ISO 27001 & BS 25999

If you think your management doesn’t have a clue what information security is all about, keep in mind that misunderstanding usually goes both ways: management often thinks you have no idea about what is appropriate for the business.

So before suggesting to your management to start implementing your information security / ISO 27001 project, you should learn about your management’s way of thinking. Here are the five main concerns your management will have when you approach them:

Is it really necessary? You have to be prepared to present the main benefits of information security, because otherwise the management won’t understand its purpose. In most cases you can choose among the following benefits: (1) Compliance with various legislation and contractual requirements etc., (2) Achieving competitive advantage in the marketplace, (3) Lowering expenses by decreasing the number of incidents, and (4) Optimizing your business operations by clearly defining tasks and responsibilities. Read more on these four benefits here: Four key benefits of ISO 27001 implementation.

Does it fit into our company strategy? Strategic fit is very important for your top management – one of your management’s primary concerns is how to keep your company competitive for a longer time period. Therefore, you have to do your homework – find out how information security can underpin certain elements of your company’s corporate strategy.

How to decrease the costs? One of the most misunderstood aspects of information security is that most of the problems (i.e. incidents) happen not because of technology, but because of human behavior. Therefore, most of the investments needed will be in defining new policies and procedures, and training and awareness programs which will prevent such incidents from happening – such investments are usually far cheaper than new technology.

Sometimes, investment in technology will also be needed – in such cases you can try to calculate the Return on Security Investment. For instance, you might try to calculate the damage that would be caused by a fire, and calculate the investment needed to prevent such damage. Just be sure not to exaggerate here, because you’ll lose your management’s confidence.

How to make sure we’ve achieved what we wanted? First of all, you need to help your management set very clear objectives – usually, those objectives will derive from the four benefits mentioned above. The second step is to set up a measurement system which will define how to measure whether the company achieved the set objectives; that system must involve clear responsibilities of who will make the reports, in which form, and who is going to read them and interpret them. Finally, a system must be in place to correct all the deviations from the objectives (be sure that such deviations will certainly happen).

What risks are involved? Management usually wants to know what is the likelihood of failure of the investment they have made. Here you need to explain to them the balance between the risks you will identify during the risk assessment and the security measures your company will invest in – the higher the investment, the smaller the chances that something will go wrong. Of course, overinvesting is not a solution, and this is why you need to leave the decision about acceptable risks to the management – your role is to present them the risks and potential security measures in an objective manner. The decision what to do with those risks is up to the management.

The point here is – the problem is not that management doesn’t want to invest in information security, but that it is either uninformed about it, or that you cannot speak the same language with your management.

By understanding the five basic issues your management is concerned with and by establishing appropriate communication with them, you’ll dramatically increase your chances for your information security project.

You have already implemented ISO 9001? You have heard that ISO 27001 might be a good idea? But how can something that has to do with quality help you implement information security?

It can, more than you may think. ISO 9001 specifies how the quality management systems (QMS) must look like, while ISO/IEC 27001 specifies the information security management systems (ISMS). Therefore, the “management systems” part is the same – so what is it actually?

The philosophy of management systems has grown from the theory developed by W. Edwards Deming during the second half of 20th century, and is based on the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle. Basically, this cycle consists of the following: in the Plan phase you have to plan what you want to achieve with the management system, in the Do phase you implement it, in the Check phase you constantly monitor whether you have achieved what you planned, and in the Act phase you make improvements, i.e. fill the gap between what you have planned and what you have achieved.

Although this cycle was invented with quality management in mind, it was established as a foundation for all other management systems – information security (ISO/IEC 27001), environment (ISO 14001), business continuity (BS 25999-2), etc. It means that some of the elements you have implemented for the quality management system according to ISO 9001 you can use for the information security management system as well – here is the list:

• Document management – the procedure used for document management in QMS can be used for the same purpose in ISMS, with only minor adjustments
• Internal audit – the same procedure can be used for both QMS and ISMS, although the internal audit itself would usually be done by different people since it is not very likely that one person would have deep enough knowledge of both information security and quality
• Corrective and preventive actions – the procedure used for QMS can be used for the same purpose in ISMS, although it is likely that different persons will be solving issues related to QMS or ISMS
• Human resources management – the same cycle of HR planning, training and evaluation is used for both management systems; naturally, the difference is in the profile of needed skills and knowledge
• Management review – the principles for management review are the same for both management systems; although it would not be recommendable to perform both reviews in parallel, management will already be accustomed to making decisions in QMS, so they will have better understanding of how to make decisions in the context of ISMS
• Setting the business goals and tracking whether they have been achieved – the same mechanism is laid down in both standards, so management will be used to such systematic planning

Therefore, if you have already implemented ISO 9001, you will have an easier job implementing ISO 27001 (and vice versa) – you could save up to 30% of time. Further, you will have cheaper certification audits since certification bodies are offering the so called “integrated audits”, which means they will do both ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 in the same audit, charging you a smaller fee compared to separated audits.

If your QMS is functioning well, you will find your ISMS project developing rather smoothly – management will have better understanding of potential business benefits, while all organizational units will be accustomed to the necessity of defining precise procedures, responsibilities and documentation.

Having a QMS indeed provides very good foundation for information security – if you already have ISO 9001, do give a serious thought to ISO 27001.