ISO/IEC 27001: How to Strengthen Your Information Security - and Get Ready for a Certification

ISO/IEC 27001 isn't just for public organizations.

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It's also beneficial for businesses that want to prove their credibility and strengthen their reputation. And companies that want help finding gaps in their information security.

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Most companies fall under at least one of the two categories, I’d say.

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So read on as I tell you more about what ISO/IEC 27001 is - and how to get your business ready for a certification.

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‍What is ISO/IEC 27001?

ISO/IEC 27001:2022 is an international standard for information security that is recognized as best practice for establishing, implementing, maintaining and continuously improving an information security management system (ISMS).

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The standard is first and foremost a management tool to help your organization protect valuable information and structure your information security.

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It also suggests what security measures, policies and procedures you should implement that are relevant to your business.

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ISO 27001 also lists requirements for your business:

• Risk management
• Documentation of processes
• Allocation of roles and responsibilities for information security  

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The purpose of ISO 27001 is to reach effective information security management that fits your specific organization and ensure that you maintain and improve it through a defined process.

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When should you follow ISO 27001?

All state agencies are required to follow the principles of ISO 27001. However, the requirements of the standard are generic and therefore apply to all types of organizations. Whether public or private, and regardless of their industry or size.

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However, we see that there are some specific companies that particularly benefit from following ISO 27001. These are companies that:

• Handle or store confidential personal data, such as healthcare companies and financial institutions
• Operate in highly regulated sectors such as energy and telecommunications that are subject to NIS2 regulations
• Wants to 'prove' a high level of security to stakeholders and customers, such as technology and software development companies.

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Since the requirements of the ISO 27001 standard are generic, any organization can also apply for certification to the ISO 27001 standard.

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‍With such a stamp of approval, the organization has proof that it complies with the requirements of the standard.

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What is an ISO 27001 certification - and how do you get one?

For some companies, following the ISO 27001 standard is enough to prove that their information security is bulletproof.

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For other companies, ISO 27001 certification may be a requirement from, for example, the government or customers, or a competitive advantage.

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Whatever the purpose of ISO 27001 certification, the implementation process typically follows these 5 steps:

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‍#1: Understand your organization's security requirements and define your ISMS scope. Based on your analysis here, implement appropriate security policies and objectives.

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‍#2: Conduct a risk assessment to identify and assess potential threats and vulnerabilities. Based on this assessment, you can create a risk management plan and implement security controls that the ISO 27001 standard describes (e.g. information security policy, access control and encryption).

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‍#3: Create all policies and procedures to support the controls you need to follow. Policies should describe what security measures you implement to follow a control, and a procedure should describe how you will actually do it.

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‍#4: Follow your policies and procedures and monitor that it's being done.

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#5: Perform an internal audit. If the audit is successful, you can apply for certification from an accredited and independent certification body. The external auditor will then conduct a certification audit to determine if your company's ISMS meets all the requirements of the ISO 27001 standard. If everything is tiptop, your company will receive the ISO 27001 certification.

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What does an ISO 27001 certification cost?

The cost of ISO 27001 certification can vary greatly depending on the size and complexity of your business, how 'mature' your ISMS already is, the type of data you handle and the certification body you choose.

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Typically, you need to take into account the costs associated with:  

1. ‍Implementation, as building and implementing your ISMS costs time, resources and possibly consulting services.‍
2. Awareness and training, as you may need to improve your employees' understanding and knowledge of ISO 27001.‍
3. Certification, with costs for both the audit and the certification itself.‍
4. Maintenance, as ISO 27001 compliance - like all compliance work - is not a one-off task but requires ongoing effort. An ISO 27001 certification typically needs to be renewed every three years after a re-audit.

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My ComplyCloud colleagues and I can help you with 1) implementation, 2) awareness and training, and 4) maintenance in a much more cost-effective way than you would normally come across.

How ComplyCloud can get you on track for an ISO 27001 certification

Working towards ISO 27001 compliance - and ISMS work in general - can be a big financial burden, especially for smaller organizations.

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Our compliance platform gives you a structured overview of your organization's ISMS. You can activate the framework(s) - including ISO 27001 - that you want to implement. From here, we make sure you and your team are automatically assigned relevant controls and tasks.

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‍To top it off, you can use our ISMS controls to handle multiple tasks at once if you work across frameworks and therefore may have tasks that overlap.

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Want to know more about our ISMS controls? Reach out to me or one of our other experts.