ISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.5.23 — Information security for use of cloud services

What this control requires

Processes for acquisition, use, management and exit from cloud services shall be established in accordance with the organization's information security requirements.

In plain English

Processes for acquisition, use, management and exit from cloud services shall be established in accordance with the organization's information security requirements. In practice, this means you can prove you policy information security-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.5.23) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

How to implement

Cloud Posture

CSPM. Run Wiz / Prisma / Defender for Cloud / Security Command Center over every account; auto-ticket findings above your accepted-risk threshold.

Policy Management

Docs. Keep each policy in version-controlled Markdown alongside the code that implements it; ship a signed PDF snapshot at each annual review and link the SHA into the SoA.

Operational checklist

• Policy. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Information. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Management. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Security. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Scope: information security, management, services, security requirements.

Evidence to collect

• Policy Document. A signed and version-controlled policy / standard / procedure document.
• Infra Scan. Continuous infrastructure-posture telemetry — AWS Config, Azure Policy compliance, GCP Organisation Policy, Wiz / Prisma findings.

Signed policy or standard documents the safeguard. Focus: Information security for use of cloud services.

Common pitfalls

• Treating CSPM findings as a backlog instead of a hot queue: findings older than the policy SLA accumulate until the auditor asks why.
• Policies that no engineer has read; the version in Confluence drifts from the version that's actually being enforced.

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.

• BSI C5:2020 SP-01 — Documentation, communication and provision of policies and instructions
• NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SA-5(3) — High-Level Design
• HIPAA (45 CFR Part 164) 164.314(a)(2)(ii) — Other Arrangements
• NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3 3.12.3 — Continuous Monitoring
• ISO/IEC 27701:2025 A.3.3 — Information security policies

Related controls in ISO/IEC 27001:2022

• Annex A A.5.21 — Managing information security in the ICT supply chain
• Annex A A.5.1 — Policies for information security
• Annex A A.5.4 — Management responsibilities
• Annex A A.5.12 — Classification of information
• Annex A A.5.29 — Information security during disruption
• Annex A A.5.31 — Legal, statutory, regulatory and contractual requirements

References

• ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 27 — ISO/IEC 27001:2022
• Catalogue identifier: Annex A A.5.23

Topics: governance riskcloud posturepolicy management