What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on 34 Regular backups (Essential)?

Backup access control list showing backup accounts separate from domain admins and unable to delete or modify retained copies; Backup schedule and job reports covering important data, software and configuration settings; Offline or immutable backup copy locations with retention settings of at least three months; Restoration test records from initial setup, annual testing and after infrastructure changes.

What is the most common gap auditors find on 34?

Backups kept online on the same domain, reachable by ransomware with the same admin credentials

ASD Strategies to Mitigate Cyber Security Incidents · Recovering Data and System Availability

`34` Regular backups (Essential)

Regular backups of important new/changed data, software and configuration settings, stored disconnected, retained for at least three months. Test restoration initially, annually and when IT infrastructure changes.

Source: ASD Strategies to Mitigate Cyber Security Incidents, 34. 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

Backup / DR tooling

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

Backup access control list showing backup accounts separate from domain admins and unable to delete or modify retained copies · Backup / DR tooling
Backup schedule and job reports covering important data, software and configuration settings · Backup / DR tooling

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Restoration test records from initial setup, annual testing and after infrastructure changes · Backup / DR tooling

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Offline or immutable backup copy locations with retention settings of at least three months · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Automate the pull from your Backup / DR tooling. Backup job success history and restore-test logs from the backup platform.

Common gaps auditors find

Backups kept online on the same domain, reachable by ransomware with the same admin credentials
Configuration settings and software not included, so systems cannot be rebuilt quickly
Restores never tested, or tested only on individual files rather than whole systems

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

33 Capture network traffic (Limited) · 35 Business continuity and disaster recovery plans (Very Good)