What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on SEC07-BP01 Understand your data classification scheme?

Data classification policy with defined sensitivity levels; Data inventory for the workload mapped to classes, locations and owners; Legal and regulatory obligations mapped to each class; Evidence the scheme is communicated to builders.

What is the most common gap auditors find on SEC07-BP01?

classification policy exists but no workload data is mapped to it

AWS Well-Architected Security Pillar · Data Protection

`SEC07-BP01` Understand your data classification scheme

Understand and document the classification scheme that applies to the data the workload processes, including handling requirements, storage locations, owners and the legal obligations attached to each class.

Source: AWS Well-Architected Security Pillar, SEC07-BP01. 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 AWS Well-Architected Security Pillar in the compliance library.

artefacts

held by a system

at each review

hard

to go live

Policy repository / GRC workspace

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

none for this control

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Evidence the scheme is communicated to builders · Data governance / DLP tooling

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Data classification policy with defined sensitivity levels · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Data inventory for the workload mapped to classes, locations and owners · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Legal and regulatory obligations mapped to each class · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

No system holds this evidence for you: it is people and documents. Reminders and routing to the owner still save time. Put the document under version control with an owner and review date, and log each review as a record with reviewer and date.

Common gaps auditors find

classification policy exists but no workload data is mapped to it
no named data owner so handling decisions stall
classification levels defined with no handling rules attached

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

SEC06-BP05 Automate compute protection · SEC07-BP02 Apply data protection controls based on data sensitivity