What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on A.8.7 Protection against malware?

Statement of Applicability entry for control A.8.7, showing inclusion or justified exclusion, implementation status and the risks it treats; Anti-malware deployment and update status reports across endpoints, servers and gateways; Application allowlisting and malicious website blocking configurations; Email, download and web scanning configuration at gateways and endpoints, including handling of encrypted content; Approved exception records for disabled protections with justification, approver and review date.

What is the most common gap auditors find on A.8.7?

Anti-malware is deployed but signature updates fail silently on some hosts

ISO/IEC 27001:2022 · Technological controls

`A.8.7` Protection against malware

Malware protection is to be implemented and backed by appropriate user awareness. Purpose (stated in ISO/IEC 27002:2022): ensures information and associated assets are protected against malware. 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 8.7.

Source: ISO/IEC 27001:2022, A.8.7. 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

easy

to go live

Endpoint management (MDM / EDR)

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

Anti-malware deployment and update status reports across endpoints, servers and gateways · Endpoint management (MDM / EDR)
Application allowlisting and malicious website blocking configurations · Endpoint management (MDM / EDR)
Email, download and web scanning configuration at gateways and endpoints, including handling of encrypted content · Vulnerability scanner / patch tooling

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Approved exception records for disabled protections with justification, approver and review date · Document repository

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Statement of Applicability entry for control A.8.7, showing inclusion or justified exclusion, implementation status and the risks it treats · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Automate the pull from your Endpoint management (MDM / EDR). Device compliance report from the MDM (encryption, EDR agent, OS version) on a daily pull.

Common gaps auditors find

Anti-malware is deployed but signature updates fail silently on some hosts
Protections are disabled for performance without a recorded exception or review date
Backups are online only and would be encrypted by ransomware
Systems that cannot run anti-malware, such as industrial controllers, have no compensating isolation

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.8.6 Capacity management · A.8.8 Management of technical vulnerabilities