You are an ISMS auditor conducting a third-party surveillance audit of a telecom's provider.

According to ISO/IEC 27001:2022, which specifies the requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining and continually improving an information security management system (ISMS), clause 8.1 requires an organization to plan, implement and control its processes needed to meet ISMS requirements2. This includes determining what needs to be done, how it will be done, who will do it, when it will be done, what resources are required, how performance will be evaluated, etc2. Therefore, if an ISMS auditor conducting a third-party surveillance audit of a telecom’s provider notes that there has been a significant increase in the number of switches failing their initial configuration test and being returned for reprogramming due to a recent ISMS upgrade that reduced access to work instructions, this indicates a nonconformity against clause 8.1 of ISO/IEC 27001:2022. The organization has failed to plan and control its operational processes effectively to ensure information security and quality2. The other options are not correct clauses to raise a nonconformity against based solely on this information. For example, clause 7.5 deals with documented information required by ISMS or determined by an organization as necessary for its effectiveness2, but it does not specify how many copies or formats of work instructions should be available; clause 10.2 deals with nonconformity and corrective action as a response to an identified problem or incident2, but it does not address how to prevent or avoid such problems or incidents in operational processes; clause 7.3 deals with awareness of ISMS policy, objectives, roles and responsibilities among persons doing work under an organization’s control2, but it does not relate to how work instructions are accessed or followed; clause 7.2 deals with competence of persons doing work under an organization’s control that affects its ISMS performance2, but it does not imply that lack of competence is caused by insufficient work instructions; clause 7.4 deals with communication about ISMS among internal and external interested parties2, but it does not cover how operational information is communicated within an organization. References: ISO/IEC 27001:2022 - Information technology – Security techniques – Information security management systems – Requirements