# ISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.5.9 — Inventory of information and other associated assets

- Source: https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-5-9-inventory-of-information-and-other-associated-assets
- 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.5.9`·high·Component: **Organizational controls**

## What this control requires

> An inventory of information and other associated assets, including owners, shall be developed and maintained.
> 
> — ISO/IEC 27001:2022, Annex A A.5.9

### In plain English

An inventory of information and other associated assets, including owners, shall be developed and maintained. In practice, this means you can prove you policy owners-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.5.9) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

## How to implement

#### Asset Inventory

**AWS.** AWS Config Aggregator across every account + region gives a real-time inventory; ship the daily snapshot to S3 and surface drift in Security Hub.

**Azure.** Azure Resource Graph plus Defender for Cloud's inventory blade enumerates every subscription; export to Log Analytics for retention and Workbooks for reporting.

**GCP.** Cloud Asset Inventory exports a daily feed of every resource and IAM binding; query via BigQuery and alert on appearance/disappearance.

**Endpoints.** Pipe MDM telemetry (Intune / Jamf / Workspace ONE) into your CMDB so laptops and phones are inventoried with the same rigour as cloud resources.

#### 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.
-   **Inventory.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Scope:** owners, assets, information, management.

## 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: Inventory of information and other associated assets.

## Common pitfalls

-   Inventories that exclude SaaS, shadow IT and ephemeral cloud resources (Lambda, Cloud Run, K8s pods) miss the assets where most modern incidents start.
-   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.

-   [**SOC 2 (2017 TSC) C1.2** — Confidential Information Disposal](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/soc-2-trust-services-criteria/c1-2-confidential-information-disposal)
-   [**ISO/IEC 27701:2025 A.3.5** — Classification of information](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27701-2025/a-3-5-classification-of-information)
-   [**NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 SA-4(4)** — Assignment Of Components To Systems](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-53-rev-5/sa-4-4-assignment-of-components-to-systems)
-   [**ISO/IEC 42001:2023 A.2.2** — Policies for the responsible development or use of AI systems](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-42001-2023/a-2-2-policies-for-the-responsible-development-or-use-of-ai-systems)
-   [**HIPAA (45 CFR Part 164) 164.308(a)(5)(i)** — Security Awareness and Training](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/hipaa/164-308-a-5-i-security-awareness-and-training)

## Related controls in ISO/IEC 27001:2022

-   [**Annex A A.5.10** — Acceptable use of information and other associated assets](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-5-10-acceptable-use-of-information-and-other-associated-assets)
-   [**Annex A A.5.13** — Labelling of information](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-5-13-labelling-of-information)
-   [**Annex A A.5.37** — Documented operating procedures](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-5-37-documented-operating-procedures)
-   [**Annex A A.5.1** — Policies for information security](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-5-1-policies-for-information-security)
-   [**Annex A A.5.4** — Management responsibilities](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-5-4-management-responsibilities)
-   [**Annex A A.5.11** — Return of assets](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-5-11-return-of-assets)

## References

-   [ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 27 — ISO/IEC 27001:2022](https://www.iso.org/standard/27001)
-   Catalogue identifier: `Annex A A.5.9`

Topics: governance riskasset inventorypolicy management

## 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.
