Press Release
Did you know…
Google reports people search for “ISO 27001 Checklist” almost 1,000 times per month! It’s clear people are interested in knowing how close they are to certification and think a checklist will help them determine just that.
If you are one of those people, keep reading…
The Problem with Providing an ISO 27001 Implementation Checklist
Here at Pivot Point Security, our ISO 27001 expert consultants have repeatedly told me not to hand organizations looking to become ISO 27001 certified a “to-do” checklist. Apparently, preparing for an ISO 27001 audit is a little more complicated than just checking off a few boxes.
When I asked for specifics, this is what I received…
If you were a college student, would you ask for a checklist on how to receive a college degree? Of course not! Everyone is an individual. College students place different constraints on themselves to achieve their academic goals based on their own personality, strengths & weaknesses. No one set of controls is universally successful.
Clearly, there are best practices: study regularly, collaborate with other students, visit professors during office hours, etc. but these are just helpful guidelines. The fact is, partaking in all these actions or none of them will not guarantee any one individual a college degree.
This is exactly how ISO 27001 certification works. Yes, there are some standard forms and procedures to prepare for a successful ISO 27001 audit, but the presence of these standard forms & procedures does not reflect how close an organization is to certification. It’s not just the presence of controls that allow an organization to be certified, it’s the existence of an ISO 27001 conforming management system that rationalizes the right controls that fit the need of the organization that determines successful certification.
So where do we stand?
Solution: An “Un-Checklist”
Problem: People looking to see how close they are to ISO 27001 certification want a checklist but any form of ISO 27001 self assessment checklist will ultimately give inconclusive and possibly misleading information.
Solution: Either don’t utilize a checklist or take the results of an ISO 27001 checklist with a grain of salt. If you can check off 80% of the boxes on a checklist that may or may not indicate you are 80% of the way to certification.
If you’re still interested in some kind of ISO 27001 gap analysis checklist or ISO 27001 requirements checklist, please download our “Un-Checklist.” Its unique, highly understandable format is intended to help both business and technical stakeholders frame the ISO 27001 evaluation process and focus in relation to your organization’s current security effort.
If you want to bypass the checklist altogether and talk through your ISO 27001 certification process with an implementation expert, contact Pivot Point Security. You can also download the free ISO 27001 Roadmap for additional assistance.
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Interested in an ISO 27001 Checklist to see how ready you are for a certification audit?