What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on 12 Antivirus software with heuristics (Very Good)?

Test of a low-prevalence unsigned file being held or blocked by the reputation check before execution; Antivirus policy showing heuristic and reputation-based checks enabled, including file prevalence and signature validation; Console report of endpoints running the antivirus agent with heuristics turned on; Detections triggered by heuristic or reputation checks and how they were handled.

What is the most common gap auditors find on 12?

Heuristic sensitivity lowered or cloud reputation lookups disabled to reduce false positives

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

`12` Antivirus software with heuristics (Very Good)

Antivirus software using heuristics and reputation ratings to check a file's prevalence and digital signature prior to execution.

Source: ASD Strategies to Mitigate Cyber Security Incidents, 12. 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

moderate

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

Console report of endpoints running the antivirus agent with heuristics turned on · Endpoint management (MDM / EDR)

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Test of a low-prevalence unsigned file being held or blocked by the reputation check before execution · Endpoint management (MDM / EDR)

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Antivirus policy showing heuristic and reputation-based checks enabled, including file prevalence and signature validation · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Detections triggered by heuristic or reputation checks and how they were handled · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Start with the 1 of 4 artefacts that already live in a system (Endpoint management (MDM / EDR)); keep the periodic reviews but log each one as a dated record with a named reviewer.

Common gaps auditors find

Heuristic sensitivity lowered or cloud reputation lookups disabled to reduce false positives
Broad exclusions for whole folders or file types undermine the checks
Reputation features unable to work on hosts without cloud connectivity

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

11 Operating system hardening (Very Good) · 13 Control removable storage media (Very Good)