ISO 27001 A.7.13: equipment maintenance, explained for startups

A.7.13 Equipment maintenance

Office equipment is maintained so it stays reliable and secure. What proves it: a maintenance schedule for office equipment and records that it was done.

A certification auditor samples maintenance logs. A file that usually does the job: a service record for office network equipment, or a maintenance log.

This control applies only where you have an office or other premises. A fully remote company can exclude it in its Statement of Applicability, with the reason written down.

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.7.13 walks you through it in this order.

1. List office equipment that needs servicing, such as network equipment, printers and battery backup.
2. Follow the maker's service schedule and supervise outside technicians.
3. Keep the service records.

No question in the readiness assessment covers A.7.13 directly, so the control card is its whole evidence path.

Policies, connectors and the SOC 2 overlap

In the ISO 27001 policy pack, the Physical and Environmental Security Policy covers A.7.13. 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: A1.2, recovery infrastructure.

Physical controls

A.7.13 is one of the 14 physical controls in Annex A. Buildings, rooms, equipment and media. A remote company with no office can exclude several of these in its Statement of Applicability, with the reason written down, and covers the rest through laptop rules and its cloud provider.

Nearby controls in the same theme:

• A.7.10, storage media
• A.7.11, power and utilities
• A.7.12, cabling
• A.7.14, disposing of equipment

Before it: A.7.12, cabling. After it: A.7.14, disposing of equipment. Every control, by theme, is on the Annex A controls page.