Inventory of information and other associated assets

What the requirement asks

The organization is to build and keep current an inventory of its information and other associated assets, with their owners recorded. Purpose: know what information and associated assets exist so they can be protected and given suitable owners. Guidance: identify the assets, judge their security importance and record them in dedicated or existing inventories that are accurate, current, consistent and reconciled with each other, using periodic checks against reality or automatic updates whenever an asset is installed, changed or removed; record location where relevant. The inventory may be a set of dynamic lists kept by different functions (information, hardware, software, virtual machines, facilities, personnel, competence, capabilities, records), each asset classified in line with the information it carries (5.12), at a level of detail that suits the organization, accepting that short-lived items such as individual VM instances may not be listed. Ownership: each asset is given an individual or group owner and a classification, promptly on creation or transfer into the organization, and reassigned when owners leave or move. Owner duties across the life cycle: see that assets are inventoried, classified and protected; review the classification periodically; list and link the supporting components of technology assets (databases, storage, software components); set acceptable use requirements (5.10); make sure access restrictions match the classification, work and are reviewed; ensure secure deletion or disposal and removal from the inventory; take part in managing risks to their assets; and support the people who manage their information. Other information: inventories also serve health and safety, insurance, finance, risk, audit, vulnerability management, incident response and recovery; custodians can do daily tasks but the delegator stays accountable; grouping assets by service makes the service owner accountable; ISO/IEC 19770-1 and ISO 55001 give further detail. 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

The asset inventory is the base of every other control. The guidance asks for scope, ownership, classification, location and lifecycle, and for a reconciliation against what is actually on the network.

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 asset inventories (information, hardware, software, virtual, facilities and others) with owner, classification and location fields populated and one live sample together.

Evidence an assessor asks for

• Asset inventoryThe asset inventories (information, hardware, software, virtual, facilities and others) with owner, classification and location fields populated
• Asset inventoryReconciliation records between inventories and discovery tooling, or evidence that installs, changes and removals update the inventory automatically
• Asset inventoryA procedure for assigning ownership on creation or acquisition and reassigning it when owners leave or change role
• Asset inventoryRecords of periodic classification and access restriction reviews carried out by asset owners
• Asset inventoryA dependency map linking technology assets to their supporting components such as databases, storage and software
• Asset inventoryDisposal records showing assets were securely removed and deleted from the inventory

The question an assessor will ask

An assessor will ask for the asset inventories (information, hardware, software, virtual, facilities and others) with owner, classification and location fields populated, then trace it to the system it protects. For A.5.9 the test is whether that record ties to a live sample, not whether the control is named in a policy.

Common gaps

• The inventory covers hardware only and omits information assets, cloud services and software components
• Owners listed are people who have left or generic team names with no accountable individual
• The inventory drifts from reality because no reconciliation or automated update exists
• Disposed assets remain in the inventory, or live assets never entered it

Before the next audit

Before the next audit, check one live sample for this gap: the inventory covers hardware only and omits information assets, cloud services and software components.