# ISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.8.11 — Data masking

- Source: https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-8-11-data-masking
- Section: [Compliance](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance) › [ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A Controls](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022) › Technological controls
- Last updated: 2026-06-05
- Publisher: iCompaas, Inc. (https://www.icompaas.com)

**ISO/IEC 27001:2022**·Annex A `A.8.11`·medium·Component: **Technological controls**

## What this control requires

> Data masking shall be used in accordance with the organization's topic-specific policy on access control and other related topic-specific policies, and business requirements, taking applicable legislation into consideration.
> 
> — ISO/IEC 27001:2022, Annex A A.8.11

### In plain English

Data masking shall be used in accordance with the organization's topic-specific policy on access control and other related topic-specific policies, and business requirements, taking applicable legislation into consideration. 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.

## 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 **Technological controls**, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Annex A A.8.11) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

## How to implement

#### 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.
-   **Access Control.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Scope:** management.

## Evidence to collect

-   **Code Repo Scan.** Source-control evidence — branch protection, required reviewers, CI status, SCA / SAST reports.
-   **Infra Scan.** Continuous infrastructure-posture telemetry — AWS Config, Azure Policy compliance, GCP Organisation Policy, Wiz / Prisma findings.

Secure code scanning (GitHub Advanced Security, Snyk) verifies masking is applied to sensitive fields.

## 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.

-   [**SOC 2 (2017 TSC) CC2.3** — External Communication on Internal Control Matters](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/soc-2-trust-services-criteria/cc2-3-external-communication-on-internal-control-matters)
-   [**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)
-   [**NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3 3.13.15** — Session Authenticity](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-171-rev-3/3-13-15-session-authenticity)
-   [**BSI C5:2020 SP-01** — Documentation, communication and provision of policies and instructions](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/bsi-c5-2020/sp-01-documentation-communication-and-provision-of-policies-and-instructions)
-   [**CIS Controls v8 2.6** — Allowlist Authorized Libraries](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/cis-controls-v8/2-6-allowlist-authorized-libraries)

## Related controls in ISO/IEC 27001:2022

-   [**Annex A A.8.6** — Capacity management](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-8-6-capacity-management)
-   [**Annex A A.8.14** — Redundancy of information processing facilities](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-8-14-redundancy-of-information-processing-facilities)
-   [**Annex A A.8.19** — Installation of software on operational systems](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-8-19-installation-of-software-on-operational-systems)
-   [**Annex A A.8.8** — Management of technical vulnerabilities](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-8-8-management-of-technical-vulnerabilities)
-   [**Annex A A.8.15** — Logging](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-8-15-logging)
-   [**Annex A A.8.17** — Clock synchronization](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-8-17-clock-synchronization)

## References

-   [ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 27 — ISO/IEC 27001:2022](https://www.iso.org/standard/27001)
-   Catalogue identifier: `Annex A A.8.11`

Topics: governance riskpolicy 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.