ISO 27001 Annex A 5.4: Management responsibilities

What auditors look for

Auditors check that 5.4 is either justified as not applicable in your Statement of Applicability or implemented and working. Typical evidence includes:

• Management review minutes
• Manager sign-off on training completion
• Team compliance scorecards

How to implement 5.4 in practice

1. Give managers a simple team scorecard
2. Include security objectives in management goals
3. Escalate overdue actions through managers first
4. Name an owner for 5.4, decide how often it runs and file evidence each time, so the control is audit-ready all year.

Recording 5.4 in the Statement of Applicability

List 5.4 with whether it applies, the reason (usually the risks it treats or a legal or contractual requirement), its implementation status and where the evidence lives. If you exclude it, explain why none of your risks or obligations require it.

Free resources

• How to drive security compliance across teams
• How to report security compliance to leadership
• ISO 27001 and GDPR readiness assessment
• 10 steps to implement ISO 27001
• Remote ISO 27001 consultant

More organizational controls

• 5.1 Policies for information security
• 5.2 Information security roles and responsibilities
• 5.3 Segregation of duties
• 5.5 Contact with authorities
• 5.6 Contact with special interest groups
• 5.7 Threat intelligence
• 5.8 Information security in project management
• 5.9 Inventory of information and other associated assets