ISO 27001 Certification & Compliance

ISO 27001 is the international standard for best practice in information security management. Specifically, it is a standard that outlines the minimum expectations for implementing and Information Security Management System (ISMS).

ISO 27001 is intended to bring information security under explicit management control. Being a formal standard means that it mandates specific requirements and organisations can therefore be formally audited and certified compliant with the standard.

Telling customers and clients that you follow or comply with “best practices” tends to ring hollow these days. They want independent assurance that you do what you say. This is where certification comes in.

Certification against ISO 27001 involves audits by fully independent, accredited bodies, and provides you with proof of your compliance with the requirements of the standard.

Certification is valid for three years, after which a recertification audit must be completed.

Additionally, the auditors providing certification services will likely require you to undergo annual surveillance audits as well.

In full, it is the ”International Standards Organisation/International Electrotechnical Commission Standard 27001, version 2022 – Information Security, Cybersecurity and Privacy Protection; Information Security Management Systems”. For good reason, you will generally see it referred to simply as “ISO 27001”.

An information security management system (ISMS) is an organisation’s systematic approach to managing and protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability (CIA) of information assets.

A common misconception is that ISO 27001 (or an ISMS), is simply a fixed list of technical controls which must be implemented. In reality, an ISMS is first and foremost a framework used for determining which controls are needed to address information security risks, implementing those controls, and monitoring their effectiveness.

An effective ISMS requires skilled decision-making, documented policies and procedures, awareness training, clear lines of responsibility and asset ownership, risk assessments and risk treatment plans, incident response, vendor management, internal auditing, and more.

The business benefits from ISO 27001 certification are considerable.

Not only do the standards help ensure that a business’ security risks are managed cost-effectively, but the adherence to the recognised standards sends a valuable and important message to customers and business partners: this business does things the correct way.

ISO 27001 is invaluable for monitoring, reviewing, maintaining and improving a company’s information security management system (ISMS) and will unquestionably give customers greater confidence in the way they interact with your business.

Compliance with the standard offers organisations the following benefits:

• Demonstrates a clear commitment to Information Security Management to third parties and stakeholders
• Systematically examines the organisation’s information security risks, taking account of the threats, vulnerabilities, and impacts
• Designs and implements a coherent and comprehensive suite of information security controls and/or other forms of risk treatment (such as risk avoidance or risk transfer) to address those risks that are deemed unacceptable
• Adopts an overarching management process to ensure that the information security controls continue to meet the organisation’s information security needs on an ongoing basis
• Provides confidence to customers & business partners
• Protects the company assets, shareholders and directors
• Provides a competitive advantage

Because ISO 27001 is an internationally recognised standard, it is adopted worldwide by a broad range organisations and industries and can be implemented in any kind of organisation, profit or non-profit, private or state-owned, small or large.

In Australia, many state governments have developed information security requirements that their departments must follow, and these requirements usually have ISO 27001 at their core.