The Ultimate 10-Point Audit Checklist for ISO 27001 Return of Assets (A.5.11)

Introduction: The Hidden Risk in a Leaver’s Laptop

What keeps your security chief up at night? It is a question that seems simple. However, the answer often goes beyond firewall breaches or phishing attacks. When a trusted person leaves your organisation, the biggest danger is not just their disabled access badge. It is what they physically or digitally walk away with.

The moment a contract ends, your organisation faces a higher risk. Company assets loaded with private data are suddenly outside your direct control.

The purpose of this guide is to give you a practical, 10-point checklist. It clarifies one of the most fundamental – and frequently failed – controls in the ISO 27001 Annex A 5.11 Return of assets. This is your blueprint for avoiding common audit traps. Mastering this control is not just about rules. It is about keeping your intellectual property, customer data, and reputation safe.

Decoding Annex A.5.11: Why This ‘Simple’ Control is a Top Priority

To pass the audit, you must first understand why the control matters. On the surface, it might sound like a simple HR task. But the impact is massive.

The ISO 27001 standard is clear. Annex A.5.11 says that “personnel and other interested parties… must return all of the organisation’s assets when their employment or contract changes or terminates.”

The key word to notice here is changes. This control does not just apply when someone leaves the company for good. It also applies to internal transfers. If an employee moves from the secure finance team to marketing, they must return their specialised finance laptop and tokens. The rule is simple. Assets and access must match the current role.

Why does this need its own dedicated control?

• It prevents theft. This stops a common way that intellectual property gets stolen and data gets leaked.
• It protects your data security. Imagine a developer leaves and “forgets” to return a USB drive with source code. You have lost control. Your product is now at risk.
• It lowers legal risk. That one forgotten hard drive can become a huge problem under laws like GDPR.

Failing to manage the return of assets is a total security failure. An auditor sees it as a breakdown in your defences, not just a paperwork mistake.

The Bedrock of Compliance: Building Your Six-Pillar Ecosystem

A checklist is only as strong as the system behind it. An ISO 27001 auditor is not looking for a single procedure. They want to see an integrated system where policies and legal agreements work together. Before you can tick any boxes, you must have these six pillars in place.

• Asset Management Policy: This is the main rulebook for your assets. An auditor reads this first to see your commitment to managing items from start to finish.
• Asset Management Process: This document turns the rules into action. It details how assets are requested, assigned, tracked, and returned.
• Up-to-Date Asset Register: This is the most critical part of your system. If your register is old, the process fails because you do not know what to get back. An auditor will flag this if they see an item assigned to someone who left months ago.
• Rules for Acceptable Use: This gives clear guidelines to staff on how they should use and protect company items.
• Legally Sound Contracts: Your policies need legal backing. Contracts must have clauses that require the return of assets and the deletion of company data from personal devices.
• Integrated HR Process: This is the engine of your process. An auditor will check that every leaver processed by HR automatically triggers the security checklist. If this link is broken, the system fails.

With this foundation, you are ready to face the audit.

Your 10-Point Audit-Ready Checklist for Asset Returns

This is how a lead auditor will look at your process. Use these questions to find your weak spots before they do.

1. Is your Asset Register accurate today?

An auditor will not just trust your register. They will check it by picking random entries and asking to see the items. You must prove it is accurate right now.

2. Is your HR Leaver process fully integrated?

Be ready to show a full trail of evidence. Auditors will look at recent leavers. They will ask you to walk them through the HR notification, the IT ticket, and the signed form confirming the return of items.

3. Do your legal contracts have teeth?

An auditor will ask to see sample contracts. They look for specific clauses that cover the return of physical items. They also check for rules on deleting company data from personal devices.

4. Can you prove secure physical return and storage?

How do you get a remote employee’s laptop back? You need a documented process. This could be an in-person meeting or a trackable courier. Auditors will also check where you store these items. It should be a locked room, not a pile in an open office.

5. Do you have a remote wipe capability?

It is best to reduce risk before it happens. Using tools to remotely wipe a device before it is shipped back is smart. If the package is lost in the mail, you only lose hardware, not data.

6. How do you handle personal device (BYOD) data destruction?

You cannot ask for a personal phone back. However, you are responsible for the company data on it. An auditor will accept logs showing the data was wiped remotely. Or, they will accept a signed document from the user confirming they destroyed the data.

7. Are you managing the high-risk notice period?

When an employee gives notice, your controls must change. Are you stopping data theft in their final weeks? An auditor likes to see you remove access rights that are not needed for final tasks. For high-risk roles, you should collect the laptop immediately and issue a basic one for the notice period.

8. Are returned assets stored securely?

Beware the “server graveyard.” Old laptops piled in an unlocked cupboard are a risk. Auditors will check that these assets are stored securely until they are disposed of properly.

9. Do you have a secure disposal process?

You cannot just throw old assets away. An auditor will demand to see a secure disposal process. Most importantly, they want a certificate of destruction from a vendor. Without this, you cannot prove the data is gone.

10. Is your documentation alive?

Auditors hate old policies. They will check for version control and evidence of an annual review. If your documents are outdated, your system is non-compliant.

---

---

Anatomy of a Failure: The Top 3 Mistakes to Avoid

Auditors often find failures in a few key areas. These are simple errors that lead to big problems. Tools from hightable.io can help you track these assets effectively to avoid these slips.

• The Outdated Asset Register: This is the most common failure. If the register says a leaver had two monitors, but the return form only lists one, you fail. A simple mistake becomes a security breach.
• Insecure Asset Destruction: This is the “server graveyard” problem. Companies keep a room full of old hardware and never dispose of it. This creates a huge data risk. Without a process to destroy it, this pile of old equipment is a ticking time bomb.
• Poor Document Control: This is a paperwork failure. If your policy references an old process, it shows you are not managing the system. To an auditor, this makes your documentation useless.

Conclusion: Mastering the Final Window of Risk

Mastering asset returns is not just about cleaning up. It is a show of accountability. It controls the final, and often most dangerous, window of risk. Getting this right prevents costly data loss and protects your intellectual property.

Here is a final thought. How well do your controls handle the risk during the notice period? The true measure of your security is how you act the moment notice is given. Controlling that final window is how you prevent leaks and master this essential control.

About the author

Stuart Barker is a veteran practitioner with over 30 years of experience in systems security and risk management.

Holding an MSc in Software and Systems Security, Stuart combines academic rigor with extensive operational experience. His background includes over a decade leading Data Governance for General Electric (GE) across Europe, as well as founding and exiting a successful cyber security consultancy.

As a qualified ISO 27001 Lead Auditor and Lead Implementer, Stuart possesses distinct insight into the specific evidence standards required by certification bodies. He has successfully guided hundreds of organizations – from high-growth technology startups to enterprise financial institutions – through the audit lifecycle.

His toolkits represents the distillation of that field experience into a standardised framework. They move beyond theoretical compliance, providing a pragmatic, auditor-verified methodology designed to satisfy ISO/IEC 27001:2022 while minimising operational friction.