Acceptable use of information and other associated assets

What the requirement asks

Rules on how information and other associated assets may acceptably be used, together with procedures for handling them, are to be identified, written down and put into practice. Purpose: see that information and associated assets are used, handled and protected properly. Guidance: staff and external users with access should be told what security the organization expects when they use or handle its information and assets and are answerable for their own use of processing facilities. A topic-specific acceptable use policy, communicated to everyone who uses or handles the assets, should set out the behaviour expected and not tolerated, what uses are allowed and forbidden, and what monitoring the organization carries out. Handling procedures cover the whole information life cycle according to classification (5.12) and assessed risk, considering: access restrictions for each classification level; a record of authorized users; protection of temporary and permanent copies equal to the original; storing assets as their manufacturers specify (7.8); marking each copy of electronic or paper media clearly for whoever is authorized to receive it (7.10); and authorization of disposal together with the approved deletion methods (8.10). Other information: where assets belong to someone else, such as public cloud services, their use and the organization's related assets should be identified and controlled, for instance through agreements with the provider, and collaborative working environments need care. In the ISMS the control is compared with the controls determined in risk treatment and recorded in the Statement of Applicability as included or excluded, with the reason and the implementation status.

What the guidance adds

Acceptable use is expected to be specific to the assets and the work. The guidance asks for the rules, the acknowledgement, the exception route and the evidence that the rules are enforced.

What good looks like

Put the control in the Statement of Applicability with an owner, a status and the risk it treats. Then keep the acceptable use topic-specific policy stating expected and prohibited behaviour, permitted and forbidden uses, and the monitoring the organization performs and one live sample together.

Evidence an assessor asks for

• Acceptable useThe acceptable use topic-specific policy stating expected and prohibited behaviour, permitted and forbidden uses, and the monitoring the organization performs
• Acceptable useEvidence the policy was communicated to and accepted by personnel and external users
• Acceptable useHandling procedures per classification level covering access, copies, storage, media marking and disposal
• Acceptable useRecords of authorized users for sensitive information and assets
• Acceptable useDisposal authorizations with the deletion method used
• Acceptable useAgreements governing use of third-party assets such as public cloud services and collaboration platforms

The question an assessor will ask

An assessor will ask for the acceptable use topic-specific policy stating expected and prohibited behaviour, permitted and forbidden uses, and the monitoring the organization performs, then trace it to the system it protects. For A.5.10 the test is whether that record ties to a live sample, not whether the control is named in a policy.

Common gaps

• The policy omits any statement of what monitoring takes place, undermining enforceability
• Handling rules do not differ by classification, so sensitive copies get no extra protection
• External users are never shown the acceptable use rules
• Use of cloud collaboration tools falls outside the policy entirely

Before the next audit

Before the next audit, check one live sample for this gap: the policy omits any statement of what monitoring takes place, undermining enforceability.