ISO 27001 A.5.8: security in projects, explained for startups

A.5.8 Information security in project management

Security is considered at the start of every project. What proves it: a step in your project process where security risks are reviewed, and a recent project that went through it.

A certification auditor samples project records showing a security review. A file that usually does the job: a design document or project ticket with a completed security checklist.

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.5.8 walks you through it in this order.

1. Add a short security checklist to your project or feature template.
2. Have the project lead fill it in before work starts.
3. Keep the completed checklist with the project.

No question in the readiness assessment covers A.5.8 directly, so the control card is its whole evidence path.

Policies, connectors and the SOC 2 overlap

In the ISO 27001 policy pack, the Secure Development and Change Management Policy covers A.5.8. 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 criteria that cover this ground: CC3.4, changes that add risk and CC8.1, change management.

Organizational controls

A.5.8 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.5.5, contact with authorities
• A.5.6, security communities
• A.5.7, threat intelligence
• A.5.9, asset inventory
• A.5.10, acceptable use
• A.5.11, returning assets

Before it: A.5.7, threat intelligence. After it: A.5.9, asset inventory. Every control, by theme, is on the Annex A controls page.