ISO 27001 A.7.5: environmental threats, explained for startups
What A.7.5 asks of a small company, and what an auditor samples.
Guard your facilities against hazards like fire, flooding, and power problems, plus deliberate attacks. Plan for both accidents and intentional harm.
Why it exists: to protect its premises and equipment from fire, flood and similar threats.
A.7.5 Protecting against physical and environmental threats
Offices are protected from fire, flood and similar threats. What proves it: the protections against fire, flood and power loss in your offices, and a recent check.
A certification auditor samples fire and environmental protection records. A file that usually does the job: a fire safety inspection certificate or the building's safety report.
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.7.5 walks you through it in this order.
- Confirm fire detection and extinguishers are in place and inspected.
- Keep equipment off the floor where flooding is a risk.
- Keep the latest inspection record.
No question in the readiness assessment covers A.7.5 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.7.5. 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.7.5 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.7.2, getting into the building
- A.7.3, securing offices and rooms
- A.7.4, physical monitoring
- A.7.6, working in secure areas
- A.7.7, clear desk and screen
- A.7.8, placing equipment safely
Before it: A.7.4, physical monitoring. After it: A.7.6, working in secure areas. Every control, by theme, is on the Annex A controls page.
Questions
What does ISO 27001 A.7.5 require?
What evidence does an auditor want for A.7.5?
Get ready for ISO 27001 certification.
The readiness assessment is free, with no payment and no card. ISO 27001 is part of Constellation, at $10,800 a year: everything in Orbit plus the management system, the policies, the evidence and the management review for ISO 27001, and your SOC 2 Type 2 audit is included in every contract year. You contract the certification body directly.
The internal audit is priced separately: Polara arranges it with an independent internal auditor from our partner network who works in the platform, and quotes it for your company.
Take the free assessmentPolara Labs is not a certification body. Certification audits are performed by independent accredited certification bodies.