International Standard
ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and ISO/IEC 27040: Information Security and Storage Sanitization
ISO/IEC 27001:2022 is the international standard for information security management systems, and ISO/IEC 27040 provides storage-security and sanitization guidance. All Green Recycling does not currently hold ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification. This page explains the ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and ISO/IEC 27040 frameworks administered by the International Organization for Standardization and benchmarks All Green Recycling's destruction processes against their media-sanitization controls.
What Are ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and ISO/IEC 27040?
ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Information Security Management Systems is the international standard that specifies requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining, and continually improving an information security management system (ISMS). ISO/IEC 27040 is the companion standard that provides detailed technical guidance on storage security, including media sanitization. All Green Recycling does not currently hold ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification; this page references and explains the frameworks.
Publisher: International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
Key references: ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A controls A.7.10 (storage media), A.7.14 (secure disposal or reuse of equipment), A.8.10 (information deletion); ISO/IEC 27040 sanitization guidance
Status for All Green Recycling: Referenced framework, not a held certification. All Green Recycling makes no third-party certification claims; it runs its operations to ISO 14001:2015 environmental management and ISO 45001:2018 occupational health and safety practices and benchmarks its destruction processes against the ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 27040 controls.
ISO/IEC 27001:2022 replaced the 2013 edition and restructured Annex A into 93 controls across four themes. The controls that touch media disposal require organizations to manage storage media through its lifecycle, securely dispose of or reuse equipment, and delete information when no longer required. ISO/IEC 27040 supplies the technical sanitization detail, defining clear, purge, and destruct outcomes that parallel the NIST SP 800-88 categories.
What Do ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 27040 Require for Media Disposal?
ISO/IEC 27001:2022 requires an organization to control storage media across its lifecycle, securely dispose of or sanitize equipment before disposal or reuse, and delete information that is no longer required. ISO/IEC 27040 specifies the sanitization techniques that achieve those outcomes.
Storage media management (Annex A 7.10)
The organization must manage media through acquisition, use, transport, and disposal in line with its classification scheme. End-of-life media holding sensitive information must be sanitized or destroyed rather than discarded intact.
Secure disposal or reuse of equipment (Annex A 7.14)
Equipment containing storage media must be verified to ensure sensitive data and licensed software have been removed or securely overwritten before disposal or reuse. This control is the direct analogue of the NIST sanitization requirement.
Information deletion (Annex A 8.10)
Information stored in systems, devices, or any other storage media must be deleted when no longer required, with attention to legal retention obligations. On physical media, effective deletion means sanitization or destruction.
ISO/IEC 27040 sanitization outcomes
ISO/IEC 27040 defines clear, purge, and destruct as sanitization levels, mapping closely to the NIST SP 800-88 Rev. 2 Clear, Purge, and Destroy categories. It guides method selection by media type and data sensitivity, including specific treatment of flash storage and self-encrypting drives.
Risk-based control selection under the ISMS
ISO/IEC 27001:2022 does not prescribe a single disposal method; it requires the organization to select controls based on a risk assessment and to document that selection in a Statement of Applicability. The media-disposal controls are therefore applied in proportion to the classification of the information involved. Highly classified data on end-of-life media points toward the destruct outcome, while lower-classification media bound for internal reuse may be cleared or purged. The discipline the standard rewards is a documented, repeatable decision rule that an auditor can trace from classification to chosen sanitization outcome.
Verification and records as control evidence
The management-system model treats records as proof that a control operates. For media disposal this means an organization must be able to show not only that a method exists on paper but that it was applied and verified for specific media. ISO/IEC 27040 reinforces verification of sanitization, and ISO/IEC 27001 surveillance audits look for the resulting records. A serialized destruction record that names the method and outcome for each device is precisely the kind of evidence that demonstrates controls 7.10, 7.14, and 8.10 are functioning rather than merely documented.
How All Green Recycling Benchmarks Against ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 27040
All Green Recycling does not hold ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification. The company benchmarks its data destruction processes against the ISO/IEC 27001:2022 media controls and the ISO/IEC 27040 sanitization outcomes, so a client operating an ISMS can use All Green Recycling to satisfy the relevant Annex A controls within its own certified system.
| ISO control or outcome | All Green Recycling process benchmarked against it |
|---|---|
| Secure disposal of equipment (A.7.14) | Hard Drive Shredding at destruct level |
| Information deletion (A.8.10) | SSD Secure Erase and verified wiping at clear or purge |
| Storage media management (A.7.10) | Chain of custody and serialized Certificate of Destruction |
| ISO/IEC 27040 destruct outcome | Witnessed Destruction with signed log |
All Green Recycling references and explains ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and ISO/IEC 27040 and benchmarks its processes against them. The company does not state or imply that it is ISO/IEC 27001 certified. Where a client holds an ISMS certification, the destruction service and its Certificate of Destruction provide the objective evidence the client’s auditors review for the media-disposal controls.
Who Uses ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 27040?
Organizations that operate an information security management system use ISO/IEC 27001:2022 to structure and certify that system, and they use ISO/IEC 27040 for the technical detail of storage security. Adoption is common among technology firms, cloud and data-center operators, managed service providers, and enterprises with international customers that require an ISMS certification from their vendors.
A technology company maintaining an ISO/IEC 27001 certified ISMS must demonstrate the media-disposal controls in Annex A. A data center decommissioning storage arrays applies the ISO/IEC 27040 destruct guidance to high-sensitivity media. These organizations engage destruction vendors whose processes can be benchmarked against the standards, then retain the documentation as control evidence.
The certification’s commercial weight extends the reach of these controls. A managed services provider that holds ISO/IEC 27001 to win enterprise contracts must satisfy the media-disposal controls for its own retired equipment and, often, demonstrate equivalent rigor for the client data it handles. Because many enterprise and government procurement processes require an ISMS certification from suppliers, the media-disposal controls effectively propagate down the supply chain: a certified organization expects its own disposal vendors to operate to outcomes it can benchmark against ISO/IEC 27040 and document for its auditors.
Enforcement and Consequences
ISO/IEC 27001:2022 is a voluntary certification rather than a law, so consequences arise contractually and commercially rather than through government penalties. ISO/IEC 27040 is guidance and is not certified on its own.
Loss of certification: An organization holding ISO/IEC 27001 certification that fails a surveillance audit on its media-disposal controls can receive a nonconformity, and unresolved major nonconformities can lead to suspension or withdrawal of the certificate.
Commercial consequences: Many enterprise and government contracts require suppliers to hold ISO/IEC 27001 certification. A lapse can disqualify a supplier from bids and existing contracts.
Downstream regulatory overlap: A media-disposal failure that exposes regulated data engages the underlying law, such as the GDPR or the HIPAA Disposal Rule, in addition to the ISMS nonconformity.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is All Green Recycling ISO/IEC 27001 certified?
No. All Green Recycling does not currently hold ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification, and it makes no third-party certification claims. The company references and explains the ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and ISO/IEC 27040 frameworks and benchmarks its data destruction processes against their media-sanitization controls. It runs its operations to ISO 14001:2015 environmental management and ISO 45001:2018 occupational health and safety practices, which are separate management-system standards covering different subject matter. A client operating an ISO/IEC 27001 ISMS can use All Green Recycling’s destruction service as evidence for its own media-disposal controls.
Is ISO/IEC 27001 certification mandatory or voluntary?
ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification is voluntary. It is an international standard an organization chooses to adopt and certify against, not a law. In practice it becomes a contractual requirement when enterprise or government customers require suppliers to hold an ISMS certification. ISO/IEC 27040 is technical guidance that supports storage security and is not separately certified. Consequences for control failures are contractual and commercial rather than governmental.
How does ISO/IEC 27040 relate to NIST SP 800-88?
ISO/IEC 27040 and NIST SP 800-88 Rev. 2 define parallel sanitization outcomes. ISO/IEC 27040 specifies clear, purge, and destruct levels that map closely to the NIST Clear, Purge, and Destroy categories, and both guide method selection by media type and data sensitivity, including flash storage and self-encrypting drives. A destruction process aligned to NIST SP 800-88 therefore also aligns to the ISO/IEC 27040 sanitization outcomes that ISO/IEC 27001 Annex A controls reference.
How does All Green Recycling support an ISO/IEC 27001 certified client?
All Green Recycling benchmarks its destruction processes against the ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A media controls and the ISO/IEC 27040 sanitization outcomes. The company shreds media at destruct level, applies verified clear or purge to reusable media, and issues a Certificate of Destruction with a serialized inventory. A client holding an ISMS certification retains that documentation as objective evidence for controls A.7.10, A.7.14, and A.8.10 during surveillance audits. All Green Recycling provides the benchmarked service, not a certification claim.
Which ISO/IEC 27001:2022 controls govern media destruction?
Three Annex A controls in ISO/IEC 27001:2022 govern media destruction. Control 7.10 covers storage media management across the lifecycle, control 7.14 covers secure disposal or reuse of equipment containing storage media, and control 8.10 covers information deletion when data is no longer required. These controls require that sensitive information be sanitized or destroyed before media are disposed of or reused, with ISO/IEC 27040 supplying the technical method detail.
How does ISO/IEC 27001 differ from the ISO standards All Green Recycling operates to?
ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certifies an information security management system, which All Green Recycling references rather than holds. ISO 14001:2015 for environmental management and ISO 45001:2018 for occupational health and safety are different management-system standards covering different subject matter, and All Green Recycling runs its operations to those practices as well. All three share the ISO management-system structure of policy, risk assessment, controls, and audit, but they address different domains. All Green Recycling is therefore precise in its language: it makes no third-party certification claims, it runs its operations to ISO 14001:2015 and ISO 45001:2018 management practices, and it benchmarks its destruction processes against the ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and ISO/IEC 27040 media-sanitization controls. Trust comes from documented process, including the Certificate of Destruction and chain-of-custody records, rather than from credentials.
What documentation supports the ISO/IEC 27001 media-disposal controls?
An ISMS auditor expects evidence that media holding classified information was sanitized or destroyed under the organization’s procedures. The Certificate of Destruction from All Green Recycling records the serialized devices, the sanitization or destruction method, and the date, which provides objective evidence for controls 7.10, 7.14, and 8.10. The Witnessed Destruction log adds a signed chain-of-custody record that strengthens the evidence for high-sensitivity media.
Does ISO/IEC 27040 prescribe a single method for destroying media?
No. ISO/IEC 27040 provides guidance on storage security and sanitization that maps method to the media type and the sensitivity of the data, rather than mandating one technique for everything. It recognizes clear, purge, and destruct categories of sanitization, in the same conceptual structure used by NIST SP 800-88, and it expects the chosen method to render data unrecoverable given the media involved. All Green Recycling benchmarks its physical destruction and sanitization processes against this guidance, selecting a method appropriate to the device, and documents the result so the choice is defensible against the standard.
Need secure disposal services that satisfy ISO/IEC 27001?
Bonded · Insured · Certificate of Destruction · Methods follow ISO/IEC 27001