What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on 08 Deny direct internet connectivity (Excellent)?

Exception register of hosts allowed direct internet access, with justification, approver and review date; Perimeter firewall rules denying direct outbound web and email traffic from corporate computers; Proxy and mail relay configuration showing all web and email traffic routed through content-checking servers; Test results confirming a workstation cannot reach the internet when bypassing the proxy.

What is the most common gap auditors find on 08?

Direct outbound port 80 and 443 still allowed from workstations alongside the proxy

ASD Strategies to Mitigate Cyber Security Incidents · Preventing Malware Delivery and Execution

`08` Deny direct internet connectivity (Excellent)

Deny corporate computers direct internet connectivity. Web and email traffic should transit through a content-checking proxy server.

Source: ASD Strategies to Mitigate Cyber Security Incidents, 08. The statement above is our statement of the clause, read from the published text and cited so you can check it against the official text, not the instrument verbatim. Open ASD Strategies to Mitigate Cyber Security Incidents in the compliance library.

artefacts

held by a system

at each review

easy

to go live

Endpoint management (MDM / EDR)

where the evidence lives

teal = a system already holds it · olive = produced at each review. To go live: easy when half or more of the artefacts are already held by a system, moderate from a quarter to a half, hard below a quarter.

These are the artefacts auditors commonly ask for on this requirement, our guidance rather than text from the standard. Your assessor decides what is sufficient in your context, and asks for samples across the period when a report covers one.

system holds itEvidence a system already holds

Perimeter firewall rules denying direct outbound web and email traffic from corporate computers · Endpoint management (MDM / EDR)
Proxy and mail relay configuration showing all web and email traffic routed through content-checking servers · Endpoint management (MDM / EDR)

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Test results confirming a workstation cannot reach the internet when bypassing the proxy · Endpoint management (MDM / EDR)

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Exception register of hosts allowed direct internet access, with justification, approver and review date · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Automate the pull from your Endpoint management (MDM / EDR). Device compliance report from the MDM (encryption, EDR agent, OS version) on a daily pull.

Common gaps auditors find

Direct outbound port 80 and 443 still allowed from workstations alongside the proxy
Servers and developer machines granted direct internet access as an exception without review
Split tunnelling lets remote users bypass the corporate proxy entirely

Do this for your whole sheet

Paste the rows you run your controls from and get this mapping for every control at once, with the periodic-review ones flagged and a first move per row. No account for the first run.

Build my evidence sheet

07 Web content filtering (Excellent) · 09 OS generic exploit mitigation (Excellent)