ISO 27001 A.5.31: legal and contract duties, explained for startups

A.5.31 Legal, statutory, regulatory and contractual requirements

You know which laws, regulations and contracts set security rules for you. What proves it: a register of the laws, regulations and contract terms that apply, with an owner who keeps it current.

A certification auditor samples the legal and contractual requirements register. A file that usually does the job: a register listing each law, regulation and contract obligation with its owner and the control that meets it.

How to put it in place

Each step leaves a record, and the record is what the auditor samples rather than the step itself. Inside Polara, the control card for A.5.31 walks you through it in this order.

1. List what applies: privacy laws, sector rules and security clauses in customer contracts.
2. Name an owner for the register.
3. Review it once a year and when you enter a new market.

The free ISO 27001 readiness assessment asks one question that evidences it:

• Do you keep a register of the laws, regulations and contract terms that set security requirements for you?

Policies, connectors and the SOC 2 overlap

In the ISO 27001 policy pack, the Legal, Regulatory and Contractual Compliance Policy covers A.5.31. An auditor reads the policy for the rule, then samples the records to see the rule was followed.

The same evidence counts toward SOC 2. The Trust Services criterion that cover this ground: CC3.1, risk objectives.

Organizational controls

A.5.31 is one of the 37 organizational controls in Annex A. How the company runs security: policies, roles, suppliers, incidents, continuity and legal duties. Most of these are written decisions and the records that show you follow them.

Nearby controls in the same theme:

• A.5.28, collecting evidence
• A.5.29, security during a disruption
• A.5.30, technology continuity
• A.5.32, intellectual property
• A.5.33, protecting records
• A.5.34, personal data protection

Before it: A.5.30, technology continuity. After it: A.5.32, intellectual property. Every control, by theme, is on the Annex A controls page.