Protecting against physical and environmental threats

What the requirement asks

The organization is to design and implement protection for its infrastructure against natural disasters and other physical or environmental hazards, whether deliberate or accidental. Purpose: prevent events arising from physical and environmental threats, or lessen their consequences. Guidance: assess the risks from such threats before critical operations start at a site and at regular intervals afterwards, put the necessary safeguards in place and watch for changes in threats. Obtain specialist advice on handling hazards including fire, flooding, earthquakes, explosions, civil disorder, toxic waste or emissions, and other disasters of natural or human origin. The location and construction of premises should account for local topography (elevation, nearby water, tectonic faults) and urban threats (places likely to attract political unrest, crime or terrorism). Based on the risk assessment, consider controls such as: early fire detection that raises alarms or triggers suppression to protect storage media and systems, using the suppressant best suited to the setting (for example gas in enclosed spaces); early flood detection beneath floors of areas holding media or systems, with pumps or similar readily available; protection of servers and client systems against power surges; and random checks of people, vehicles and goods entering sensitive facilities for explosives or weapons. Other information: safes and secure storage protect contents against fire, earthquake, flood or explosion; crime prevention through environmental design can turn features like statues or water features into barriers instead of bollards. 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

Environmental threats need a site-specific assessment. The guidance asks for the threat, the protection, the alarm and the response.

What good looks like

Put the control in the Statement of Applicability with an owner, a status and the risk it treats. Then keep physical and environmental risk assessments performed before critical operations began at each site and repeated periodically and one live sample together.

Evidence an assessor asks for

• Environmental risk assessmentPhysical and environmental risk assessments performed before critical operations began at each site and repeated periodically
• Environmental risk assessmentSpecialist advice or reports on fire, flood, seismic, explosion and civil unrest risks
• Environmental risk assessmentSite selection records considering elevation, water, fault lines and urban threat profile
• Environmental risk assessmentFire detection and suppression system design, inspection and test records, with the suppressant chosen for the environment
• Environmental risk assessmentUnder-floor flood detection, pump availability and surge protection records
• Environmental risk assessmentRecords of random inspections for explosives or weapons at sensitive facilities where applied

The question an assessor will ask

An assessor will ask for physical and environmental risk assessments performed before critical operations began at each site and repeated periodically, then trace it to the system it protects. For A.7.5 the test is whether that record ties to a live sample, not whether the control is named in a policy.

Common gaps

• No environmental risk assessment was made before a data room was built
• Water suppression is used where it would destroy equipment and media
• Flood detection is absent beneath raised floors
• Threat changes such as new flood map are not monitored

Before the next audit

Before the next audit, check one live sample for this gap: no environmental risk assessment was made before a data room was built.