# ISO/IEC 27701:2025 A.3.20 — Storage media

- Source: https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27701-2025/a-3-20-storage-media
- Section: [Compliance](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance) › [ISO/IEC 27701:2025 PIMS Controls](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27701-2025) › Security considerations
- Last updated: 2026-06-05
- Publisher: iCompaas, Inc. (https://www.icompaas.com)

**ISO/IEC 27701:2025**·Annex A `A.3.20`·high·Component: **Security considerations**

## What this control requires

> Manage storage media life cycle in accordance with classification & handling requirements. Implementation: Track media, use encryption where possible, apply secure disposal. Justification: Controls prevent leakage via removable/physical media.
> 
> — ISO/IEC 27701:2025, Annex A A.3.20

### In plain English

Manage storage media life cycle in accordance with classification & handling requirements. In practice, this means you can prove you implement storage media-level controls on a defined cadence.

## Why it matters

ISO 27701 is the international way to evidence the GDPR principle of accountability: certified PIMS controls translate directly into the records, contracts and rights-handling that supervisory authorities want, and into the privacy-engineering evidence SOC 2 + Privacy auditors and enterprise procurement teams ask for.

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

PIMS auditors expect ISO 27001 to be implemented first and then the 27701-additional controls tested. For PII controllers they look at lawful-basis and rights-handling evidence; for PII processors they look at customer-instructions, sub-processor controls and return/transfer/disposal evidence.

Within **Security considerations**, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Annex A A.3.20) 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.

#### 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.

### Operational checklist

-   **Implement.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Encrypt.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Scope:** storage media.

## Evidence to collect

-   **Policy Document.** A signed and version-controlled policy / standard / procedure document.

Signed policies, procedures, and registers document the safeguard. Focus: Storage media.

## 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.

## Related controls in ISO/IEC 27701:2025

-   [**Annex A A.3.21** — Secure disposal / re-use](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27701-2025/a-3-21-secure-disposal-re-use)
-   [**Annex A A.3.6** — Labelling of information](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27701-2025/a-3-6-labelling-of-information)
-   [**Annex A A.3.19** — Clear desk & screen](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27701-2025/a-3-19-clear-desk-screen)
-   [**Annex A A.3.5** — Classification of information](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27701-2025/a-3-5-classification-of-information)

## References

-   [ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 27 — ISO/IEC 27701:2025](https://www.iso.org/standard/85819.html)
-   Catalogue identifier: `Annex A A.3.20`

Topics: data protectionphysical securityasset inventory