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Downtime

What is Downtime?

A period when a system, service, or network is unavailable or not functioning, potentially impacting business operations.

Business Continuity

Each of these is named in at least one of the same controls as downtime. The number is how many controls name both.

What the standards actually require on downtime

Requirements naming downtime across 6 standards, quoted from the control text.

C5 (Germany)1 control

Test restore procedures at least annually so that adherence to contractual agreements and to the defined maximum tolerable downtime and maximum permissible data loss can be assessed, and report any deviation to responsible personnel for prompt action.

C5-OPS-08 · Data Backup and Recovery - Regular Testing

Requires validation of information systems, documented downtime procedures, and oversight of off-site data providers.

ISO-15189-7.6 · Data and information management

Vulnerability Management is a core technical control area per FSA Cybersecurity Guidelines. (1) Vulnerability Discovery: (a) Authenticated and Unauthenticated Scanning - Nessus + Qualys + Rapid7 + open source; (b) DAST Dynamic Application Security Testing;

JP-FSA-CYB-Vulnerability-Management-Patching-CVE-Risk-Based-Prioritisation-Penetration-Testing-Red-Team · Japan FSA Cybersecurity Vulnerability Management + Patching + CVE Tracking + Risk-Based Prioritisation + Penetration Testing + Red-Team + Bug Bounty + Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure + Zero-Day Response

Kuwait NCF Respond and Recover functions. Incident Response and Reporting: documented Incident Response Plan + Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT) + 24/7 incident hotline + Incident classification (severity + impact + urgency) + Triage + Containme...

KNCF-Respond-Incident-Response-Reporting-Recover-Business-Continuity-Cyber-Resilience-NCSC-Notification · Kuwait NCF Respond + Incident Response + Reporting + Recover + BC + Cyber Resilience + NCSC

Questions people ask about downtime

What is Downtime?
A period when a system, service, or network is unavailable or not functioning, potentially impacting business operations.
Why is Downtime important for compliance?
Downtime is a key concept in Business Continuity. Understanding downtime helps organizations meet regulatory requirements, reduce risk, and demonstrate due diligence during audits. Our compliance platform maps 686 frameworks with 311K cross-framework control mappings.
Which compliance frameworks address Downtime?
Downtime appears in the requirement text of C5 (Germany), ISO 15189:2022 - Medical Laboratories Requirements for Quality and Competence, ITU-T X.805 - Security Architecture for End-to-End Communications, Japan AI Guidelines, Japan FSA Cybersecurity Guidelines for Financial Institutions. Across these standards we have identified 6 controls that name it directly, each linked to the control text on the compliance platform.
Where can I learn more about Downtime?
Explore our compliance framework pages to see how downtime applies across different standards and regulations. Our implementation guides provide step-by-step guidance, and the compliance platform offers AI-powered analysis of how this concept maps across 686 frameworks.

See how Downtime applies across compliance frameworks

Our platform maps 686 frameworks with 311K cross-framework control mappings. Explore how this concept is addressed across standards.

Written and maintained by Gerard Blokdyk, The Art of Service.