CRIBB Cyber Security is an official certification body. We are backed by the UK government and qualified to help with Cyber Essentials, IASME Governance and more. Recently we added ISO27001 Certification to our range of security services. Today we look more closely at this increasingly more important aspect of cyber security.
What is it?
In the UK, regulators and the general public are increasingly looking for assurances about how organisations deal with personal data. Implementing a robust information security management system (ISMS) is vital, and ISO27001 is the international standard that lays out the specs for doing so. Once in place, an ISMS can then be audited by an independent certification body to assess the level of conformity.
It is in fact the only auditable international standard defining the requirements of an ISMS. In simple terms, an ISMS consists of the policies, procedures and systems used to manage information risks such as cyber-attacks or data breaches.
Top Tip
Contact us today and we can help you to ensure ISO27001 compliance, giving your clients and customers peace of mind. Certification is valid for three years but you must manage your ISMS throughout. Our professional auditors will then visit each year the certification is valid.
What are the benefits?
The benefits are numerous, and include:
- Compliance
- Effective reputation management
- Reduced need for audits
- Mitigate the risks of data breaches
The Standard is designed to ensure that you implement adequate security controls to protect information. Regulatory requirements such as the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are becoming more rigid. ISO27001 certification then is a demonstration of your compliance with them.
With a certified ISMS in place, you are protecting your organisation against damaging cyber-attacks. These are on the rise year after year, and as well as causing financial losses, they can be even more detrimental to your reputation.
ISO27001 acts as a globally-renowned demonstration of effective security. This in turn lessens the need for repeated customer audits – never a bad thing.
Perhaps the key benefit is the avoidance of breaches with the data you process. This of course can be hugely damaging, as a look at the top 10 data breaches of 2021 proves (source: CRN.com). These US numbers are from the first half of the year only, with the top 3 as follows:
- Astoria Company
- ParkMobile
- ClearVoiceResearch.com
10 million Astoria customers had Social Security numbers, bank account numbers and drivers’ license numbers exposed. Over 10 million Astoria customers also had information from other fields exposed, such as credit history and medical data.
ParkMobile lost user information including license plate numbers, email addresses and phone numbers when a breach occurred in a third-party software they were using.
Profile information from ClearVoice survey participants was revealed online, including contact information, passwords, and responses to questions on health condition, political affiliation, and ethnicity.
Conclusion
Certification for ISO27001 is definitely worth considering. A casual Google search reveals that to be the most-asked question, and hopefully the few benefits we opted to include here are proof enough of that. Nowadays, cyber security is of the utmost importance. Cyber-attacks and breaches are in the mainstream news with alarming regularity. Having a strong defence in place is then of significant value.