ISO 27001 Secure Disposal Or Re-Use Of Equipment
In this guide, I will show you exactly how to implement ISO 27001 Annex A 7.14 (Secure Disposal Or Re-Use Of Equipment) and ensure you pass your audit.
You will get a complete walkthrough of the control, practical implementation examples, and access to the ISO 27001 templates and ISO 27001 toolkit that make compliance easy.
I am Stuart Barker, an ISO 27001 Lead Auditor with over 30 years of experience conducting hundreds of audits. I will cut through the jargon to show you exactly what changed in the 2022 update and provide you with a free training video, an explainer video, a podcast and plain-English advice to get you certified.
Table of Contents
- ISO 27001 Secure Disposal Or Re-Use Of Equipment
- What is ISO 27001 Annex A 7.14?
- ISO 27001 Annex A 7.14 Free Training Video
- ISO 27001 Annex A 7.14 Explainer Video
- ISO 27001 Annex A 7.14 Podcast
- How to implement ISO 27001 Annex A 7.14
- How to comply
- Top 3 ISO 27001 Annex A 7.14 mistakes and how to avoid them
- Related ISO 27001 Controls
- Further Reading
- ISO 27001 Annex A 7.14 Attribute Table
What is ISO 27001 Annex A 7.14?
The focus for this ISO 27001 Control is your equipment how you dispose of it or re-use it. This is about protecting the data that is on it and preventing data leakage.
ISO 27001 Annex A 7.14 Secure Disposal or Re-Use of Equipment is an ISO 27001 control that looks to make sure securely dispose of equipment and if you do reuse it, that you complete remove any data from it in a way that is unrecoverable.
ISO 27001 Annex A 7.14 Purpose
The purpose of ISO 27001 Annex A 7.14 Secure Disposal Or Re-Use Of Equipment is to prevent leakage of information from equipment to be disposed or re-used.
ISO 27001 Annex A 7.14 Definition
The ISO 27001 standard defines ISO 27001 Annex A 7.14 as:
Items of equipment containing storage media should be verified to ensure that any sensitive data and licensed software has been removed or securely overwritten prior to disposal or re-use.
ISO 27001:2022 Annex A 7.14 Secure Disposal or Re-Use of Equipment
DO IT YOURSELF ISO27001
STOP SPANKING £10,000s on CONSULTANTS and ISMS ONLINE PLATFORMS
ISO 27001 Annex A 7.14 Free Training Video
In the video ISO 27001 Data Leakage Prevention Explained – ISO27001:2022 Annex A 7.14 I show you how to implement it and how to pass the audit.
ISO 27001 Annex A 7.14 Explainer Video
In this beginner’s guide to ISO 27001 Annex A 7.14 Secure Disposal Or Re-Use Of Equipment , ISO 27001 Lead Auditor Stuart Barker and his team talk you through what it is, how to implement in and how to pass the audit. Free ISO 27001 training.
ISO 27001 Annex A 7.14 Podcast
In this episode: Lead Auditor Stuart Barker and team do a deep dive into the ISO 27001 Annex A 7.14 Secure Disposal Or Re-Use Of Equipment . The podcast explores what it is, why it is important and the path to compliance.
How to implement ISO 27001 Annex A 7.14
General Guidance
Every item of equipment that we have has a limited life span. Sometimes it is short and sometime it is long but at some point a piece of equipment will be reallocated, repurposed and eventually it will be disposed of.
This control concerns itself with equipment that contains storage media. We explored the requirements on storage media in the ISO 27001 Annex A 5.10 Storage Media and it may be worth refreshing your memory on this control.
Our worse case scenario is that confidential and sensitive information ends up in the wrong hands or in the public domain. The consequences range from the embarrassing, to the legal ramifications, to financial and potentially, in the extreme, life threatening.
Delete is not enough
What we do not want is something ending up on eBay and some smart arse tech person recovering all that lovely data you didn’t quite get rid of.
I think we are all savvy enough in this day and age to know that just hitting delete, or even emptying the trash can, is not enough to remove that data from the system.
Encryption
A great compensating control to go along side this one is encryption and in particular the encryption of the hard drive as part of your standard build. Even in this scenario though it is best practice to securely remove all data from a storage device before reuse and to have the device professionally destroyed by a specialist third party when it is no longer needed. They will provide all of the appropriate documentation, receipts, audit trails and assurances that you will need.
Asset Tags and Labels
Some additional considerations to think about include asset tags or labels that are on any equipment. Best to remove those identifiers.
Records and Audit Trails
Part of your asset management process this is an important step and be sure to keep all records and audit trails.
How to comply
To comply with ISO 27001 Annex A 7.14 Secure Disposal Or Re-Use Of Equipment you are going to
- Get the help of professional third parties to securely destroy equipment you do not need
- Have policies and procedures in place
- Assess your equipment and perform a risk assessment
- Implement controls proportionate to the risk posed
- Keep maintenance records
- Test the controls that you have to make sure they are working
- Where equipment is reused you will fully remove and make un recoverable any data
Top 3 ISO 27001 Annex A 7.14 mistakes and how to avoid them
The top 3 mistakes people make for ISO 27001 Annex A 7.14 Secure Disposal Or Re-Use Of Equipment are
1. You give old equipment to charity
This is not a bad thing actually. Neither is putting on eBay to sell it. But what is bad is not removing all labels and stickers and identifiers and not fully erasing all data on it in a way that is unrecoverable. Have a solid data removal process that you can evidence if you want to give to charity or resell.
2. You keep stuff for ever
It can be hard to get rid of stuff but you need to do some house keeping and follow your processes to securely destroy equipment you do not need rather than having it in a cupboard or on a desk.
3. Your document and version control is wrong
Keeping your document version control up to date, making sure that version numbers match where used, having a review evidenced in the last 12 months, having documents that have no comments in are all good practices.
Related ISO 27001 Controls
ISO 27001 Annex A 7.8 Equipment Siting And Protection
ISO 27001 Annex A 7.13 Equipment Maintenance
ISO 27001 Annex A 5.18 Access Rights
ISO 27001 Annex A 7.11 Supporting Utilities
Further Reading
ISO 27001 Data Retention Policy Beginner’s Guide
ISO 27001 Annex A 7.14 Attribute Table
| Control type | Information security properties | Cybersecurity concepts | Operational capabilities | Security domains |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Preventive | Confidentiality | Protect | Physical Security | Protection |
| Asset Management | Resilience |
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.
