ISO 27001 is a globally recognized standard for information security management. Published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), it provides a systematic approach for organizations of all sizes and types to manage and protect their information assets.
ISO 27001 provides a framework for the establishment, maintenance, and continual improvement of an Information Security Management System (ISMS). An ISMS is comprised of policies, processes, and systems that manage information risks, such as cyber threats, hacks, data leaks, or theft. A company can become ISO 27001 certified by going through an audit by an accredited certification body.
The framework contains a list of 114 controls distributed across the below 14 domains. The organization’s specific risk assessment determines the choice and implementation of these controls.
- 5: Information security policies
- 6: Organization of information security
- 7: Human resources security
- 8: Asset management
- 9: Access control
- 10: Cryptography
- 11: Physical and environmental security
- 12: Operational security
- 13: Communications security
- 14: System acquisition, development, and maintenance
- 15: Supplier relationships
- 16: Information security incident management
- 17: Information security aspects of business continuity management
- 18: Compliance
Why it is Valuable to be ISO 27001 Certified
- Trust & Credibility: Achieving ISO 27001 certification demonstrates that your organization takes information security seriously. It acts as a seal of approval, assuring partners, customers, and stakeholders of your commitment to protecting their data.
- Regulatory Compliance: As data protection laws and regulations tighten across the globe, being ISO 27001 compliant can make the compliance process more streamlined for regulations like GDPR, CCPA, and others.
- Risk Management: It provides a structured framework for ensuring that potential security threats are identified, assessed, and managed effectively.
- Competitive Advantage: Organizations are becoming increasingly focused on the security posture of potential vendors during the vetting process and ISO 27001 certification can help demonstrate your commitment to security.
Vendor Risk Management in ISO 27001
Managing risks related to external parties is crucial in today’s interconnected business world as 60% of data breaches are related to third-party relationships. ISO 27001 emphasizes these controls in Annex A.15, which focuses on supplier relationships.
Annex 15 outlines the controls related to supplier management:
- Establish an information security policy outlining security expectations and standards for managing relationships with suppliers.
- Incorporate specific information security requirements into contracts and agreements with suppliers that view, process, store, communicate, or deliver IT infrastructure components to an organization’s data.
- Include provisions in contracts with suppliers to mitigate information security risks related to IT services and the product supply chain.
- Implement processes to monitor, review, and audit supplier service delivery regularly.
- Develop protocols to manage changes to the supplier services.
How ProcessBolt Can Help
As part of managing supplier relationships, section 15.1.1 states that organizations need to identify the types of suppliers the organization works with, including IT services, logistics services, and financial services. ProcessBolt can help you maintain a detailed inventory of all of your vendors and tier vendors based on vendor type, enabling you to develop customized assessments and processes for vendors based on their risk profile.
Managing supplier relationships is not a one-time event. As part of ISO 27001, it is important to develop processes to monitor, review, and audit suppliers regularly. ProcessBolt’s fully-integrated vendor risk management platform continuously monitors the internet-facing attack surface of vendors, ensuring that you can monitor your third parties throughout the entire vendor lifecycle. In addition to monitoring the internet-facing attack surface of vendors, it is also important to audit vendors and ensure they are in compliance with relevant contract provisions. With ProcessBolt, you can leverage our cutting-edge AI technology to extract relevant requirements from contracts and build custom questionnaires to assess third parties to ensure compliance.
ProcessBolt offers an AI-driven vendor risk management platform that uniquely enables organizations to assess and continuously monitor their vendor networks, while also leveraging the latest generative AI technology to extract intelligence from vendor corporate documentation. This fully integrated platform helps organizations manage supplier relationships throughout the entire third-party lifecycle and can help you meet the third-party risk management requirements that are part of ISO 27001. Fill out the form below to learn more!
