ISO 27001 compliance is a major gateway to working with clients and business partners around the world, so it’s a necessity for international service providers. Reaching and maintaining compliance can be costly and highly time-consuming. 

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Part of this extensive process is assembling documentation about your information security management system (ISMS). That’s why we’re offering free downloadable ISO 27001 template.

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Why documentation is a part of ISO 27001 compliance

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The overarching purpose of ISO 27001 is to create a full report of your information security management system and the security measures you have in place. This gives future clients and business partners a clear view of how you will handle and protect any data that funnels into your system.

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Your ISO 27001 documentation must include a detailed explanation of your ISMS, policies to ensure data security, security objectives, and more. You’ll also need documentation of your results from security scans that may identify risks and vulnerabilities. All of this comes together to provide a clear picture of your information security.

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What documentation do you need for ISO 27001 compliance?

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Before your ISO 27001 audit, you’ll need to prepare and assemble an extensive lineup of reports and documents. Some of these are documents you’ll need to create on your own (or use ISO 27001 templates) while others are results from specific security tests. Your documentation will include:

• Scope of the ISMS (4.3) along with multiple appendixes, including:
  Context of the Organization
  Interested Parties and Their Requirements
  Interfaces and Dependencies
  Assets

• Information security policy (5.2)
• Information security risk assessment process (6.1.2)
• Information security risk treatment plan (6.1.3)
• Statement of Applicability (6.1.3)
• Information security objectives (6.2)
• Evidence of competence (7.2)
• Documentation your organization has determined as being necessary for the effectiveness of your ISMS (5.5.1)
• Operational planning and control documentation (8.1)
• Results of your information security risk assessment (8.2)
• Results of your information security risk treatment (8.3)
• Evidence of the monitoring and measuring of results (9.1)
• Internal audit process (9.2)
• Evidence of your audit programs and the audit results (9.2)
• Evidence of the results of management reviews (9.3)
• Evidence of the nature of the non-conformities and any corrective action taken (10.1)
• Evidence of the results of any corrective action taken (10.1 g)

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How to streamline your ISO 27001 compliance

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The long list of documentation reports and statements above can look intimidating, but there are ways to make the process more manageable. You can start by manually examining your security, but using an automated compliance platform will save you time and resources. An automated platform can scan your system and give you a clear list of the ISO 27001 controls you already meet and the controls you’re missing.

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The next step is to use templates rather than creating every report or piece of documentation from scratch. Be sure to use a reliable source like the compliance specialists at Vanta when you find ISO 27001 documentation template for free. Not only will trusted templates save you time, threy’ll also ensure that you’re including the necessary components and language in each document.