ISO 22301: Your Shield Against Disruptions Like the July 2024 Cyber Outage
The recent global cyber outage of July 2024 has highlighted the critical need for robust business continuity plans. Organizations worldwide experienced significant disruptions, underscoring vulnerabilities in IT infrastructures and the urgent necessity for a proactive approach to business continuity. One of the tools to ensure an organisation’s resilience to such unforeseen disruptions is SO 22301:2019 Business continuity management system.
What is ISO 22301?
ISO 22301 is the international standard for Business Continuity Management (BCM). Published by the International Organization for Standardization, is designed to help organizations protect against, prepare for, respond to, and recover when disruptive incidents arise.
ISO 22301 provides a framework to plan, establish, implement, operate, monitor, review, maintain and continually improve a business continuity management system (BCMS).
Benefits of ISO 22301 Certification
- Enhanced Risk Management
The global cyber outage demonstrated how rapidly evolving threats can impact business operations. ISO 22301 helps organizations identify and assess risks, enabling them to develop and implement effective mitigation strategies. This proactive risk management is crucial for minimizing the impact of disruptions.
- Improved Incident Response and Recovery
ISO 22301 certification ensures that organizations have well-defined procedures for responding to incidents. This includes clear roles and responsibilities, communication plans, and recovery strategies. During the July 2024 outage, certified organizations were better equipped to manage the crisis, restore operations quickly, and minimize downtime.
- Increased Stakeholder Confidence
Customers, partners, and investors are increasingly concerned about an organization’s resilience to disruptions. ISO 22301 certification provides assurance that an organization is committed to maintaining operational continuity, enhancing stakeholder trust and confidence.
- Regulatory Compliance
Many industries are subject to stringent regulatory requirements concerning business continuity and disaster recovery. ISO 22301 certification helps organizations meet these requirements, avoiding legal and financial penalties while demonstrating a commitment to best practices.
- Continuous Improvement
The framework provided by ISO 22301 encourages continuous assessment and improvement of business continuity plans. This ensures that organizations remain resilient in the face of new and emerging threats, adapting their strategies to stay ahead of potential disruptions.
The recent global cyber outage underlines the importance of being prepared for unforeseen disruptions.
Please contact BM Certification if you would like to achieve ISO 23001 certification for your company.