Undergoing an ISO 27001 audit can be a stressful time, not only do you have your day-to-day role to manage, but you also need to spend months in advance running preparation, chasing paper and seeking input across the business.
How can we make this easier for you to achieve?
In this blog, we'll explore practical tips and strategies to help you streamline your ISO 27001 audit, saving time and resources while maintaining a rigorous assessment of your information security management system.
Preparing Documentation:
- One of the major pain points of any ISO 27001 audit is documentation. Tracking down documents over many repositories, managing version control and ensuring all policies have been adhered to is tough. An easy way to do this is to collate documents into one central repository. If that is not possible, then look toward an ISO 27001 automated compliance system that can do this for you within minutes.
- Review document relevance: conduct periodic reviews to identify and remove any outdated or redundant documents that are no longer applicable to your information security management system. If this proves too time consuming during BAU, then perhaps consider outsourcing this function to a cybersecurity specialist that runs automated cybersecurity compliance managed services such as Cythera.
Complete Risk Assessments:
- Prioritise high-risk areas: focus your efforts on areas with the highest risks to your organisation's information security such as configuration management, web filtering and patching management. If you are unsure where to start here, it is best to consult with a cybersecurity professional services consultancy, such as Cythera, to conduct these risk assessments on your behalf. This will then be the foundation of a proactive response to any auditing questions.
- Leverage existing risk assessments: If your organisation has conducted risk assessments for other purposes, such as compliance with industry regulations, leverage the findings and incorporate them into your ISO 27001 audit process. The more risk assessments and proactive risk analysis you can show, the better.
Run Internal Audits Periodically:
- Regular internal audits: conduct periodic internal audits to assess your information security management system's compliance with ISO 27001 requirements. This allows you to identify and address any gaps or non-conformities before the external audit, reducing the time needed for corrective actions during the official assessment. There are now great solutions in the market to help achieve this on a 24 x 7 x 365 basis through automation.
- Engage independent cybersecurity specialists who can advise on what auditors will look for: specifically for ISO 27001, companies such as Cythera can advise on valuable cybersecurity insights and policies that will anticipate auditors queries. This will help to streamline the process when it comes to auditing time.
And when the big auditing day comes:
- Implement corrective actions promptly: Demonstrate your commitment to continuous improvement and remediation. If you’re under-resourced, then ensure these items are taken care of by a trusted cybersecurity partner.
- Monitor and measure progress: Communicating the results of the ISO 27001 audit to the business, specifically to the Executive Leadership Team, is crucial. When you communicate to the business, be sure to mention the effectiveness of your information security controls, or solutions to achieve this. Seeking guidance from a cybersecurity partner, such as Cythera, can help with this style of communication by including automation controls, dashboards and monitoring systems that are (or will be) implemented as part of the ISO 27001 compliance adherence.
Is there a way to make this easier?
Yes, Cythera works with leading ISO 27001 compliance technologies, coupled with expert cybersecurity capability, to provide businesses with a comprehensive and optimised approach to compliance, that gives time back to IT teams without replacing jobs. We do this by:
- Automating the creation, management, and version control of documentation required for ISO 27001 compliance specific to Australian organisations.
- Providing templates, workflows, and collaboration tools to streamline the process of developing policies, procedures, and control documentation applicable to ISO 27001 and other Australian cybersecurity legislation.
- Automating risk assessment, risk analysis, calculation of risk levels, and frameworks for implementing risk management.
- Automating control implementation and monitoring, including the assignment of responsibilities, tracking of progress, and reports that can be used across the organisation for proactive communication purposes.
Cythera can also monitor, in real-time, the effectiveness of controls, identifying gaps and potential non-compliance issues before they become damaging.
Want to know more? Download our latest business case guide template or meet with us to discuss in person or via video.
