ISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.7.14 — Secure disposal or re-use of equipment

What this control requires

Items of equipment containing storage media shall be verified to ensure that any sensitive data and licensed software has been removed or securely overwritten prior to disposal or re-use.

In plain English

Items of equipment containing storage media shall be verified to ensure that any sensitive data and licensed software has been removed or securely overwritten prior to disposal or re-use. In practice, this means you can prove you policy 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 Physical controls, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Annex A A.7.14) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

How to implement

Physical Security

Inheritance. For cloud-only operations, inherit physical controls from the provider's SOC 2 / ISO 27001 report and document the inheritance in the SoA.

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.
• Management. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Physical. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Secure. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Equipment. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Scope: management, media, security, software.

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.

Infrastructure posture tooling (AWS Config, Azure Policy, Nessus) verifies platform hardening. Focus: Secure disposal or re-use of equipment.

Common pitfalls

• 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.

• HIPAA (45 CFR Part 164) 164.310(d)(1) — Device and Media Controls
• NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3 3.13.2 — Recategorized as NCO
• SOC 2 (2017 TSC) CC6.7 — Transmission Controls
• BSI C5:2020 SP-01 — Documentation, communication and provision of policies and instructions
• CIS Controls v8 2.6 — Allowlist Authorized Libraries

Related controls in ISO/IEC 27001:2022

• Annex A A.7.3 — Securing offices, rooms and facilities
• Annex A A.7.10 — Storage media
• Annex A A.7.7 — Clear desk and clear screen
• Annex A A.7.8 — Equipment siting and protection
• Annex A A.7.1 — Physical security perimeters
• Annex A A.7.6 — Working in secure areas

References

• ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 27 — ISO/IEC 27001:2022
• Catalogue identifier: Annex A A.7.14

Topics: governance riskphysical securitypolicy management