# ISO/IEC 42001:2023 A.6.2.7 — Preparation of data

- Source: https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-42001-2023/a-6-2-7-preparation-of-data
- Section: [Compliance](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance) › [ISO/IEC 42001:2023 (AI Management System) Annex A Controls](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-42001-2023) › Technological controls
- Last updated: 2026-06-05
- Publisher: iCompaas, Inc. (https://www.icompaas.com)

**ISO/IEC 42001:2023**·Annex A `A.6.2.7`·high·Component: **Technological controls**

## What this control requires

> Data preparation processes shall be defined and controlled to preserve integrity, reduce bias risks, and maintain reproducibility.
> 
> — ISO/IEC 42001:2023, Annex A A.6.2.7

### In plain English

Data preparation processes shall be defined and controlled to preserve integrity, reduce bias risks, and maintain reproducibility. In practice, this means you can prove you define data-level controls on a defined cadence.

## Why it matters

ISO 42001 is the first audited evidence regulators, customers and investors can ask for that you are managing AI risk. Each Annex A control is a check-box in that audit; it is also the management system enterprises are starting to require from AI vendors before an MSA can be signed.

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 42001 auditor verifies you have an AI policy, a risk-based system of impact assessments for each AI system, lifecycle controls from data acquisition through retirement, and third-party-AI controls that pierce the vendor's wrapper to underlying model behaviour.

Within **Technological controls**, the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Annex A A.6.2.7) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

## How to implement

#### Configuration Management

**Policy-as-code.** Codify the control as Service Control Policies (AWS), Azure Policy initiatives, or Organisation Policy (GCP) so the platform enforces what the document promises.

**IaC.** Gate Terraform / Pulumi / CloudFormation changes with Checkov / tfsec / OPA so misconfigurations never reach production.

**Drift.** Run a CSPM (Wiz / Prisma / Defender for Cloud / Security Command Center) over every account and route findings to a single risk register.

### Operational checklist

-   **Define.** Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
-   **Scope:** data, risk.

## 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.

Repository and infrastructure evidence should demonstrate that data preparation workflows are defined, versioned, and controlled to preserve integrity, reduce bias risk, and support repeatability. Focus: Preparation of data.

## Common pitfalls

-   Manual cloud-console changes that never make it back to Terraform — drift accumulates until the next outage forces a reconciliation.

## Related controls in ISO/IEC 42001:2023

-   [**Annex A A.7.6** — Data preparation](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-42001-2023/a-7-6-data-preparation)
-   [**Annex A A.7.2** — Data for development and enhancement of AI systems](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-42001-2023/a-7-2-data-for-development-and-enhancement-of-ai-systems)
-   [**Annex A A.6.2.5** — Quality of data for AI systems](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-42001-2023/a-6-2-5-quality-of-data-for-ai-systems)
-   [**Annex A A.6.2.4** — Data acquisition](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-42001-2023/a-6-2-4-data-acquisition)
-   [**Annex A A.6.2.6** — Data provenance](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-42001-2023/a-6-2-6-data-provenance)
-   [**Annex A A.7.3** — Acquisition of data](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-42001-2023/a-7-3-acquisition-of-data)

## References

-   [ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 42 — ISO/IEC 42001:2023](https://www.iso.org/standard/81230.html)
-   Catalogue identifier: `Annex A A.6.2.7`

Topics: data governancedata preparationai lifecycledata lifecycle managementconfiguration management