What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on A.7.10 Storage media?

Statement of Applicability entry for control A.7.10, showing inclusion or justified exclusion, implementation status and the risks it treats; The topic-specific removable media policy and evidence it was communicated to users; Endpoint configuration showing USB and SD ports disabled unless a business reason is approved, and monitoring of transfers to removable media; Encryption enforcement for removable media holding confidential or integrity-critical information; Media removal authorizations and registers of removable media.

What is the most common gap auditors find on A.7.10?

USB ports are open on all endpoints with no business justification

ISO/IEC 27001:2022 · Physical controls

`A.7.10` Storage media

Storage media are to be controlled through acquisition, use, transport and disposal in line with how the organization classifies information and the handling rules that follow. Purpose (stated in ISO/IEC 27002:2022): ensures information on storage media is disclosed, modified, removed or destroyed only with authorization. As an Annex A reference control, it is compared with the controls determined in risk treatment (6.1.3 c) and recorded in the Statement of Applicability as included or excluded, with the justification and implementation status (6.1.3 d); implementation guidance is ISO/IEC 27002:2022 7.10.

Source: ISO/IEC 27001:2022, A.7.10. 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.

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

Endpoint configuration showing USB and SD ports disabled unless a business reason is approved, and monitoring of transfers to removable media · Physical access / facilities

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

none for this control

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Statement of Applicability entry for control A.7.10, showing inclusion or justified exclusion, implementation status and the risks it treats · Policy repository / GRC workspace
The topic-specific removable media policy and evidence it was communicated to users · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Encryption enforcement for removable media holding confidential or integrity-critical information · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Media removal authorizations and registers of removable media · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Mostly documents and reviews. Pull the 1 system-held artefact from your Physical access / facilities on a schedule; put the documents under version control with an owner and review date, and log each review as a dated record with a named reviewer.

Common gaps auditors find

USB ports are open on all endpoints with no business justification
Removable media are not encrypted
Disposal providers are chosen on price with no check of their controls
Long-term archives sit on media that has degraded and was never refreshed

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

A.7.9 Security of assets off-premises · A.7.11 Supporting utilities