Reviewed by the Aegentra Security Team — NV1-cleared ISO 27001 practitioners · Updated May 2026
A practical guide to the PECB Certified Lead Crisis Manager — the ISO 22361 certification for professionals who lead organisations through cyber crises, natural disasters, and reputational events in Australia. Covers the crisis management framework, the 3-hour four-domain exam, the $950 + GST cost, and the four-tier credential ladder.
The PECB Certified Lead Crisis Manager is the ISO 22361 certification for strategic crisis leadership — $950 + GST through Aegentra, delivered as flexible self-study (35–45 hours, a 5-day course equivalent), assessed by a 3-hour remotely proctored exam across four domains, earning 31 CPD credits.
It is a certification course built on ISO 22361:2022, the international guidelines for crisis management. It teaches you to design and develop an organisation’s strategic crisis management capability — the crisis management framework of leadership, organisational structure, culture, and competence, plus crisis communications, anticipation and assessment of crises, prevention and preparedness, and response, recovery, and learning from crises. ISO 22361 is a guidelines standard, so there is no organisational certification against it — the credential attaches to the individual. View the full course details.
High-profile Australian ransomware and data-breach events have shown that a significant cyber incident is a board-level crisis, not just an IT problem — decisions about disclosure to the OAIC, customers, and regulators run in parallel with technical response. APRA CPS 230 requires regulated entities to manage operational risk against severe-but-plausible scenarios, the SOCI Act puts critical-infrastructure operators on tight incident-reporting clocks, and Australia’s bushfire, flood, and cyclone exposure gives organisations more genuine crisis practice than most markets. ISO 22361 treats crisis communications as a core capability rather than an afterthought. For the hands-on technical side of the same bad day, see the incident response certification guide.
Those responsible for delivering a crisis management capability, crisis leaders and members of crisis management teams (including executives and communications leads who sit on the team without having been trained for it), resilience, business continuity, and emergency management professionals, and consultants advising on ISO 22361. In Australian job descriptions it maps to Crisis Manager, Resilience Manager, Business Continuity Manager, Emergency Management Coordinator, and senior risk roles. There is no formal prerequisite — a general understanding of organisational governance and risk is enough.
Day 1 covers ISO 22361 fundamentals, crisis management models, capability, principles, and crisis communications. Day 2 covers the crisis management framework — leadership, organisational structure, culture, and competence. Day 3 covers anticipation, assessment, prevention and mitigation, and preparedness. Day 4 covers response, recovery, and continual improvement, including learning from crises. Day 5 is the certification exam.
A 3-hour, remotely proctored PECB exam mixing multiple-choice and scenario-based questions, with a 70% pass mark, across four competency domains: fundamental concepts and principles of crisis management; establishing the crisis management framework; crisis management prevention and preparedness; and crisis management response and recovery. Because ISO 22361 is guidance rather than requirements, expect judgement questions that reason from principles rather than clause recall. The exam voucher and one free resit within 12 months are included.
$950 + GST, including the official 400+ page slide deck with practical examples and scenario-based quizzes, 12 months myPECB access, the official PECB exam voucher, one free resit within 12 months, crisis management framework and team structure templates with a crisis communications plan worked example, a PECB digital certificate on pass, and 31 CPD credits. Live instructor-led and in-person delivery in Melbourne and Sydney is available on request.
One exam, four tiers based on attested experience: Provisional Crisis Manager (no experience required), Crisis Manager (two years, one in crisis management, 200 hours of activities), Lead Crisis Manager (five years, two in crisis management, 300 hours), and Senior Lead Crisis Manager (ten years, seven in crisis management, 1,000 hours). All require signing the PECB Code of Ethics. The credential pairs directly with ISO 22301 business continuity — the certifiable management system for planned disruptions — so you cover both the plan and the situations no plan anticipated. Browse all Aegentra Academy courses.