ES-3 Ensure anti-malware software and signatures are updated
Ensure anti-malware signatures and the anti-malware solution itself are updated rapidly and consistently across the endpoint estate.
Source: Azure Security Benchmark v3 (renamed Microsoft cloud security benchmark), ES-3. 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 Azure Security Benchmark v3 (renamed Microsoft cloud security benchmark) in the compliance library.
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
- Exception register for endpoints that cannot auto-update · Endpoint management (MDM / EDR)
periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review
none for this control
governing documentDocuments that govern the control
- Signature version reporting across endpoints · Policy repository / GRC workspace
- Update schedule and its enforcement mechanism · Policy repository / GRC workspace
- Alerting on endpoints whose signatures are stale · Policy repository / GRC workspace
First move
Common gaps auditors find
- signature age never reported so stale endpoints go unnoticed
- updates blocked by network restrictions on isolated subnets
- exceptions granted with no compensating control
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 sheetES-2 Use modern anti-malware software · GS-1 Align organization roles, responsibilities and accountabilities