Free security policy templates

Defines acceptable use of organizational devices, networks, accounts, cloud services, software, and data. Covers user responsibilities, prohibited activity, secure communications, remote access, data handling, monitoring, and expectations for employees, contractors, and third parties.

Defines requirements for granting, changing, reviewing, and removing access to information systems and data. Covers identity controls, MFA, password practices, privileged accounts, service accounts, third-party access, monitoring, and lifecycle controls based on least privilege.

Sets requirements for identifying, recording, owning, classifying, protecting, and disposing of physical and digital information assets. Covers hardware, software, cloud resources, data, documents, lifecycle controls, and responsibilities for users and asset owners.

Establishes an audit and assurance program for evaluating control effectiveness, compliance, and accountability. Covers audit governance, planning, independence, evidence handling, reporting, remediation tracking, confidentiality, attestations, and readiness for security assessments.

Defines business continuity and disaster recovery requirements for keeping critical operations available during disruption. Covers resilience governance, impact analysis, recovery objectives, backups, redundancy, crisis communications, supplier dependencies, testing, and improvement.

Defines a structured process for assessing, approving, implementing, documenting, and reviewing changes to production systems, infrastructure, applications, configurations, and business processes. Covers classification, approvals, emergency changes, rollback planning, duties, and review.

Sets ethical conduct expectations for employees, contractors, and third parties acting for the organization. Covers integrity, accountability, legal compliance, conflicts of interest, confidential information, anti-bribery, whistleblowing, resource use, and adherence.

Defines how the organization prepares for, escalates, coordinates, communicates, and resolves crisis events that harm operations, reputation, or stakeholders. Covers crisis triggers, team roles, decision-making, communications, response-plan interfaces, exercises, and documentation.

Defines requirements for cryptographic controls that protect data, systems, and communications. Covers encryption at rest and in transit, authentication use cases, approved protocols and algorithms, certificate handling, key generation, storage, rotation, revocation, and escrow.

Establishes principles and responsibilities for managing organizational data throughout its lifecycle. Covers classification, handling, retention, disposal, accuracy, integrity, access control, sharing, privacy rights, stewardship, governance oversight, and legal compliance.

Defines how incidents affecting systems, services, confidentiality, integrity, or availability are identified, reported, triaged, escalated, contained, investigated, communicated, and resolved. Covers roles, severity, notifications, evidence handling, review, and improvement.

Establishes the organization's information security governance framework and risk-based baseline for protecting information assets. Covers oversight, security principles, risk management, standards alignment, business integration, awareness, threat intelligence, incidents, metrics, and improvement.

Defines requirements for generating, collecting, centralizing, retaining, protecting, reviewing, and using logs to support security, operations, compliance, and investigations. Covers log sources, retention, integrity, access restrictions, alerting, responsibilities, and monitoring standards.

Defines network security requirements for cloud, hybrid, and third-party-connected environments. Covers Zero Trust, segmentation, firewall and routing controls, wireless security, cloud configuration, privileged administration, monitoring, rule reviews, remote access, and resilience.

Defines requirements for identifying, evaluating, testing, deploying, verifying, and tracking patches across systems, endpoints, applications, cloud infrastructure, devices, databases, and third-party components. Covers timelines, emergency fixes, unsupported assets, exceptions, and monitoring.

Defines workforce practices that promote integrity, inclusion, confidentiality, and operational excellence across the personnel lifecycle. Covers equal opportunity, DEI, recruitment, onboarding, training, performance, contractor oversight, offboarding, conduct, wellness, and engagement.

Defines physical security requirements for protecting offices, data centers, hosted IT facilities, personnel, assets, and equipment. Covers facility access, badges, visitors, surveillance, environmental safeguards, deliveries, clear-desk practices, remote work, vendors, and incident reporting.

Defines the organization's approach to identifying, assessing, treating, monitoring, and reporting risks that affect systems, processes, departments, vendors, compliance, and goals. Covers risk appetite, registers, ownership, escalation, planning, metrics, and improvement.

Defines secure software development requirements across planning, requirements, design, coding, testing, deployment, maintenance, and production support. Covers change management, secure design, reviews, security testing, branching, environments, approvals, roles, and compliance.

Defines standards for delivering secure, reliable support to internal users and external clients. Covers service objectives, supported services, coverage, support channels, triage, escalation, issue tracking, service levels, client communication, metrics, and improvement.

Defines requirements for managing vendors, suppliers, consultants, contractors, and service providers that access data or affect security and continuity. Covers onboarding, due diligence, contracts, SLAs, subcontractors, monitoring, cost oversight, offboarding, and risk treatment.

Defines how vulnerabilities are identified, documented, assessed, prioritized, remediated, verified, and reported across applications, infrastructure, endpoints, cloud resources, databases, devices, and code repositories. Covers scanning, testing, timelines, exceptions, and risk acceptance.