ISO 27001 A.7.9: devices off site, explained for startups
What A.7.9 asks of a small company, and what an auditor samples.
Protect laptops, phones, and other assets when they are used away from your offices. Off-site gear faces extra theft and loss risk.
Why it exists: to protect laptops and phones taken off company premises, and wipe them if lost.
A.7.9 Security of assets off-premises
Laptops and phones used outside the office are protected and can be wiped if lost. What proves it: device settings that protect equipment away from the office, and how a lost device is handled.
A certification auditor samples device management settings and a lost device record. A file that usually does the job: device management settings showing disk encryption and remote lock or wipe, and the lost device steps in your incident plan.
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.7.9 walks you through it in this order.
- Enroll every laptop in device management with encryption and remote wipe.
- Tell staff to report a lost device straight away.
- Lock or wipe lost devices and record it.
The free ISO 27001 readiness assessment asks one question that evidences it:
- Are laptops managed by a mobile device management (MDM) tool that enforces disk encryption, screen lock, updates, malware protection and remote wipe?
Policies, connectors and the SOC 2 overlap
In the ISO 27001 policy pack, the Physical and Environmental Security Policy covers A.7.9. 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: CC6.4, physical access and CC6.7, data in transit.
Physical controls
A.7.9 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.7.6, working in secure areas
- A.7.7, clear desk and screen
- A.7.8, placing equipment safely
- A.7.10, storage media
- A.7.11, power and utilities
- A.7.12, cabling
Before it: A.7.8, placing equipment safely. After it: A.7.10, storage media. Every control, by theme, is on the Annex A controls page.
Questions
What does ISO 27001 A.7.9 require?
What evidence does an auditor want for A.7.9?
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.