Ultimate Guide to Information Security Management Systems

How to Use an ISMS in Your Organisation

It comes as no surprise that businesses are under increasing attack from cyber criminals. Whether you’re hit by an opportunistic attack resulting from a missing patch, collateral damage from a supply chain attack, victim of a targeted attack (or something else) cyber attacks are a real business risk.

Whilst there are many tools you can use in your arsenal to protect your information assets against a cyber attack, like penetration testing or a managed SIEM service, how do you know what’s needed and when?

This is where an information security management system comes in handy, in the guise of something structured like the internationally-recognised ISO 27001, It can help you decide which security tools to deploy and at what time. Instead of taking a scatter-gun approach to cyber security, an ISMS can help you take a targeted risk-based one that uses minimum resources to achieve maximum impact.

If your ISO 27001 certification (and by extension your ISMS) doesn’t have support from senior management, then your project is doomed to fail. Sorry. The good news is that once you have management on side, you’ll be able to get the resources and support you need to make the project a success, and you can start to develop your ISMS policies and procedures. Again, the overarching framework of ISO 27001 is a great help here.

Next is the implementation stage:

1. Define the scope of your ISMS

   What information assets will you cover?

2. Assess your current security posture

   What are your current security risks and controls?

3. Develop your ISMS policies and procedures

   These should be tailored to the specific needs of your organisation.

4. Implement your ISMS controls

   This could include things like installing security software, implementing access controls, and training employees on security procedures.

5. Monitor and improve your ISMS

   This includes reviewing your policies and procedures, testing your controls, and making changes as needed.

If this sounds like a daunting amount of work, well, to be honest it can be if you’re coming at it from scratch and doing it all in-house. But that’s not to say it can’t be made achievable with help from people who have done it all before. Our ISO 27001 consultants and Virtual CISO (vCISO) services give you access to seasoned security professionals who can lead or support you on your compliance journey.

Although you can technically manage your own ISMS implementation in house, it is a big project that will move forward far better with help from a seasoned professional. Our ISO 27001 consultants have been through this all before, with many businesses in many industries, so they already know the problems you’re likely to face, and the solutions.

An ISMS is a valuable tool for organisations at any stage in their compliance journey, but it does become more important as an organisation grows, and procedures become more complex. By implementing an ISMS sooner rather than later you can protect your information assets from a variety of threats, in a clever, risk-based way that means you’re spending wisely, not freely.