Enable Speed to Market via ISO 27001

Uptake of ISO 27001 certification has increased globally in recent years, and this growth is predicted to continue, as businesses seek to demonstrate their commitment to cyber security through a recognised accredited certification body. 

There are a number of drivers behind this increase. Verifiable, externally audited information security controls are increasingly becoming a requirement of supply chain due diligence processes, procurement frameworks and cyber insurance policies. In addition, consumers and investors are becoming more aware of how organisations should be protecting their data and are setting their expectations for businesses accordingly. Companies looking to release a new product to the marketplace, must be able to verify that they can handle data safely, securely and in line with relevant legislation.

In a bid to make the certification process simpler, several compliance tools have been introduced to the market. These tools:

🗓️ Help businesses to streamline risk management processes.

📊 Give them a better understand their information assets.

📈 Are excellent for for rapidly scaling, small to medium sized, cloud-based organisations.

🧠 Create a meaninful and effective way to implement ISO 27001 outside of the audit cycle.

However, these tools do not provide deep-level expertise in how to embed an ISO 27001 information security management system (ISMS) into your organisation specifically, in a pragmatic and meaningful way.

Investing the cost of licensing into a security partner such as CyPro enables you to implement required security controls in a way that both enables your business and ensures compliance with ISO 27001.

🏔️ The Challenge for SMBs

For most rapidly growing, small to medium-sized businesses, achieving compliance with the requirements of ISO 27001 is not their primary business function – in fact, it’s a significant cost:

• Lack of Expertise: Many start-ups looking to launch a product to market, do not have in-house cyber security expertise. As a result, they don’t have the experience to implement cyber security controls that enable compliance with ISO 27001, without negatively impacting on business operations.  A cyber security partner can review your business operations and planned growth in order to recommend pragmatic, proportionate and compliant security measures.
• Unfamiliarity with Audits: Many new SMBs lack familiarity with the audit process. They do not know what to expect, what they will be asked or how to respond to questions posed by auditors. An experienced partner will be able to manage the end-to-end audit process and address many questions on your behalf, leaving you time to focus on day-to-day business.
• Tooling: Expediting security compliance through dedicated platforms comes with inherent costs for licensing and (in some cases) deployment of compliance agents to information assets. This may place restrictions on the number of staff able to access and contribute to risk management policies and processes.

Comparison of Tooling Platforms

	SecureFrame	Drata	Vanta	Scytale	Sprinto
Comparative Cost	Medium	High	High	Medium	High
Ease of Use	High	High	High	High	High
Automation	Some automated checks included	High degree of automation.	Some automated checks included	High degree of automation. This is supported by human oversight	High degree of automation.
Integrations	300+	170+	375+	100+	200+

In addition to this, compliance is often driven by a need to meet a specific requirement (e.g. to win a new client or as part of an investment cycle) which means that it implemented quickly, with a focus on ‘getting through the audit’; rather than in developing an information security risk management framework that proactively addresses information security risk within the organisation.

This means, that in many organisations, ISO 27001 accreditation is a ‘tick-box’ exercise, with the certification requirements being reviewed and assessed, at best, annually – generally in something of a panic, just before the auditors arrive.  In such circumstances, an organisation is unlikely to benefit from the significant risk reduction that an effective information security management system can provide.

🫀 Bringing Compliance Into the Heart of Your Business

Many businesses may already have access to the perfect tool for building an Information Security Management System – in the form of a knowledge management systems such as Confluence, Notion or SharePoint.

Why Is This a Better Solution than Specialist Platforms?

Compliance platforms are built to enable businesses to meet the requirements of standards such as ISO 27001, so how can a generic knowledge management system like Confluence, Notion or SharePoint begin to compare? It’s Cheaper.

You probably already have Confluence, Notion or another similar platform in your organisation, so you don’t need to spend money on additional software and licenses – leaving you with more in the budget to implement new controls or seek the support of an expert partner!

Don’t Believe the Hype

Even with dedicated compliance platforms, like Vanta or Drata, organisatiosn are still responsible for maintining it. These tools act as document repositories that still need you to define your controls, upload evidence, assign internal resources and ensure ongoing compliance. These vendors will not do that for you – the responsibility of maintenance stays with your team.

Policy and Process at Your Fingertips

Most, if not all, users in an organisation will have access to your Confluence or Notion system. If you build your Information Security policies and processes in there, it puts them directly at the fingertips of the staff that need to user them. Too often, policies and processes are ‘locked away’ in separated systems and can only be accessed by those with a role in the audit process. This means that while the controls exist on paper, they aren’t actually helping your staff to keep your business safe.

Working Together to Improve Security

Security is a team game, that requires input from everyone in the business. Putting your ISMS in a platform like this makes collaboration simple and means updates can be made at the touch of a button. This means that your security policies and controls grow and evolve as your business does, rather than being hurriedly updated as part of a once a year audit ‘chore-list’.  

Need expert input? Then add your security partner as a guest user and let them get to work!

Find What You Need, When You Need It

The primary function of knowledge management systems is to effectively and efficiently manage large volumes of information. In-built version control and change management automatically trackswho made changes and when. so, when an auditor asks to see who amended a document, the evidence is immediately to hand.

Documents, forms and registers can be quickly and easily linked – so users can be swiftly directed to:

• What they need to do
• Where they need to go to do it

This saves a huge amount of time:

• No more hunting for documents and request forms across multiple platforms
• People can get on with their day job of helping your business grow!

When it comes to the audit, auditors can easily find and review the evidence they need to see, speeding up the audit process and reducing stress for all involved!

Conclusion

While compliance platforms offer a range of benefits to organisations seeking to validate their compliance with the ISO 27001 standard – they are by no means the only effective method for implementing an information security risk assessment and management framework.

In fact, you may well already have a solution in place, which will allow you to put security in the heart of your organisation, where it can enable your staff to do their jobs more safely and securely. This means that information security and risk management policies and processes will become a normal part of regular business operations – driving down cyber risk year round, not just in the month preceding the arrival of the external auditor!

For more information on how CyPro can support you with achieving recognised cyber security standards such as ISO 27001, SOC2 and Cyber Essentials Plus, visit our service pages or contact the team here.