Implement ISO 27001

The ISO 27001 compliance provides a framework that helps organizations of all sizes and industries to protect their information in a systematic, financially efficient way, through the adoption of information security management systems or ISMS for short.

What Is ISMS?

ISMS are procedures and policies aimed at managing information security in the organization. This framework includes the controls and policies in legal, physical, and technical aspects.

An organization must implement these procedures in order to understand several things:

• What are our customer’s expectations in terms of information security?
• What are the cyber security risks?
• What defense systems are available that will assist the organization in meeting customer expectations and protecting against threats?
• What are the clear goals of the organization in terms of information security?

After answering these questions, the organization must:

• Implement systems and policies set from previous stages
• Measure the effectiveness of controls implemented through repeat and continuous examination
• Constantly improve the ISMS systems

 

ISMS Purpose

The purpose of the ISMS systems is to protect the famous C-I-A triad of information security:

Confidentiality – only authorized users have the ability to access the information

Integrity – only authorized users can change the information

Availability – the information must be accessible and available to authorized users on a regular basis

Who Needs ISO 27001?

IT companies

Software developments, cloud storage, and technical support providers often perform a review for complying with this standard in order to prove to potential customers that they have the ability to protect their corporate information.

Financial Organizations

Cyber security regulations in the financial sector are one of the strictest due to the sensitive information. Banks, insurance companies, capital market investment businesses, and other financial companies comply with ISO 27001 in order to comply with other information security standards, which are largely based on ISO 27001.

Communication Companies

These organizations, among them Internet providers, are required to protect a large amount of information passing through their essential services. 

Government Institutions

 ISO 27001 was initially designed to protect the C-I-A triad, making this compliance appealing to government institutions that store sensitive data.

ISO 27001 Benefits 

All-in-one compliance – there are countless individual regulations and standards, and complying with the ISO 27001 standard allows an organization to kill two birds with one stone because most of the individual standards are included under ISO 27001.

Competitive advantage – organizations that comply with the ISO 27001 standard have a competitive advantage over their competition, both local and global.

Cost savings – cyber security events, small and large alike, carry with them large costs, not only financially but also in terms of reputation. The ISO standard is primarily designed to prevent these data security incidents.

Clear procedures- organizations that grow at a fast pace often don’t stop to establish a clear policy when it comes to information security, which can lead to many problems down the road and chaos. The implementation of the ISO standard solves this situation by writing and implementing policies.

Implementing ISO 27001

The main course of action for complying with the ISO standard is risk management – identifying what are the risks and addressing them in a systematic approach by implementing control systems.

The ISO 27001 standard requires organizations to list all the controls they will implement in a document called “Statement of Applicability”.

 

The ISO is divided into 2 main parts

Sections 0-10:

0-3- These sections are the introduction, terms of use, and glossary, which constitute an administrative introduction.

4-10- These sections detail the mandatory requirement of the ISO:

Section 4 – Full scope os organizational context – what are the internal and external threats, and who are the relevant parties. 

After an orderly registration of all the information, the organization must determine the scope of the project – to what extent and in which departments the organization wishes to implement the ISO standard.

Section 5 – Senior management’s commitment to the process of complying with the ISO standard is a requirement, and the standard defines that the management must set goals, define budgets and create organizational procedures.

Section 6 – A comprehensive risk survey that becomes the basis for planning the work environment of the ISMS.

Section 7 – Mobilization of the company’s resources and employees in order to comply with the standard. The information should be collected, registered and updated accordingly.

Section 8- Planning, implementation, and control of procedures and policies established in the previous sections.

Section 9- Performance evaluation. The organization must monitor, track, analyze and evaluate the performance of the information security controls implemented.

Section 10- Performance improvement according to previous assessments.

The second part of the ISO standard, called Annex A, provides a list of 114 data security controls, from which some are selected as part of the risk assessment process. 

Redentry’s cyber security experts have extensive experience in accompanying organizations from all over the world to comply with international cyber standards, including the ISO 27001 standard.