What is ISO 27001 and why do you need it?

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You probably know a lot about your top business competitors. You could tell a potential client about all the ways your competitors don’t measure up: exactly what they’re lacking and what they’re doing wrong. Your clients don’t know what makes you a better choice than others, though, so how do you make your qualifications clear without launching into an unprofessional rant about your competitors?

One way to set your business apart is with well-respected standards certifications - third-party proof that you’re maintaining the best practices on a daily basis. A particularly crucial certification to have is a certification for ISO 27001 compliance.

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What Is ISO 27001?

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You may be familiar with the International Organization for Standardization, which sets standards, criteria, and best practices for a wide range of purposes. ISO 27001 is their international standard for securing and documenting your information security management system or ISMS.

ISO 27001 is intended to help you keep your data (and your customers’ data) secure from internal and external threats. It is an extensive list of controls and standards, some of which will apply to your business and some of which will not, to ensure that your ISMS is as well-protected as reasonably possible.

It’s important to note that ISO 27001 is not a legal requirement. It’s a certification that is likely to be required by high-level clients and potential business partners so they can ensure that you have proper data security before they do business with you.

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What does ISO 27001 include?

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ISO 27001 is an in-depth standard of security controls. It divides those controls into 14 categories:

Information Security Policies
Organization of Information Security
Human Resource Security
Asset Management
Access Control
Cryptography
Physical and Environmental Security
Operations Security
Communications Security
System Acquisition and Maintenance
Supplier Relations
Security Incident Management
Business Continuity Management
Compliance

As your ISMS is assessed for ISO 27001 compliance, the auditor will investigate how you align with the standards in these 14 categories.

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The benefits of ISO 27001 certification

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Why should you pursue your ISO 27001 certification? While it isn’t legally required and there are no fines for not being compliant, there are critical advantages to obtaining and maintaining your certification.

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1. Trust and buy-in from clients and partners

When a client or partner chooses to do business with you, their success is linked with yours. So, if you don’t have a secure and up-to-date ISMS, you are putting not only your data and your business at risk but theirs as well.

When you hold a valid ISO 27001 certification, it earns you trust from clients and potential partners. It shows them that you are doing your due diligence to protect your business, and this will inevitably open doors that you couldn’t reach without this security certification.

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2. International opportunities

ISO 27001 is not the only information security standard out there. If you have only done business in the US, you may have been asked for a SOC 2 report by clients and partners in the past. It’s important to note, though, that SOC 2 isn’t widely recognized outside the US. If you want to open doors and earn the trust of clients and partners around the world, ISO 27001 certification is a must.

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3. Improved internal and external security

ISO 27001 certification is not an arbitrary checklist. All of the security controls in ISO 27001 exist for a reason: because they make your ISMS safer and more secure. As a result, if you follow the steps to reach ISO 27001 compliance, your data security will be stronger.

This is vital for your business’s stability because it lowers your risk for a data breach. Even a single data breach can be devastating, costing you thousands (or more) to directly fix the problem in addition to potentially driving your clients away by damaging your reputation. Following ISO 27001 will better protect you against both internal and external risks.

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How to get started with ISO 27001 certification

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If you don’t have an ISO 27001 certification, now is the time to get started. You can begin with an automated compliance tool like Vanta, which automates up to 80% of the compliance process for you. On top of easy-to-use templates and monitoring controls, Vanta gives you a clear checklist of the ISO 27001 controls you meet and the controls you don’t meet so you have a straightforward to-do list from day one.

Once you’re confident that your ISMS meets the ISO 27001 security controls, you’ll hire a certification body to assess your ISMS. The ISO does not provide certification directly, but they have their own list of standards for certifying bodies to adhere to. Your certifying body will start with an informal readiness assessment, and if your ISMS passes, they will move on to the full audit. If you meet the ISO 27001 standards, you’ll be awarded a certification that is valid for up to three years.

To kick off the process, begin by learning more about Vanta and how we can help you simplify your ISO 27001 compliance.

Access Review Stage	Content / Functionality
Across all stages	Easily create and save a new access review at a point in time View detailed audit evidence of historical access reviews
Setup access review procedures	Define a global access review procedure that stakeholders can follow, ensuring consistency and mitigation of human error in reviews Set your access review frequency (monthly, quarterly, etc.) and working period/deadlines
Consolidate account access data from systems	Integrate systems using dozens of pre-built integrations, or “connectors”. System account and HRIS data is pulled into Vanta. Upcoming integrations include Zoom and Intercom (account access), and Personio (HRIS) Upload access files from non-integrated systems View and select systems in-scope for the review
Review, approve, and deny user access	Select the appropriate systems reviewer and due date Get automatic notifications and reminders to systems reviewer of deadlines Automatic flagging of “risky” employee accounts that have been terminated or switched departments Intuitive interface to see all accounts with access, account accept/deny buttons, and notes section Track progress of individual systems access reviews and see accounts that need to be removed or have access modified Bulk sort, filter, and alter accounts based on account roles and employee title
Assign remediation tasks to system owners	Built-in remediation workflow for reviewers to request access changes and for admin to view and manage requests Optional task tracker integration to create tickets for any access changes and provide visibility to the status of tickets and remediation
Verify changes to access	Focused view of accounts flagged for access changes for easy tracking and management Automated evidence of remediation completion displayed for integrated systems Manual evidence of remediation can be uploaded for non-integrated systems
Report and re-evaluate results	Auditor can log into Vanta to see history of all completed access reviews Internals can see status of reviews in progress and also historical review detail