An All-Encompassing Guide to Get ISO 27001 Certification

Summary:

This article is going to explain the most critical pieces about the ISO 27001 certification that business owners should need to know to prepare for and achieve complete certification.

ISO 27001 is the international standard for the Information Security Management System (ISMS), a management system that is extremely important for every business in this tech-driven world. Information or data security is imperative for organizations today because they collect, use, process, store or exchange various types of data. This data is required to facilitate day-to-day operations. The ISO 27001 certification ensures that you have the right ISMS in place to identify risks to your data security, weaknesses in your security controls, and take appropriate actions for preventing them. However, to gain this certification, you need to have implemented the ISMS and bring its processes into conformity with the ISO standard.

Therefore, gaining the ISO certification is a complex procedure and within this article you will be provided with a brief guide to completing said certification.

Brief Explanation about Why Your Business Needs the ISO 27001 Certification

The ISO certification will improve how your information security management works. As you work towards achieving the certification, you will start discovering areas or weak points in your ISMS that are not working properly. So, you need to find ways to improve them and make them compliant with the requirements of the ISO 27001 standard.

The standard sets out the regulations for organizations to standardize their processes related to handling, storing, and transferring the information or data assets. It is necessary to keep all data safe and prevent unauthorized uses, thefts, disclosures, and other incidents. While data is a fundamental asset of every business, it is important for managers to take necessary actions to improve their ISMS and make the transition to the ISO 27001.

A Checklist to Follow for Getting the ISO 27001 ISMS in Your Organization

These are a few questions to ask yourself that will help ensure that you are fulfilling and preparing your organization to be ready for an ISMS.

• Is there a dedicated ISMS in place?

• Will your management team be taking necessary actions for operating, evaluating from time to time the performance, and looking for ways to improving it?

• Whether you have effective resource management to ensure the proper implementation and proper function of the ISMS i.e. the right people are assigned the right tasks, there is appropriate technology support, infrastructure, and facilities to optimize the performance of the ISMS?

• Whether there is a separate information security policy, practices for keeping your ISMS and information assets secure?

• Whether you can assess that the ISMS is working properly and can find ways for improving the competency of the system?

• Whether there are proper training programs for employees to ensure they are aware of all information security practices and to enhance their skills with working with the ISMS?

3 Key Steps to Make Sure Your ISMS Gets ISO 27001 Certified

While completing each point of the above checklist will help prepare your organization to be ready for the certification, below are the steps you need to take to get the ISO 27001 certified.

Gap Analysis - The gap analysis is the first step towards certification. It is an overall analysis and evaluation of your current processes and information security practices to identify whether they are meeting the standard. Thus, with the gap analysis, you can know which requirements of the standard are fulfilled, which are not fulfilled, and which are partially fulfilled. Accordingly, with the support of the management team and skilled information security personnel, you can decide on what measures or actions are needed to close the gaps.

Documentation - The ISMS encompasses all the processes of your business as well as information security procedures because it is not possible for employees to remember every item about the ISMS. So, it needs to be documented in detail so that everything is understood by your employees and are followed correctly. Documentation is also a necessity during the certification audit procedure. It will help you to provide written evidence of your ISMS procedures to the auditors and help them verify conformity to all standards.

Certification - Once your organization is ready with a correctly implemented ISMS, you can move ahead to get the certification from an accredited body. That body or entity will provide the auditors with all the require documentation and they will then carry out an on-site certification audit of your organization, as well as provide documentation to ensure that all requirements of the ISO 27001 are met. Once they are confirmed about it, they will provide you with the certification.

Key Takeaway

Getting through these steps is no doubt challenging for any business. Thus, you need to have expert ISO consultant who can provide the necessary support, implement the ISMS, create all the formal documents, carry out the gap analysis, and help get you prepared for the ISO certification audit. When you have continuous guidance and professional assistance, it is easy to fast-track the ISO 27001 certification procedure by assuring compliance with the ISMS.

Author Bio:

Damon Anderson is the head consultant at a renowned ISO certification consultancy that assists organizations in a wide range of sectors to get certified with relevant ISO standards. He is also specialized in the ISO 27001 certification and has in-depth knowledge and expertise in ISMS implementation and the ISO 27001 compliance measures.

Contact Details:
Business Name: Compliancehelp Consulting, LLC
Email Id: info@quality-assurance.com
Phone No: 877 238 5855