ISO 27001 checklist: A 10 step guide for effective implementation

When it comes to ISO 27001 implementation, one of the most important things we tell our clients is that it is not a tick box exercise, a one-and-done. Instead, it requires ongoing commitment from your organisation to maintain your controls, policies and processes. Another thing we tell our clients is that achieving ISO 27001 accreditation doesn’t need to be scary. It’s not an insurmountable challenge.

With that in mind, we’ve put together a simple 10 step ISO 27001 implementation guide. Our straightforward checklist will give you an idea of where to start, and what is involved.

The key benefits of ISO 27001 certification

Apart from the main benefit of being better positioned to deal with cyber threats and mitigate risk, ISO 27001 is a clear way to demonstrate to your customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders that you have the right controls in place to protect both your business and their data.

The accreditation builds trust with both your stakeholders and the market, giving you a significant competitive advantage over companies in your sector that don’t have the standard. It also goes a long way towards achieving other legislative or compliance requirements, depending on your type of business, the data you hold and the industries you operate in.

How to implement ISO 27001 – your ISO 27001 toolkit

Step 1: Know what you’re working with – identify your cyber security gaps

The key to developing and implementing your plan to achieve certification is understanding what you have to work with in terms of existing tools and controls, where the gaps are in your cybersecurity and how best to close those gaps. Working with an ISO 27001 consultancy in the early stages of your journey will boost your chances of success. This detailed gap assessment will form your foundation and help you develop a realistic action plan detailing tasks at granular level.

Step 2: Get support from the top down – implement a management framework

Achieving and maintaining ISO 27001 accreditation is an ongoing commitment that needs buy-in from all levels of the business. That said, it begins with top management as they play a crucial and active role in information security management. The best way to get this support, is to establish the right tone from the top down and from the outset. In addition to starting off on the right footing, this helps promote wider acceptance of the standard. Remember that ISO is a management framework and the learnings can be incorporated across other governance processes, whether it is HR, finance or operations.

Step 3: Put security on all your meeting agendas

While cybersecurity is a board issue, it also needs to feature across the business so that every department, team and individual understands what you are doing and why you’re doing it. Add discussion topics on security risks in all your meetings (not just senior leadership or board meetings), from projects, scrum, team and department meetings. More than that, ensure there is a clear and relevant flow of information and outcomes across your organisation so that all topics can inform higher level discussions.

Step 4: Focus on your people – educate and train

When it comes to transformation of any kind, people play a significant role. Spend time on change management – communicate clearly and establish channels for active participation and engagement. Use positive communication and language to create a culture of acceptance and understanding, to negate a panic or blame mentality that often accompanies change. Ultimately, this helps when embedding the new controls and processes, not just for the initial certification but for annual maintenance of your security program.

Step 5: Take advantage of ISO 27001 experts

You won’t necessarily have all the skills you need in-house so bring in outside experts to supplement your organisation’s expertise. Dedicated organisations, such as RightCue, offer ISO 27001 consultancy services and can add value to the process. This could take the form of areas such as application security, network architecture, risk assessment, business continuity, creation of security KPIs, data protection, or auditing. Having the right skills in the right places will ensure your processes are set up correctly and actually improve security rather than ISO 27001 being merely a tick box exercise.

In addition, choosing the right partners – those that understand your business – is important. This ensures that the documentation they prepare meets your unique requirements and your controls can be adapted to the way your company works. The benefit here is that your team will spend less time on admin tasks and information security activities get embedded in your ways of working rather than being an afterthought.

Step 6: Be clear on who is doing what – assign security roles and responsibilities

Once you have your plan, or as part of its development process, assign roles to all involved. Be clear about what is needed, what is expected, timeframes, deadlines, documentation needed, etc. Work with a trusted ISO 27001 consultant, such as RightCue, to help streamline roles and responsibilities and identify areas for improvement in terms of skills and training.

Step 7: Dedicate time and budget to training

Training will play a key role in the ongoing success of your ISO 27001 accreditation. Dedicate enough resource, in terms of time and money to training for both employees and external stakeholders that have a role to play. This should cover all employees – those involved in the accreditation process, as well as those in the operations. More than that, ensure the training is engaging, simple and is offered in multiple modes to appeal to different learning styles.

Step 8: Optimise your technology

As part of your initial gap analysis, you will identity the tools and technologies your organisation already uses. Once the plan is in place, use this technology to make the accreditation process (and ongoing maintenance) a lot smoother and effective, in terms of automating controls, documentation, monitoring and reporting. In this way, your people will be spending more time focusing on their roles, i.e. managing security risks, than performing admin tasks.

Step 9: Perform a mock ISO 27001 audit

Work with your internal team and expert ISO 27001 consultant to simulate the actual audit. The benefit is that it enables you to understand the process better and sets expectations for the real ISO 27001 audit. The team at RightCue assigns a consultant who hasn’t worked with the client to act independently and carry out the audit to make it more realistic and ensure a successful outcome of the real thing.

Step 10: Look ahead

The ISO 27001 accreditation lasts three years and must be redone – all organisations currently on ISO 27001:2013 need to recertify to ISO 27001:2022 by 31st October 2025. Be sure to keep that in mind and continuously measure, monitor and review your controls and processes. This way when it is time for recertification, your team isn’t starting from scratch and it will be a more streamlined process.

“We needed to get our ISO 27001 certification implemented and in place within a short lead-time for a product launch, and also to futureproof our compliance for expansion into other global territories. RightCue worked closely with us from the outset, going the extra mile to ensure this critical deadline was met and delivered within budget. They worked closely with us every step of the way and continue to provide invaluable support to optimise our information security strategy.” Tim Long, CEO and Founder, Zylpha

ISO 27001 consultancy services

If you’d like to discuss how our ISO 27001 consultancy services can support you with the above steps, get in touch.

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