v2.0 (Q1 2024)

Communication coming from outside the organisation needs to be clearly distinguishable from internal communication with warnings that the originating party is from outside the organisation. This includes electronic messages received in email programs.

IT components send emails to end-users using an email address ending in a top-level domain for which the organisation is legally responsible. Mailservers take measures to prevent the reception and transmission of spam and malicious mails. Mails should be revocable on managed servers and supported endpoints. Links in emails should be validated to not be malicious. Mailserver reputation is monitored. Thresholds are determined and actions are taken to improve the reputation if it falls below thresholds.

Automatic forwarding of email to external addresses is denied-by-default.

All data in transit is transferred over encrypted connections, using the encrypted versions of protocols or encapsulation of plaintext protocols over encrypted connections.

All critical backup media, documentation and other IT resources needed for IT recovery, and business continuity plans are stored offsite. The content of backup storage is determined after collaboration between business process owners and IT personnel. Management at the offsite storage facility acts on the basis of data classification policy and the enterprise’s media storage practices. IT management ensures that offsite arrangements are periodically assessed, at least annually, for content, environmental protection and security. Compatibility of hardware and software for restoring archived data is ensured, and archived data is periodically tested and refreshed.

Data centres used in the processing of information take appropriate measures to guarantee continued uptime.

For every system a documented backup procedure is available with values for the RPO (Recovery Point Objective, maximum tolerable amount of data that can be lost) and RTO (Recovery Time Objective, maximum downtime of the system). The RPO and RTO are communicated to users of the system. The backup procedure will identify the appropriate: type(s) of storage media used for backups, frequency, reduncancy, storage location, storage conditions and frequency of restore testing. How data on endpoints is backed up is included in the backup procedure. Backups are tested periodically to verify that they can be restored. The results of these...

Before engaging in an agreement with a supplier of an IT-service, an information security risk assessment is performed. Contractual agreements regarding information security are made with suppliers of IT-services. Suppliers report on their compliance with these agreements and will deliver evidence of compliance when prompted. This compliance is actively monitored by the organisation and documented. Non-compliances are treated as potential security incidents. Which suppliers the organisation has, what services they provide and the status of contracts with the supplier are documented.

The organisation must know what software is used on managed devices, including a Software “Bill-of-Materials” (BOM) of libraries and components.

Description Domain names reserved for organisational purposes cannot be released shortly after the domain name is no longer needed. A list of domain names that can never be released needs to be kept. Domain names not on this list need to remain reserved with a placeholder message that the domain is no longer in use by the organisation for 3 years before they can be released and used by other parties.