The logic behind Annex A controls
ISO 27001 is intended for companies of all sizes, and for all industries — since security cannot be the same in different companies, ISO 27001 allows for flexibility when companies choose their safeguards (i.e., “controls” in the terminology of ISO standards).
ISO 27001 offers a catalog of 93 controls — the process of choosing which control is applicable for a particular company starts by identifying requirements of interested parties and assessing security risks, and then based on those inputs, documenting in the Statement of Applicability which controls will be used. Learn more about this process in this article: ISO 27001 Risk Assessment, Treatment, & Management: The Complete Guide.
The list of controls from Annex A
ISO 27001 Annex A is structured in four sections that contain the 93 controls mentioned above. You’ll find the list of sections and their controls below — click the name of any control to find out more about it.
A.5 – Organizational controls — this section describes 37 controls that are mainly about information security governance:
- Control 5.1 – Policies for information security
- Control 5.2 – Information security roles and responsibilities
- Control 5.3 – Segregation of duties
- Control 5.4 – Management responsibilities
- Control 5.5 – Contact with authorities
- Control 5.6 – Contact with special interest groups
- Control 5.7 – Threat intelligence
- Control 5.8 – Information security in project management
- Control 5.9 – Inventory of information and other associated assets
- Control 5.10 – Acceptable use of information and other associated assets
- Control 5.11 – Return of assets
- Control 5.12 – Classification of information
- Control 5.13 – Labelling of information
- Control 5.14 – Information transfer
- Control 5.15 – Access control
- Control 5.16 – Identity management
- Control 5.17 – Authentication information
- Control 5.18 – Access rights
- Control 5.19 – Information security in supplier relationships
- Control 5.20 – Addressing information security within supplier agreements
- Control 5.21 – Managing information security in the ICT supply chain
- Control 5.22 – Monitoring, review and change management of supplier service
- Control 5.23 – Information security for use of cloud services
- Control 5.24 – Information security incident management planning and preparation
- Control 5.25 – Assessment and decision on information security events
- Control 5.26 – Response to information security incidents
- Control 5.27 – Learning from information security incidents
- Control 5.28 – Collection of evidence
- Control 5.29 – Information security during disruption
- Control 5.30 – ICT readiness for business continuity
- Control 5.31 – Legal, statutory, regulatory and contractual requirements
- Control 5.32 – Intellectual property rights
- Control 5.33 – Protection of records
- Control 5.34 – Privacy and protection of PII
- Control 5.35 – Independent review of information security
- Control 5.36 – Compliance with policies, rules and standards for information security
- Control 5.37 – Documented operating procedures
A.6 – People controls — this section describes eight controls related to secure management of human resources:
- Control 6.1 – Screening
- Control 6.2 – Terms and conditions of employment
- Control 6.3 – Information security awareness, education and training
- Control 6.4 – Disciplinary process
- Control 6.5 – Responsibilities after termination or change of employment
- Control 6.6 – Confidentiality or non-disclosure agreements
- Control 6.7 – Remote working
- Control 6.8 – Information security event reporting
A.7 – Physical controls — this section describes 14 controls related to protection of the physical environment that can influence the security of information:
- Control 7.1 – Physical security perimeters
- Control 7.2 – Physical entry
- Control 7.3 – Securing offices, rooms and facilities
- Control 7.4 – Physical security monitoring
- Control 7.5 – Protecting against physical and environmental threats
- Control 7.6 – Working in secure areas
- Control 7.7 – Clear desk and clear screen
- Control 7.8 – Equipment siting and protection
- Control 7.9 – Security of assets off-premises
- Control 7.10 – Storage media
- Control 7.11 – Supporting utilities
- Control 7.12 – Cabling security
- Control 7.13 – Equipment maintenance
- Control 7.14 – Secure disposal or re-use of equipment
A.8 – Technological controls — this section describes 34 controls that are mainly related to the security of IT:
- Control 8.1 – User endpoint devices
- Control 8.2 – Privileged access rights
- Control 8.3 – Information access restriction
- Control 8.4 – Access to source code
- Control 8.5 – Secure authentication
- Control 8.6 – Capacity management
- Control 8.7 – Protection against malware
- Control 8.8 – Management of technical vulnerabilities
- Control 8.9 – Configuration management
- Control 8.10 – Information deletion
- Control 8.11 – Data masking
- Control 8.12 – Data leakage prevention
- Control 8.13 – Information backup
- Control 8.14 – Redundancy of information processing facilities
- Control 8.15 – Logging
- Control 8.16 – Monitoring activities
- Control 8.17 – Clock synchronization
- Control 8.18 – Use of privileged utility programs
- Control 8.19 – Installation of software on operational systems
- Control 8.20 – Networks security
- Control 8.21 – Security of network services
- Control 8.22 – Segregation of networks
- Control 8.23 – Web filtering
- Control 8.24 – Use of cryptography
- Control 8.25 – Secure development life cycle
- Control 8.26 – Application security requirements
- Control 8.27 – Secure system architecture and engineering principles
- Control 8.28 – Secure coding
- Control 8.29 – Security testing in development and acceptance
- Control 8.30 – Outsourced development
- Control 8.31 – Separation of development, test and production environments
- Control 8.32 – Change management
- Control 8.33 – Test information
- Control 8.34 – Protection of information systems during audit testing
