ISO 27001 Control 7.13: Equipment Maintenance
Equipment maintenance is critical to maintaining the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your information systems. Control 7.13 requires organizations to establish preventive and corrective maintenance schedules that keep hardware functioning reliably and securely. For SMBs managing limited IT resources, structured maintenance protocols prevent costly downtime and security vulnerabilities.
What this means
This control requires your organization to maintain all equipment that processes, stores, or transmits sensitive information through documented maintenance procedures. This includes scheduled preventive servicing before failures occur and prompt repair of faulty equipment. The goal is ensuring continued system availability while reducing the risk of confidentiality and integrity breaches caused by equipment malfunction or improper repairs. Maintenance activities must be tracked and documented to demonstrate compliance.
How to comply
- 1.Create a maintenance schedule for all critical IT equipment including servers, network devices, workstations, and storage systems
- 2.Define preventive maintenance intervals based on manufacturer recommendations and your organization's risk tolerance
- 3.Establish procedures for prompt repair or replacement when equipment fails or degrades
- 4.Document all maintenance activities including dates, technicians involved, work performed, and equipment status
- 5.Restrict maintenance access to authorized personnel and require supervision of third-party vendors
- 6.Implement asset tracking to monitor equipment lifecycle and maintenance history
- 7.Review and update maintenance procedures annually or when equipment changes occur
Evidence auditors look for
- Maintenance schedules showing preventive service dates for servers and network equipment
- Service records from internal IT staff or contracted vendors with descriptions of work completed
- Equipment inventory with maintenance history and lifecycle status
- Vendor maintenance agreements and support contracts for critical systems
- Incident logs showing response times for equipment failures and repairs
- Access logs documenting who performed maintenance and when
- Equipment condition assessments or audits from the past 12 months
Frequently asked questions
When will FAQs be available?
The FAQ for this control is currently being prepared.
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