ISO 27002:2022, Control 8.12 – Data Leakage Prevention

Ownership of Control 8.12

Control 8.12 deals with ICT operations that are performed using system administrator access, and fall under the umbrella of network management and maintenance. As such, ownership of Control 8.12 should rest with the Head of IT, or organisational equivalent.

General Guidance on Compliance

Data leakage is difficult to eradicate entirely. That being said, to minimise the risks that are unique to their operation, organisation’s should:

1. Classify data in line with recognised industry standards (PII, commercial data, product information), in order to assign varying risk levels across the board.
2. Closely monitor known data channels that are heavily utilised and prone to leakage (e.g. emails, internal and external file transfers, USB devices).
3. Take proactive measures to prevent data from being leaked (e.g. robust file permissions and adequate authorisation techniques).
4. Restrict a user’s ability to copy and paste data (where applicable) to and from specific platforms and systems.
5. Require authorisation from the data owner prior to any mass exports being carried out.
6. Consider managing or preventing users from taking screenshots or photographing monitors that display protected data types.
7. Encrypt backups that contain sensitive information.
8. Formulate gateway security measures and leakage prevention measures that safeguard against external factors such as (but not limited to) industrial espionage, sabotage, commercial interference, and/or IP theft.

Data leakage prevention is linked to numerous other ISO security guidelines that seek to safeguard information and data across an organisation’s network, including Access Control measures (see Control 5.12) and secure document management (see Control 5.15).

Guidance – Data Leakage Tools

Organisations should consider using dedicated data leakage tools and utility programs that:

1. Work in tandem with the organisation’s approach to data classification, and identify the potential for leakage within high-risk data types.
2. Detect and proactively alert upon the transfer and/or disclosure of data, especially to unauthorised systems, file sharing platforms or applications.
3. Recognise the risks inherent within certain data transfer methods (e.g. copying financial information from a database into a spreadsheet).

Data leakage prevention tools are intrusive by their very nature, and should be implemented and managed in accordance with any regulatory requirements or legislation that deals with user privacy.

Supporting Controls

• 5.12
• 5.15

Changes and Differences from ISO 27002:2013

None. ISO 27002:2022-8.12 is a new control with no counterpart in ISO 27002:2003.

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