What evidence do auditors commonly ask for on 7.8 Equipment siting and protection?

Floor plans showing equipment placement that limits access and overlooking of sensitive screens; Environmental monitoring records for temperature and humidity with alert thresholds and responses; Lightning protection and surge filter installation records for buildings and incoming lines; Rules on food, drink and smoking near processing facilities; Assessments of electromagnetic emanation risk for equipment handling confidential information, where applicable; Evidence of physical separation between organization-managed facilities and third-party equipment, for example in shared rooms.

What is the most common gap auditors find on 7.8?

Screens handling sensitive data face windows or public walkways

ISO/IEC 27002:2022 · Physical controls

`7.8` Equipment siting and protection

Equipment is to be positioned securely and protected. Purpose: lessen exposure of equipment to physical and environmental hazards and to tampering or harm. Guidance: consider placing equipment so that people do not need to pass through work areas unnecessarily and unauthorized access is avoided; positioning facilities that handle sensitive data so unauthorized people cannot view information while they are in use; protection from physical and environmental threats, for example theft, fire, explosives, smoke, water or loss of water supply, dust, vibration, chemicals, disturbance to power or communications, electromagnetic radiation and deliberate damage; rules on eating, drinking and smoking near processing facilities; monitoring temperature, humidity and other conditions that could harm operation; lightning protection on all buildings with filters on incoming power and communication lines; special protection such as keyboard membranes in industrial settings; protecting equipment that handles confidential information against leakage through electromagnetic emanation; and physically separating facilities the organization manages from those it does not.

Source: ISO/IEC 27002:2022, 7.8. 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 27002:2022 in the compliance library.

ISO/IEC 27002 is guidance on the Annex A controls; certification is against ISO/IEC 27001. Use this set when your sheet follows the 27002 numbering.

artefacts

held by a system

at each review

moderate

to go live

SIEM / log platform

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

Environmental monitoring records for temperature and humidity with alert thresholds and responses · SIEM / log platform
Rules on food, drink and smoking near processing facilities · Physical access / facilities

periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review

Lightning protection and surge filter installation records for buildings and incoming lines · Document repository
Assessments of electromagnetic emanation risk for equipment handling confidential information, where applicable · Document repository
Evidence of physical separation between organization-managed facilities and third-party equipment, for example in shared rooms · Physical access / facilities

governing documentDocuments that govern the control

Floor plans showing equipment placement that limits access and overlooking of sensitive screens · Policy repository / GRC workspace

First move

Start with the 2 of 6 artefacts that already live in a system (SIEM / log platform); keep the periodic reviews but log each one as a dated record with a named reviewer.

Common gaps auditors find

Screens handling sensitive data face windows or public walkways
No environmental monitoring exists in small server rooms or cupboards
Organization equipment shares an unsegregated rack or room with third-party equipment
Protection against water leaks from overhead pipes is not considered

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

7.7 Clear desk and clear screen · 7.9 Security of assets off-premises