ISO/IEC 27001:2022·Annex A A.7.4·medium·Component: Physical controls

What this control requires

Premises shall be continuously monitored for unauthorized physical access.
— ISO/IEC 27001:2022, Annex A A.7.4

In plain English

Premises shall be continuously monitored for unauthorized physical access. In practice, this means you can prove you identity 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.

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.7.4) 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.

Operational checklist

  • Identity. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
  • Access. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
  • Physical. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
  • Security. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
  • Scope: security.

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: Physical security monitoring.

Related controls in ISO/IEC 27001:2022

References

Topics: identity accessphysical securitycontinuous monitoring