In today’s environment businesses collect, store and process massive amounts of data. A large amount of this data is personal information related to employees, suppliers, customers etc. While many organizations understand their need secure this data, many organization’s don’t know where to start and what it means to be “secure”.
To help companies with this issue the International Standard Organization (ISO), created a set of guidelines called the ISO 27001. This is a set of standards that help businesses establish, implement, monitor, and maintain their information security management systems. This article will discuss this standard in detail and how it helps organizations be more secure.
In this Guide:
- What Does the ISO Standard Mean?
- Purpose of ISO 27001
- Why is ISO 27001 Important?
- What are the Three Principles of ISO 27001?
- How does ISO 27001 work?
- How Many Controls are there in ISO 27001?
- How Do you Implement ISO 27001 Controls?
- What are the Requirements for ISO 27001?
- ISO 27001 Certification vs Compliance
What Does the ISO Standard Mean?
The ISO 27001 standard is a globally recognized set of guidelines and best practices for managing and securing sensitive business data across various formats. This includes electronic storage, hard copies, and even when working with third-party suppliers. This comprehensive standard is designed to help businesses establish a robust security framework, allowing stakeholders to trust that their data is well-protected within the organization.
ISO 27001 applies to businesses of all sizes and industries, providing a flexible and risk-based approach to information security. The standard outlines the key components of an effective information security management system, which include:
- Risk Assessment: The organization must identify and assess potential risks to information security, considering their likelihood and potential impact. This process should be ongoing, as the risk landscape is constantly evolving.
- Security Controls: After identifying risks, the organization must implement appropriate security controls to mitigate them. These controls can be technical, physical, or administrative in nature and should be tailored to the organization’s specific needs.
- Policies and Procedures: ISO 27001 requires the development of comprehensive policies and procedures that clearly outline the organization’s commitment to information security. These documents should cover various topics, including access control, incident management, and employee training.
- Monitoring and Review: Regular audits and reviews are essential to ensure that the information security management system functions effectively and that security controls are current. This process should involve internal assessments and external audits where necessary.
- Continual Improvement: ISO 27001 emphasizes the importance of continually improving the information security management system, based on the outcomes of risk assessments, audits, and reviews. This process helps organizations avoid emerging threats and maintain a strong security posture.
Purpose of ISO 27001
ISO 27001 is an internationally recognized framework for organizations to improve their information security practices across all data types. It differs from security standards like GDPR and HIPAA, as it is neutral and applicable to businesses of all sizes and industries. Its main objectives are to help organizations effectively identify, manage, and mitigate information security risks consistently and measurably.
Some key purposes of ISO 27001 include:
- Establishing a robust ISMS: The standard guides organizations through the process of establishing, implementing, and maintaining an Information Security Management System that addresses their specific needs and risk profile.
- Comprehensive coverage: The ISO 27001 standard aims to encompass all areas of information security such as technical, physical, and administrative controls, policies, procedures, and employee training.
- Risk-based approach: The standard promotes a risk-based approach to information security, encouraging organizations to identify potential threats and vulnerabilities, assess their impact, and implement appropriate controls to mitigate them.
- Demonstrating commitment to security: By achieving ISO 27001 certification, organizations can demonstrate to stakeholders, such as customers, partners, and regulators, that they are committed to protecting sensitive information and have implemented a robust security framework.
- Regulatory compliance: Compliance with ISO 27001 can help organizations meet the requirements of other security regulations, such as GDPR or HIPAA, by providing a solid foundation for information security management.
- Continual improvement: ISO 27001 emphasizes the importance of ongoing monitoring, review, and improvement of the ISMS, helping organizations to adapt to the changing threat landscape and maintain a strong security posture over time.
- Enhanced trust and reputation: Implementing ISO 27001 can help organizations build trust with stakeholders and enhance their reputation, as it demonstrates a commitment to information security and the responsible handling of sensitive data.
Why is ISO 27001 Important?
There are several key reasons why ISO 27001 is important for businesses.- Demonstrating Good Security Practices: ISO 27001 certification enables businesses to showcase their commitment to information security risk management and adherence to best practices. This instills confidence in stakeholders, including clients, business partners, and investors.
- Competitive Advantage: Compliance with ISO 27001 standards can provide a competitive edge when bidding for new contracts, particularly in high-risk industries like healthcare, government, or financial institutions. Businesses with an ISO 27001 certification signal to potential clients that they have a reliable and trustworthy management framework in place.
- Risk Management Process: The purpose of ISO 27001 is to help organizations safeguard their information assets by taking a risk-based approach to information security. This involves identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks through regular risk assessments, analysis, and developing a risk treatment plan.
- Internal Audits and Continuous Improvement: Regular internal audits are a requirement of the ISO 27001 standard, ensuring that businesses continuously evaluate and improve their ISMS. This process of ongoing improvement enables organizations to adapt to the changing threat landscape and maintain a strong security posture over time.
- Protecting Intellectual Property and Critical Information Assets: ISO 27001 helps businesses identify and safeguard their most valuable information assets, including intellectual property, customer data, and financial records. By implementing technical measures and a robust business continuity plan, organizations can reduce the risk of security incidents and minimize potential losses.
- Compliance with Legal and Regulatory Requirements: Getting certified with ISO 27001 can aid businesses in fulfilling the security regulations of GDPR or HIPAA, among others. It is also possible that certification bodies may demand ISO 27001 compliance as a mandatory condition for collaboration with specific clients or entry into particular markets.
- Monitoring Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): ISO 27001 encourages organizations to establish KPIs for their ISMS, enabling them to track progress, identify areas for improvement, and ensure the effectiveness of their security measures.
What are the Three Principles of ISO 27001?
The three principles that form the foundation of this standard are Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability (CIA).
Confidentiality
Confidentiality is the goal of making sure that data or systems cannot be accessed by unauthorized parties. This is probably the most obvious goal of any security program, securing assets from being accessed by people who shouldn’t have access. A common example of this would be requiring a username and password before someone can access a user account. The idea is that only the correct user should have the username and password required to access the account and this helps to ensure the confidentiality of the data being stored on that account.
Integrity
Integrity is the goal of ensuring that data cannot be modified by unauthorized third parties. While confidentiality focuses on data being accessed (primarily read) by unauthorized parties, integrity is ensuring that data is not modified or changed by unauthorized third parties. This is important because in order for data to be useful it’s important that the data can be trusted to be accurate. A common example of integrity is the use of file hashes, file hashes allow people to verify if a file or message has been altered in anyway.
Availability
Availability is the concept that a resource needs to be available for use by authorized people if and when they need it. Availability is important for businesses to sustain their operations, if a resource can’t be accessed by the correct personnel it becomes impossible for the business to function. A good example of this is a company website, a company’s website should be up and available for users to access 24/7. Any instance where the website is down means that the business is potentially losing money.
How Does ISO 27001 Work?
ISO 27001 is done through a risk based approach, it begins by identifying risks in your environment and then defining what needs to be done in order to prevent those risks from occurring. In short the process is one of, find out where the risks are and then treat them by implementing the correct security controls.
How Many Controls are there in ISO 27001?
As part of the certification process ISO 27001 requires a company to list all of the controls that are implemented in a document know as a Statement of Applicability. All controls will fall into one of four categories, technological, organizational, physical and human-related. In total ISO 27001 recognizes a list of 93 controls.
How Do you Implement ISO 27001 Controls?
How you implement a ISO 27001 control is dependent on the type of control that you are trying to implement:
- Technological Controls: These are software based solutions that are implemented in information systems using software, hardware and firmware that is added a target system.
- Organizational Controls: These are policy documents that are implemented by defining a set of rules that must be followed and outlines expected behaviour from users related to equipment, software and systems.
- Physical Controls: These are controls that are implemented using equipment or devices that physically interact with people and objects.
- People Controls: These are implemented by providing knowledge, education, skills or experience to a person so that they will perform their job in a more secure way.
What are the Requirements for ISO 27001?
The ISO 27001 standard consists of two main requirements. The first is a set of 11 clauses (0 to 10) and the second part, the Annex A consists of a set of guidelines for 93 control objectives and controls. Let’s first look at the 11 clauses:
11 Clauses of ISO 27001
The first 4 clauses (0-3) are the introduction, scope, normative references and terms and definitions). They act as an introduction to the ISO 27001 standard and do not need to be covered in depth. We’ll begin by looking at clauses 4-10, which represent the mandatory requirements that companies must be compliant with to meet the standard.
Context of the organization: In this clause, the organization must successfully demonstrate an understanding of the context of the company. This includes identifying external and internal issues, knowing the requirements of all interested parties and identifying interfaces and dependencies between the Information Security Management System (ISMS) and the outside world.
Leadership: In this section, the company needs to show that there is a commitment from top management to implementing an effective ISMS. Objectives should be established based on the strategic direction of the organization. Also, there needs to a top-level policy for information security, this policy must be documented and communicated within the organization to all interested parties. Roles and responsibilities of key security personnel should also be assigned within the organization.
Planning: Planning in an ISMS environment must take into account risks and opportunities for improvement. One way to do this is through an information security risk assessment. From this objective can be selected and aligned with the company’s overall goals.
Support: This refers to resources, competency of employees, awareness and communication for the purpose of supporting the ISMS. It also includes documenting information according to ISO 27001 and having a communications plan to send this information to the appropriate parties in the company.
Operation: This refers to mandatory processes for implementing information security and ensuring these processes are controlled and updated accordingly.
Performance evaluation: You are required to monitor, measure, analyze and evaluate the Information Security management System for effectiveness. It also requires that management review the Organization’s ISMS and ISO 27001 KPIs.
Improvement: Following your performance evaluation, any applicable issues that are found need to be addressed and corrected. You should have a continual improvement process for constantly improving your ISMS.
Annex A Information Security Controls Reference: The annex provides a list of 93 controls (safeguards) that may be implemented to decrease risks to your organization. All of the controls that are implemented must be marked as applicable in something called the Statement of Applicability.
ISO 27001 Certification vs Compliance
Being ISO certified that a third party has independently verified that an organization conforms to the set of standards established by the ISO. ISO Compliance is simply when a company reports to adhere to the requirements of ISO standards without having been through the formal certification and recertification processes. ISO Certification provides a more objective verification that the company in question adheres to the ISO 27001 standard.Secure commitment from stakeholders
The first step to achieving ISO 27001 certification is to secure the support of relevant stakeholders, namely upper management. Their support will be critical in ensuring that the proper actions are taken within the organization to implement the necessary security controls. Without the commitment of relevant stakeholders there is a good chance that security initiatives will not be the necessary resources such as money and manpower needed to be properly implemented.
Identify, classify and prioritize risks
Once you have secured the commitment of stakeholders, you can start the process of reaching ISO certification. The first step in this process is to identify, classify and then prioritize the risks in your organization based on severity. Once you know what the risks are in your organization then you can develop a plan for mitigating these risks.
Set clear goals for information security
Now that you have a clear picture of the risks available in the organization, the next step is to set goals for mitigation those risks. Primarily these goals will be related to the three key cybersecurity concepts, Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability. It’s important to have a clear picture for the desired state of your organization.
Implement security controls
The next step in the process is to implement the necessary security controls. Based on the risk that were identified in step 1 and the goals for your organization outlined in step 2 you should know what gaps exist in your environment. To fill those gaps and prevent potential security threats, you need to implement 1 or more security controls for each risk that was identified until the risk is reduced to an acceptable level.
Continuously monitor and fine-tune as necessary
Once you have implemented your desired security controls the job is not done. You still need to continuously monitor your environment to ensure that the controls are working correctly, doing their intended job and helping you to meet your overall security objectives. In the event that a control is not working properly or not fulfilling it’s intended job you are required to fine-tune them as required until you reach your desired.
Focus on continuously improving the ISMS
Even when everything is working properly it’s still your responsibility to look for areas of improvement for your ISMS. Companies continually change and evolve and your ISMS should continue to evolve with it to ensure that you meet all of your security objectives.
Conclusion
ISO 27001 is a standard created by the International Standards Organization (ISO) for the purpose of helping companies safeguard their data. You can go one step behind using ISO 27001 as a standard by going for ISO 27001 certification. This is where you have an independent third party do a formal verification of your company’s compliance to the ISO 27001 standard. Once this is completed the company will be able to prove to interested stakeholders their commitment to maintaining a secure environment in their organization.
Oppos Cybersecurity professionals are experts in ISO 27001 and can help you get ISO 27001 certified. We will help your company understand the requirements of the Standard, design a customized solution to meet those requirements, implement it, and then audit it to make sure you have everything you need for successful certification. Schedule a free consultation with us today to get started on your ISO 27001 journey.
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ISO Certification FAQs
ISO 27001 certification focuses on companies having the proper security controls and processes in place to protect it’s data.
ISO 27001 is focused on the three primary tenants of information security: Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability.
ISO 27001 is not required for use by any company, it’s simply a well respected standard that is used by many organizations.
ISO 27001 is used as a standard that companies can strive to achieve in order to have confidence that they are operating in a secure manner.
Your company can only become ISO 27001 certified by undergoing an external audit of your company’s information security practices.
