Acquiring security compliance certifications can prove to your partnered businesses and clients that your company is committed to the security of their most sensitive information. ISO 27001 compliance is one of the top security certifications available but is not a requirement to meet security standards.
While ISO 27001 certification is not required, it is still widely revered in the security industry. Acquiring an ISO 27001 certification requires a business to follow a set of guidelines that most adequately protect the most vital data in the company. As an organization, ISO does not issue certifications, they simply build the standards. To get a certification, a company needs to find an organization that performs certification processes in accordance with ISO’s Committee on Conformity Assessment (CASCO).
Another thing companies need to keep in mind is that compliance audits cost money. Certification costs – especially ISO 27001 certification cost – can vary depending on a number of factors. Getting an external audit, for example, can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $18,000 depending on the size of the organization, the amount of time the audit takes, and the certification body that performs the audit. This is why companies must carefully consider the organization that performs their audit.
As far as optional certifications are concerned, the conversation likely turns to ISO 27001 vs SOC 2 because of their notoriety in the security industry. Acquiring both is a powerful message to customers, but can be a costly endeavor. Understanding the finer details of each of the certifications and how they apply to your specific organization is important when it comes to the selection process.
The process of certification can take up to a month depending on the size of your organization and the organization you select to perform the audit. It is a commitment that proves your company is doing what it takes to go above and beyond with their security.
Questions?
We can help! Talk to the Trava Team and see how we can assist you with your cybersecurity needs.
ISO 27001 Requirements
ISO updates its certifications on a regular basis to ensure it keeps up with the shifting trends of cyber security. Currently, the ISO 27001:2013 version is the most updated and widely accepted version of the standards. It is updated to ensure that businesses are protected against the current threats posed by hackers.
ISO 27001 requirements are updated along with the standards themselves. These help certification bodies perform the audits themselves and give out the appropriate certifications. The ISO 27001 standards are written out as clauses. ISO 27001 clauses are numbered 0 through 10. This is only the first part of the structure, with the second part serving as a framework for implementation.
The idea of the ISO 27001 latest version is to keep security compliance on the forefront of business leaders’ priorities. The requirements for ISO 27001 certification are easy to find with a simple web search for, “ISO 27001 requirements PDF.” This will give you a detailed overview of the standards your company’s security will need to meet in order to get certified.
Understanding the requirements of the certification is the first step toward getting certified and protecting sensitive information. They are specifically written to guide businesses to the best security practices currently available. The potential of an attack drops drastically when requirements are met and maintained.
ISO 27001 Compliance Checklist
Implementing ISO 27001 into your company’s information security management system (ISMS) is a worthwhile endeavor. It isn’t a walk in the park, but the end result will be well worth your time and money. Getting an ISO 27001 certification takes work. Understanding exactly what you need to do to get there is not that difficult of a first step, though.
Looking up “ISO 27001 controls checklist PDF” will get you over 60,000 results on Google, but sorting through to find the best of those may take some time. For reference, these are some of the domains which categorize the controls you’ll want included in any ISO 27001 controls checklist you decide to go with.
- Information Security Policies
- Organization of Information Security
- Human Resource Security
- Asset Management
- Access Control
- Cryptography
A good checklist will break each of these into subsections and include quite a bit more. But as a rule, if your checklist doesn’t include all of these, it is most likely a waste of time. These are only some of the controls checked in an ISO 27001 audit.
An ISO 27001 compliance checklist will cover the same topics and go into detail as to what an auditor is looking at specifically to determine the company’s level of compliance. A compliance checklist will detail a bit more than a controls checklist due to the many assets that fall under each clause, such as operations or organization of information security.
Requirements checklists are a different beast altogether. An ISO 27001 requirements checklist will cover things you’ll need to do as a business just to get ready to utilize any other checklist, and especially when it comes to being audited. A requirements checklist might include some of the following:
- Assemble an implementation team/develop and implementation plan
- Identify a security baseline
- Build your ISMS
- Define the scope and limitations of the ISMS
- Create a risk management strategy
- Establish risk treatment plans
- Monitor, review, and revise
- Try for certification
As you can see, there are a number of steps to be taken before you can even think of going for an ISO 27001 certification. This is due to the sheer number of controls involved. ISO 27001:2013 is incredibly thorough and requires a year-round commitment to retain. But it is a very prominent certification that will likely lead to more clients and larger entities recognizing your dedication to security.
Do you know your Cyber Risk Score?
You can’t protect yourself from risks you don’t know about. Enter your website and receive a completely free risk assessment score along with helpful information delivered instantly to your inbox.
ISO 27001 Controls
So, you may be wondering what the ISO 27001 controls are. There are many ISO 27001 controls. 114 to be exact. This means that listing them all out in this article would make for a long bit of reading. Either way, you will need to become somewhat familiar with all of them to ensure certification.
This is where it can be very helpful to download an ISO 27001 controls PDF from a secure and trusted website to gather some information and understand what you are up against. In short, the ISO 27001 controls are areas of security you will need to optimize in order to be granted certification. For many, 114 controls seems like more than their security could ever cover in the first place. But the controls themselves get very detailed and cover things like physical and environmental security which can be satisfied by simply having physical entry controls like locks and keypads for secure areas.
Cyber attacks come in all shapes and sizes, meaning the ISO 27001 controls are bound to cover every possible weak point to ensure safety. These controls are grouped into 14 core domains. The ISO 27001 domains are:
- Information Security Policies
- Organization of Information Security
- Human Resource Security
- Asset Management
- Access Control
- Cryptography
- Physical and Environmental Security
- Operations Security
- Communications Security
- System Acquisition, Development, and Maintenance
- Supplier Relationships
- Information Security Incident Management
- Information Security Aspects of Business Continuity Management
- Compliance
These domains are broken down into the 114 controls that need to be satisfied in order to pass an audit and get your certification.
How To Get ISO 27001 Certification
To get your ISO 27001 certification, there are a number of steps you need to follow. You first need to become familiar with the ISO 27001 standards and build them into your ISMS. Without that information, you will just be wasting time and money while an auditor spends a few days criticizing your security. ISO 27001 certification requirements are easy enough to find and often give you a list of the mandatory clauses involved in getting a certification.
An ISO 27001 auditor certification is a little different than getting your entire organization certified. To become a certified auditor, you will need to attend a class and pass an ISO 27001 certification exam. This can be a good idea for companies not wanting to spend a ton of money on external auditors. Instead, getting an employee certified means that you can perform the audit internally and manage the ISMS much more efficiently in the three years between audits.
It can be incredibly useful to have someone within the organization who knows how to get ISO 27001 certification procedures done in-house. Certifying an individual costs far less than hiring an external auditor to run the certification audit for you. It can be very helpful in the long run as well, keeping your company up to date on the updates and changes made to the ISO 27001 standards as they happen. But becoming an ISO 27001 lead auditor can be a major responsibility for someone who isn’t already an IT professional.
Trava has a middle ground. Trava’s vCISO (virtual Chief Information Security Officer) can offer actionable insights pertaining to your ISMS. The service can be catered specifically to ISO 27001 standards to help your company prepare for the audit and pass without wasting money on failed attempts. Contact Trava today to schedule a demo and take one huge first step towards your ISO 27001 certification.