What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on A.8.24 Use of cryptography?

Statement of Applicability entry for control A.8.24, showing inclusion or justified exclusion, implementation status and the risks it treats; The topic-specific cryptography policy with approved algorithms, key lengths, protocols and usage by information classification; Key management procedures covering generation, distribution, storage, rotation, revocation, recovery, backup, destruction and activation periods; Key inventory or HSM and key management service records with logs of key management activity; Evidence of encryption on endpoints, removable media and data in transit, aligned with the policy.

What is the most common gap auditors find on A.8.24?

Deprecated algorithms or short keys remain in use because no approved list is enforced

ISO/IEC 27001:2022 · Technological controls

`A.8.24` Use of cryptography

The organization is to define and apply rules for using cryptography effectively, key management included. Purpose (stated in ISO/IEC 27002:2022): makes cryptography work correctly to keep information confidential, genuine or unaltered as business, security and legal needs require. 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 8.24.

Source: ISO/IEC 27001:2022, A.8.24. 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

Key inventory or HSM and key management service records with logs of key management activity · Key management / PKI

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Evidence of encryption on endpoints, removable media and data in transit, aligned with the policy · Endpoint management (MDM / EDR)

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Statement of Applicability entry for control A.8.24, showing inclusion or justified exclusion, implementation status and the risks it treats · Policy repository / GRC workspace
The topic-specific cryptography policy with approved algorithms, key lengths, protocols and usage by information classification · Policy repository / GRC workspace
Key management procedures covering generation, distribution, storage, rotation, revocation, recovery, backup, destruction and activation periods · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Mostly documents and reviews. Pull the 1 system-held artefact from your Key management / PKI 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

Deprecated algorithms or short keys remain in use because no approved list is enforced
Keys have no defined lifetime and are never rotated
Private keys are stored alongside the data they protect or in source code
Expired or compromised certificates are not revoked promptly

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.8.23 Web filtering · A.8.25 Secure development life cycle