ISO 27001 A.8.12: data leak prevention, explained for startups

A.8.12 Data leakage prevention

You stop sensitive data leaving the company by accident or on purpose. What proves it: the controls that stop data leaving the company, such as sharing limits and blocks on removable storage.

A certification auditor samples data loss prevention and sharing settings. A file that usually does the job: file sharing limited to the company domain, and data loss prevention rules in email.

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.8.12 walks you through it in this order.

1. Limit file sharing to your company domain.
2. Block or encrypt removable storage through device management.
3. Turn on data loss prevention rules in email where available.

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

• Which of these stop data leaving the company: USB storage blocked or encrypted, file sharing limited to your company, email data loss prevention?

Policies, connectors and the SOC 2 overlap

In the ISO 27001 policy pack, the Operations Security Policy covers A.8.12. 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: CC6.7, data in transit.

Technological controls

A.8.12 is one of the 34 technological controls in Annex A. The controls built into your systems: access, devices, malware, vulnerabilities, backups, logging, networks, encryption and secure development. Exports and settings screenshots prove most of them.

Nearby controls in the same theme:

• A.8.9, configuration management
• A.8.10, deleting information
• A.8.11, data masking
• A.8.13, backups
• A.8.14, redundancy
• A.8.15, logging

Before it: A.8.11, data masking. After it: A.8.13, backups. Every control, by theme, is on the Annex A controls page.