← ISO 27001 · A.8 — Technological
A.8.31 — Separation of development, test and production environments
high
segregationsdlc
Requirement
Development, testing and production environments shall be separated and secured.
What the engine looks for
Every group below must be satisfied — by an affirmative statement, not a plan, a hedge or a denial — for the control to count as covered. A term ending in … matches any word it begins. Supporting terms do not change the verdict — they raise confidence and distinguish a policy that names a mechanism from one that gestures at a category.
Required element 1 — any one of
developmentteststagingproduction
Required element 2 — any one of
separat…isolat…distinctenvironment
Supporting terms — specificity signals
no production dataanonymisedmaskedseparate accountseparate credentials
Contradiction markers
Finding any of these outranks coverage — a policy that admits the gap is worse than silence.
production data in test
shared environment
developers have production access
Equivalent controls elsewhere
Matched on shared topics. Satisfying this control usually moves these too.
| Framework | Control | Title | Shared topics |
|---|---|---|---|
| GDPR | Art.25 | Data protection by design and by default | sdlc |
| SOC 2 | CC8.1 | Authorised change management | sdlc |
| PCI DSS 4.0.1 | 1.3 | Restrict network access to and from the cardholder data environment | segregation |
| PCI DSS 4.0.1 | 6.2 | Bespoke and custom software is developed securely | sdlc |
| PCI DSS 4.0.1 | 6.5 | Change management and separation of environments | segregation |
| GLBA | 314.4(c)(4) | Secure development and assessment of applications | sdlc |
| NIST CSF 2.0 | PR.PS-06 | Secure software development practices are integrated | sdlc |
| NIST CSF 2.0 | PR.IR-01 | Networks and environments are protected from unauthorised logical access | segregation |