7.4 Communication
The organization must decide what internal and external communication the ISMS needs, covering what is communicated, when, to whom, and how.
Source: ISO/IEC 27001:2022, 7.4. 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 ISO/IEC 27001:2022 in the compliance library.
Clauses 4 to 10 are the management-system requirements: none of them can be excluded when an organisation claims conformity. The 93 Annex A controls are a reference set: one may be excluded with a justification in the Statement of Applicability. Certification bodies assess conformity; the evidence lists here are what auditors commonly ask for, not a list the standard prescribes.
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
- Records of communications carried out according to the plan · Policy repository / GRC workspace
governing documentDocuments that govern the control
- A communication plan or matrix stating topics, timing, audiences and channels for ISMS communication · Policy repository / GRC workspace
- External communication arrangements, for example with customers, regulators and suppliers · Policy repository / GRC workspace
- Evidence the plan is reviewed · Policy repository / GRC workspace
First move
Common gaps auditors find
- No communication plan exists, so communication is ad hoc
- External communication needs are not identified
- The plan is not followed in practice
- Responsibilities for communicating are not assigned
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.
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