ISO 27001 A.8.8: vulnerability management, explained for startups

A.8.8 Management of technical vulnerabilities

You find and fix software weaknesses on a set timeline. What proves it: regular vulnerability scans and patch timelines by severity, with recent proof.

A certification auditor samples scan reports and patch timelines. A file that usually does the job: a recent scan report with critical findings fixed inside your timeline.

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.8.8 walks you through it in this order.

1. Turn on scanning for cloud workloads and code dependencies.
2. Set timelines, for example critical in 14 days and high in 30.
3. Export a recent report and track the fixes.

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

• What is your vulnerability scanning and patching cadence?

Policies, connectors and the SOC 2 overlap

In the ISO 27001 policy pack, the Operations Security Policy covers A.8.8. 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 criterion that cover this ground: CC7.1, vulnerability monitoring.

Technological controls

A.8.8 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.8.5, secure sign in
• A.8.6, capacity
• A.8.7, malware protection
• A.8.9, configuration management
• A.8.10, deleting information
• A.8.11, data masking

Before it: A.8.7, malware protection. After it: A.8.9, configuration management. Every control, by theme, is on the Annex A controls page.