Why is ISO27001 Beneficial to Market Leaders?
ISO 27001 is an international standard that focuses on information technology security techniques and all that pertains to information security management systems. It essentially adopts a plan-do-check-act model, which is then applied to restructure ISMS processes. However, it is important to point out that ISO 27001 should not be viewed as a quick fix to organization’s information security management issues; rather it should provide a framework that can be adopted to customize and develop an information security management system that serves the organization’s needs. This is regardless of size, type and nature of the business.
Achieving compliance with ISO 27001 is a resource intensive task that may take months to implement. Hence, it is indeed a major business decision that requires approval from top management. Before engaging in the exercise, it’s critical to consider some of the benefits that enterprises can reap if they implement ISO 27001. These include.
1. Compliance
Though odd to be termed as a benefit, organizations that are required by industry-specific standards to show commitment in privacy, data protection, and IT governance (common in financial, government institutions and health sectors) can adapt the standard to offer a generic guide to implement the requirements. Once implemented successfully, the IS0 27001 certificate is actually a show of compliance.
2. Data Integrity
When it comes to managing large data banks, integrity of data is a vital aspect. In practice, even a minor corruption of data may cause insurmountable damage since it is very difficult to pinpoint which data sets have been affected and those that haven’t. IS0 27001 aids to maintain data integrity as it offers access controls, back-up procedures, and data organization that assist in maintaining data bases and are instrumental in detecting questionable data after a security breach.
3. Privacy
The recent rise of cybercrime incidences, mainly on organizations’ databases, has thrown privacy and data security issues into the limelight. Storing large data sets of personal information securely, regulating access, and using the data for only permitted purposes and effectively destroying it when it is past its use are processes that must be done in a systematic way. ISO 27001 provides best practices to plan, implement and verify data security systems with ease.
4. Marketing Edge
In an increasingly competitive market, international certifications like ISO 27001 may actually be the pointers that may make your businesses stand out. This is especially so if your business entails storing clients sensitive information.
All in all, IS0 27001 brings forth many benefits besides being just another accreditation on one’s wall. However, one of its limitations emanates from the fact that it adopts a generic process approach and that organizations are accorded the leeway to define their scope. By doing this, organizations can limit their scope by only factoring in their core departments in order to reduce their ISMS restructuring requirements. We would like to remind customers that Virtual Internet is both ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certified, one of the few hosting providers to hold both these certifications.
