# ISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.5.16 — Identity management

- Source: https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-5-16-identity-management
- Section: [Compliance](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance) › [ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A Controls](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022) › Organizational controls
- Last updated: 2026-06-05
- Publisher: iCompaas, Inc. (https://www.icompaas.com)

**ISO/IEC 27001:2022**·Annex A `A.5.16`·high·Component: **Organizational controls**

## What this control requires

> The full life cycle of identities shall be managed.
> 
> — ISO/IEC 27001:2022, Annex A A.5.16

### In plain English

The full life cycle of identities shall be managed. In practice, this means you can prove you management management-level controls on a defined cadence.

## Why it matters

ISO 27001 certification depends on showing each Annex A control is either implemented or explicitly justified for exclusion in the Statement of Applicability (SoA). Certification bodies sample controls during surveillance audits, and a missing SoA entry — or implementation that doesn't match the SoA wording — is a finding.

This control is rated **high**. Auditors expect a named owner, a remediation SLA, and a tooling artefact that evidences continuous operation.

## What an auditor looks for

An ISO 27001 lead auditor looks for: (1) an SoA entry covering the control with justification, (2) a documented procedure or policy implementing it, (3) records that prove the procedure runs (logs, tickets, training records) and (4) management-review evidence that effectiveness is monitored.

Within **Organizational controls**, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Annex A A.5.16) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

## How to implement

1.  Write a short policy stating intent, scope and named owner.
2.  Encode it as a platform guardrail — SCP, Azure Policy initiative, Organisation Policy, or repository policy.
3.  Wire a monitoring signal that catches drift (CSPM rule, SIEM rule, scheduled query, Workspace alert) and ticket it.
4.  Review on a documented cadence and capture the review in the risk register or compliance tracker.

### Operational checklist

-   **Management.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Identity.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Access.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Scope:** management.

## Evidence to collect

-   **Identity Scan.** IAM / IdP exports — Entra ID, Okta, IAM Identity Center, Workspace directory — showing accounts, roles, MFA state and last sign-in.

Identity analytics (Okta, SailPoint, Access Analyzer) demonstrates least-privilege. Focus: Identity management.

## How it maps to other frameworks

Computed from shared tags, control component and key-operation subjects — handy when you are reconciling controls across an audit.

-   [**ISO/IEC 42001:2023 A.3.2** — AI roles and responsibilities](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-42001-2023/a-3-2-ai-roles-and-responsibilities)
-   [**SOC 2 (2017 TSC) CC1.5** — Accountability for Internal Control Responsibilities](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/soc-2-trust-services-criteria/cc1-5-accountability-for-internal-control-responsibilities)
-   [**NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3 3.13.4** — Information in Shared System Resources](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-171-rev-3/3-13-4-information-in-shared-system-resources)
-   [**CIS Controls v8 6.1** — Establish an Access Granting Process](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/cis-controls-v8/6-1-establish-an-access-granting-process)
-   [**ISO/IEC 27701:2025 A.3.8** — Identity management](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27701-2025/a-3-8-identity-management)

## Related controls in ISO/IEC 27001:2022

-   [**Annex A A.5.33** — Protection of records](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-5-33-protection-of-records)
-   [**Annex A A.5.2** — Information security roles and responsibilities](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-5-2-information-security-roles-and-responsibilities)
-   [**Annex A A.5.18** — Access rights](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-5-18-access-rights)
-   [**Annex A A.8.23** — Web filtering](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-8-23-web-filtering)
-   [**Annex A A.5.15** — Access control](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-5-15-access-control)
-   [**Annex A A.6.1** — Screening](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-6-1-screening)

## References

-   [ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 27 — ISO/IEC 27001:2022](https://www.iso.org/standard/27001)
-   Catalogue identifier: `Annex A A.5.16`

Topics: governance riskidentity accessidentity managementaccess reviewprivileged access

## Related compliance guidance

- [ISO/IEC 27001:2022 compliance: a practical implementation guide](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022): Start with the full ISO 27001 implementation guide — scope, roadmap, evidence and how the assessment runs.
- [SOC 2 compliance: a practical implementation guide for cloud-native SaaS teams](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/soc-2-trust-services-criteria): Most companies that hold ISO 27001 also need a SOC 2 report for North American customers, and the two share most of their technical controls.