What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on A.7.6 Working in secure areas?

Statement of Applicability entry for control A.7.6, showing inclusion or justified exclusion, implementation status and the risks it treats; Documented rules for working in secure areas that apply to all personnel and activities; Records restricting knowledge of secure areas to those with a need to know; Supervision or two-person rules and records for work in secure areas; Inspection records for vacant secure areas and evidence they are locked.

What is the most common gap auditors find on A.7.6?

Staff routinely take phones with cameras into secure areas without authorization

ISO/IEC 27001:2022 · Physical controls

`A.7.6` Working in secure areas

Security measures for working inside secure areas are to be designed and put in place. Purpose (stated in ISO/IEC 27002:2022): stops people working in secure areas from damaging or tampering with what is kept there. 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 7.6.

Source: ISO/IEC 27001:2022, A.7.6. 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

Physical access / facilities

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

Documented rules for working in secure areas that apply to all personnel and activities · Physical access / facilities

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Records restricting knowledge of secure areas to those with a need to know · Physical access / facilities
Supervision or two-person rules and records for work in secure areas · Physical access / facilities
Inspection records for vacant secure areas and evidence they are locked · Physical access / facilities

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Statement of Applicability entry for control A.7.6, showing inclusion or justified exclusion, implementation status and the risks it treats · 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

Staff routinely take phones with cameras into secure areas without authorization
Work in data rooms is done alone out of hours with no supervision
Vacant secure rooms are left unlocked
Floor plans and descriptions of secure areas circulate widely

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.7.5 Protecting against physical and environmental threats · A.7.7 Clear desk and clear screen