22301 audits and management reviews should test conformity, BIA/risk assessment currency, exercise results, continuity strategy adequacy, and improvement actions.
ISO/IEC 27001 audits and management reviews should test conformity, risk assessment and treatment status, accuracy, control performance, and improvement actions.
Customer-facing assurance should list each certificate, its certified scope, certification body, validity dates, stated exclusions or boundaries, and supporting evidence separately.
ISO/IEC 27001 looks at whether supplier access, cloud services, ICT supply chain dependencies, and service arrangements create information security risks that need controls.
Use ISO 22301 as the lead standard when the deliverable is continuity of products and services, recovery strategy, exercise evidence, or certification readiness.
How should teams decide which standard owns the work?
Start with the outcome: continuity capability points to ISO 22301; information security risk treatment points to ISO/IEC 27001.
Check scope before reusing evidence: the same service, supplier, system, location, and period must be covered by the relevant management-system scope.
For cyber-disruption scenarios, create linked records: one BIA/recovery-strategy record for ISO 22301 and one risk-treatment/control record for ISO/IEC 27001.
Use joint internal-audit and management-review calendars only when each standard still has clear criteria, samples, findings, owners, and corrective actions.
ISO 22301 answers continuity questions; ISO/IEC 27001 answers information-security questions
ISO 22301 should lead when the decision is about continuity of products and services: scope, business impact analysis, risk assessment for disruption, continuity objectives, recovery priorities, strategies and solutions, continuity plans, exercises, evaluations, internal audit, management review, and improvement.
ISO/IEC 27001 should lead when the decision is about preserving confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information within the scope: information security risk criteria, risk assessment, risk treatment, selected controls, , risk-owner approval, monitoring, internal audit, management review, and corrective action.
ISO 22301 asks which products, services, and prioritized activities must continue or recover through disruption. ISO/IEC 27001 asks which information security risks are acceptable and which controls are needed to treat the others.
Use ISO 22301 for BIA, MTPD and RTO, recovery strategies, continuity procedures, exercises, and continuity evidence. Add RPO as an ICT or information-recovery target where useful; ISO 22301:2019 does not define it.
Use ISO/IEC 27001 for information security risk assessment, risk treatment, selection of necessary controls, comparison against Annex A, the , and evidence. Annex A is a reference set, not a requirement to implement every listed control without regard to risk treatment.
Use both when cyber, supplier, cloud, facility, or incident scenarios affect both information security and continuity of critical activities.
Where evidence overlaps without becoming interchangeable
The standards can share evidence because both use management-system mechanics: context, scope, leadership, roles, objectives, documented information, operational planning, internal audit, management review, nonconformity handling, and continual improvement. Shared mechanics do not make the certificates interchangeable.
A cloud-platform recovery exercise may support ISO 22301 by testing recovery arrangements for a prioritized activity and the products or services it supports. The same exercise may support ISO/IEC 27001 when it also tests a necessary information security control, risk treatment, or availability objective inside the scope. Annex A control 5.30 specifically addresses planning, implementing, maintaining, and testing ICT readiness against business continuity objectives and ICT continuity requirements.
Build the evidence matrix around the claim being made. One evidence item can appear in both columns, but it needs a separate acceptance test for and use.
ISO 22301 acceptance test: the record proves continuity capability for products, services, activities, dependencies, recovery targets, or continuity plans.
ISO/IEC 27001 acceptance test: the record proves information security risk assessment, treatment, selected controls, status, or risk-owner approval.
Turn this comparison into a scoped evidence matrix: continuity proof for ISO 22301, information-security proof for ISO/IEC 27001, and clearly labelled reuse where the same record supports both.
Risk work is related, but the risk objects are different
ISO 22301 uses BIA to determine business continuity priorities and requirements and risk assessment to identify disruption risks that require treatment. It then uses both outputs to select strategies and solutions for before, during, and after disruption.
ISO/IEC 27001 requires an information security risk assessment process and an information security risk treatment process. The risk treatment process selects controls, checks them against Annex A, produces a , creates a risk treatment plan, and gets risk-owner approval for residual risk.
A single scenario can create both records. For example, ransomware can drive an ISO 22301 recovery strategy and an ISO/IEC 27001 risk treatment plan, but the evidence should not be reduced to a control list and the evidence should not be reduced to an RTO.
For ISO 22301, ask: which activities are prioritized, what impacts matter over time, what recovery targets apply, and which strategies are exercised?
For ISO/IEC 27001, ask: which information assets and risks are in scope, which controls are needed, what residual risk is accepted, and what does the say?
For joint scenarios, maintain a bridge record that links continuity objectives to information security risk treatments without merging the registers.
Certification boundaries and assurance claims need separate wording
An ISO 22301 certificate supports a claim about the defined scope. It does not automatically certify the organization's , Annex A controls, or information security risk treatment process.
An ISO/IEC 27001 certificate supports a claim about the defined scope. It does not automatically prove business impact analysis quality, continuity strategies, recovery procedures, or exercise coverage under ISO 22301.
When customers ask for both, answer with scope language first: covered legal entities, sites, products and services, systems, suppliers, dates, certification body, exclusions, and the evidence package behind each certificate. Certification is optional, and ISO does not issue either certificate; an external certification body certifies the management system within its stated scope.
Do not write "ISO 27001 covers business continuity" without showing the specific control, risk treatment, or availability objective being relied on.
Do not write "ISO 22301 covers cybersecurity" without showing the continuity scenario, dependency, incident procedure, or supplier continuity evidence being relied on.
Use separate certificate-scope summaries and a reuse matrix for shared evidence.
Common mistakes when combining ISO 22301 and ISO/IEC 27001
Treating ISO 22301 as a generic resilience label and ISO/IEC 27001 as a generic security label produces audit packs that cannot show what was assessed, what was treated, what was exercised, who accepted residual information security risk, or what changed after review.
Another mistake is using one audit cycle to justify the other. Internal audit, management review, and corrective action can be coordinated, but the audit criteria and evidence samples must still test the right standard.
A combined programme can keep one calendar, while maintaining two evidence views: continuity capability for the and information security risk treatment for the .
Avoid vague claims such as "covered by ISO" unless the certificate scope and evidence row are explicit.
Avoid copying ISO/IEC 27001 controls into ISO 22301 without checking BIA outputs and continuity strategy decisions.
Avoid copying ISO 22301 recovery targets into ISO/IEC 27001 without checking risk treatment, control ownership, and residual-risk approval.
Review both records after major service, supplier, site, system, threat, incident, or organizational changes.
ISO lists ISO 22301:2019 as the business continuity management system requirements standard, supporting the BCMS scope, BIA, continuity strategy, exercise, audit, and management-review framing used on this page.
"Business continuity management systems — Requirements"
ISO identifies ISO/IEC 27001:2022 as the information security management system requirements standard, supporting the ISMS risk assessment, risk treatment, control, audit, and management-review framing used on this page.
"Information security management systems — Requirements"