Time Synchronization Policy - SME
A 7-page policy for SMEs, mapped to 7 frameworks to ensure traceable logs, support forensic analysis, and secure communications.
This policy establishes mandatory controls for maintaining accurate, synchronized time across all systems that store, transmit, or process your organization's data.
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Ensure Log Integrity: Guarantee that all system logs are traceable and timestamps are consistent, a foundational requirement for audit integrity and reliable evidence.
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Enable Accurate Investigations: Accurately correlate security incidents across different systems, ensuring that evidence can be relied upon during forensic analysis or legal reviews.
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Achieve Regulatory Compliance: Fulfill foundational requirements for regulations like ISO 27001:2022, GDPR, DORA, and NIS2 that mandate traceable, time-stamped records.
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Prevent System Errors: Avoid critical issues like data loss or duplication during backup and restore operations that can occur due to unsynchronized system time.
Read Full Overview
The Time Synchronization Policy - SME is designed to maintain the integrity of time settings across all organizational systems, ensuring accurate and reliable event logging, secure communications, and audit traceability. This policy mandates the use of trusted Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers or equivalent mechanisms for automatic time synchronization across all company-owned systems, including servers, desktops, laptops, and mobile devices. It is particularly vital for systems that generate or store event logs, authentication records, or audit trails, as well as BYOD endpoints accessing business systems. A key feature is its stringent requirements for synchronization frequency and correction thresholds, ensuring consistent timestamping across environments, supporting regulatory requirements for integrity and non-repudiation of records.
What's Inside
- Purpose, Scope and Objectives
- Roles and Responsibilities
- Governance Requirements
- Synchronization Frequency & Thresholds
- Risk Treatment and Exceptions
- Enforcement and Compliance
- Monitoring and Alerting Rules
- Review and Update Requirements
Built for Leaders, By Leaders
This policy translates a highly technical control into a practical and manageable process, giving you the visibility you need to protect your business. It was authored by a security leader to be a defensible framework that is practical to implement and stands up to auditor scrutiny, empowering you to take control of your security.
Authored by an expert holding:
Framework Compliance
🛡️ Supported Standards & Frameworks
This product is aligned with the following compliance frameworks, with detailed clause and control mappings.
| Framework | Covered Clauses / Controls |
|---|---|
| ISO/IEC 27001:2022 | Clause 8.1 |
| ISO/IEC 27002:2022 | Control 8.17 |
| NIST SP 800-53 Rev.5 | SC-45, AU-8 |
| EU GDPR | Articles 5(1)(d), 32 |
| EU NIS2 | Article 21(2)(d) |
| EU DORA | Articles 10, 15 |
| COBIT 2019 | DSS05.02, MEA03.01 |
Part of a Complete ISMS Toolkit
This policy is one of 37 documents in our complete toolkit. When implemented as a set, our framework helps you achieve comprehensive compliance across major standards.
100%
ISO 27001:2022
95%
NIST
88%
NIS2
75%
DORA
70%
GDPR
Related Policies
This foundational policy is directly linked to the following SME security policies to ensure comprehensive alignment and traceability across your security program.
Logging and Monitoring Policy (P22S)
Ensures consistent timestamping across logs for traceability and correlation.
Incident Response Policy (P30S)
Relies on timestamp accuracy to reconstruct incident timelines.
Data Protection and Privacy Policy (P17S)
Ensures data handling timelines are accurate and defensible under GDPR.
Asset Management Policy (P12S)
Supports identification of all systems requiring time synchronization.
Third-Party and Supplier Security Policy (P26S)
Ensures vendors follow synchronized time practices contractually.
About This Policy
The Clarysec Time Synchronization Policy for SMEs provides a robust framework for ensuring all your business systems maintain accurate and consistent time. In today's digital environment, synchronized time is not just a technical detail—it's a critical security control. This policy mandates the use of trusted Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers, which is essential for creating traceable logs that can stand up to scrutiny during an audit or a security investigation.
By implementing this policy, your SME can prevent the kind of time discrepancies that corrupt forensic data and undermine compliance with regulations like GDPR, NIS2, and DORA. It gives your IT team clear, actionable rules for configuring, monitoring, and maintaining time settings across servers, workstations, and cloud services. This document is a key step in building a mature, defensible security posture, ensuring the integrity and non-repudiation of your most critical records and event data.
