What is the ISO 27001?

ISO27001 . Seems like just a bunch of random numbers and letters thrown together, right?

What is ISO 27001? And why is it important to businesses?

ISO 27001 is an internationally recognized framework for information management systems (ISMS). An ISMS is a structure of guidelines and policies put into place to reduce a company’s risk management regarding information security. ISO 27001 helps to identify any possible risks your company has, and then put security measures into place to prevent and manage those risks. This is the main philosophy of ISO 27001 — managing risks, discovering where the risks are, and treating those risks.

When your company implements ISO 27001, not only are you adding an essential layer of security to your important information, but you are also benefitting in the following ways:

1. Adhere to legal requirements — Each year, it seems that there is an increasing volume in laws and regulations for information security. Thankfully, most of them can be satisfied by implementing ISO 27001.
2. Marketing Advantage — Customers who are sensitive about keeping their info safe are more likely to choose your company over a competitor who is not ISO certified.
3. Save Money — Every security breach and incident costs money to clean up, but if ISO is already established, your company wont need to worry about the possibility of losing money over a breach.
4. Better Organization — ISO will reduce the time waisted by employees by having set processes and procedures in place.

ISO 27001 has become the most popular information security standard in the world. Its focus is to safeguard the confidentiality and accessibility of a company’s information. Usually, a company will already have safeguards in place, but is not using them in a way that is neither correct nor is it secure. Because of this, the majority of ISO implementation will center on setting the organizational rules necessary to prevent security breaches. This is an important aspect to ISO, because managing info is not merely about IT security such as firewalls and anti-virus, but it is also largely about constructing processes to ensure security in the first place.

This post was thanks to Kriptos.

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