ISO 27701 Transition study guide
ISO 27701 Transition · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The PECB Certified ISO/IEC 27701:2025 Transition credential is aimed at privacy and security professionals who already know ISO/IEC 27701:2019 and need to move to the 2025 revision. The associated training course explains the updated, added, and removed clauses and Annex A controls, the revised terminology, and the transformation of ISO/IEC 27701:2025 into a stand-alone management system standard. The course is delivered over two days: Day 1 introduces ISO/IEC 27701:2025 and its evolution from ISO/IEC 27701:2019; Day 2 is a clause-by-clause comparison and transition implementation. There are no prerequisites to participate. The exam, called the PECB ISO/IEC 27701 Transition exam, covers two competency domains: Domain 1, Foundations of ISO/IEC 27701:2025, and Domain 2, Overview of the changes in clauses 4-10. Candidates sit the exam after completing the training, and those who pass can apply for the credential, which requires no professional experience, no PIMS project experience, and only signing the PECB Code of Ethics. Topics on this exam: Foundations of ISO/IEC 27701:2025 and Overview of the changes in clauses 4-10. The ISO 27701 Transition study guide has 2 sections and about 771 words.
01Foundations of ISO/IEC 27701:2025
The Foundations domain checks whether you understand what ISO/IEC 27701:2025 is, what it extends, who it applies to, and how it relates to ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and ISO/IEC 27002:2022. Expect questions on the PIMS concept, roles, certification scope, and the 2025 edition's alignment with the 2022 ISMS standards. ISO/IEC 27701:2025 is a privacy information management extension to ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and ISO/IEC 27002:2022. It does not replace either standard.
376 words, about 2 min02Overview of the Changes in Clauses 4–10
This domain tests how the 2025 edition restructures PIMS requirements across clauses 4–10 compared with the 2019 edition. You need to know where privacy-specific requirements now sit in the management system, and why the change matters for auditors and implementers. The 2019 edition used clauses 5–8 with PIMS-specific extensions and separate annexes for controllers and processors. The 2025 edition aligns with ISO/IEC 27001:2022's Harmonized Structure and places PIMS-specific requirements directly in clauses 4–10.
395 words, about 2 minMore study resources for ISO 27701 Transition
- Practice questionsISO/IEC 27701:2025 is best described as which type of standard?
- FlashcardsISO/IEC 27701:2025. Standalone international standard specifying requirements and guidance for a privacy information management system (PIMS) that extends an ISMS, applicable to organizations acting as PII controllers, processors, or both.
- Cheat sheetISO/IEC 27701:2025 replaces the 2019 edition and is a standalone management system standard for privacy information management, no longer a sector extension of ISO/IEC 27001 and 27002.
- Key termsPrivacy Information Management System (PIMS). A management system that governs how an organization handles personally identifiable information, combining privacy-specific policies, controls, and governance with the broader information security management system in which it operates.
- Study planMap the structure of ISO/IEC 27701:2025 as a privacy extension to ISO/IEC 27001 and 27002, listing each clause and annex and stating what each covers.
- Common mistakesCandidates carry over habits from the 2019 edition, which was structured as an extension to 27001 and 27002 but was widely marketed as a standalone privacy certification; marketing language reinforces the wrong mental model, and the 2025 restructure into a self-contained document makes the confusion worse.
- Exam-day guideBring the same ID document whose name matches your exam registration.