Organisations should follow a structured and systematic approach to implement an effective information security management systems.
Between March and June, 2020, cyber attacks increased by over 166%. According to a recent SAI Global survey, more than 55% of respondents didn’t realise they were vulnerable to cyber attacks.
An ISO 27001 Information Security Management System enables organisations to preserve the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information, through a robust and practical framework. It helps define a set of processes to produce predictable information security outcomes.
8 Steps to Implement an ISO 27001 Information Security Management System
Step 1: Project Initiation
Establish a committee of top management and project management to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the organisation’s objectives and context.
Step 2: Define the ISMS
This includes the objective, scope, limits, interferences, dependencies and exclusions & justifications.
Step 3: Conduct a Risk Assessment
Establish a risk assessment framework, develop an asset register with associated threats, Analyse the risk and its impact, and evaluate the risk against the risk acceptance criteria.
Step 4: Risk Management
Determine what the next action should be and what controls need to be implemented. This includes risk reduction, avoidance, acceptance and transfer.
Step 5: Training & Awareness
Educate employees on the management system, including their impact on the organisation’s security and processes.
Step 6: Preparing for Audit
Conduct a gap analysis on the system and processes to determine its conformance to the ISO 27001 standard, and address any corrective actions required.
Step 7: Certification Audit
Your third-party independent Certification Body will conduct the certification audit and determine whether your organisation conforms to the ISO 27001 Standard
Step 8: Continual Improvement
Measure, monitor and review the management system through an effective internal audit program, to identify areas of improvement.