ISO 27001 Certification: A Step-by-Step Quick-Start Guide

Learn the basics about ISO 27001 and three practical steps to help your company work towards certification, and stay standard compliant as it does.

· 8 minute read

Understanding and implementing information security requirements can often feel overwhelming.

For those already dealing with compliance regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, or CCPA, aligning daily operations with strict standards is a familiar challenge. The ISO 27001 certification, a globally recognized standard from the International Organization for Standardization, provides a clear framework to protect your company’s information, processes, and technologies, ensuring compliance and security.

The offers standards and checklists to help your business remain compliant with requirements. Achieving ISO 27001 certification goes beyond basic compliance — it reflects a genuine commitment to safeguarding your most critical assets. By following three actionable steps, your company can confidently progress toward ISO 27001 certification, strengthening its security practices while maintaining seamless operations.

Step 1: Scope Your ISMS and Conduct an ISO 27001 Risk Assessment

Before protecting your information, you must define what needs protection. This begins with scoping your Information Security Management System (ISMS), which outlines your security requirements, policies, and relevant Annex A controls. A well-defined scope is crucial to shaping your ISMS and risk assessment efforts.

Your ISMS scope should cover three key areas:

  • Critical information assets,
  • How they are protected,
  • Any limitations or vulnerabilities.

Tailor this scope to your specific business needs to focus your security efforts. A clear structure simplifies documentation and facilitates communication during internal reviews or audits.

Key sections to include in your ISMS scope:

  • Organizational context: Define your company’s industry, the services you provide, and why information security is vital to your business operations.
  • Security approaches: Outline your company’s existing security measures, standards, and practices, and explain why ISO 27001 is the preferred standard for your security framework.
  • Legal and regulatory requirements: Identify the laws, contractual obligations, and regulations that your security measures must adhere to, ensuring compliance with all relevant external standards.
  • Stakeholders: Specify all internal and external parties involved in managing, accessing, or overseeing your company’s critical information assets.

Once the scope is fully mapped out, you’ll want to summarize it with a concise scope statement that encapsulates the core of your security framework. This statement should be short yet informative, giving stakeholders a quick understanding of your ISMS priorities. For instance, a healthcare provider might state:

“As a leading provider prioritizing the mental and physical health and wellbeing of our patients, we highly depend on protecting their personal information and our digital systems and operational processes. That is why information security is very important for our pharmacy, inpatient and outpatient clinics, and digital portal. This policy and our ISMS are a direct reflection of these requirements.”

With your ISMS scope defined, the next step is conducting a risk assessment. The goal here is to identify vulnerabilities that may threaten your information assets and determine how an ISO 27001-compliant ISMS can mitigate these risks. A standard risk assessment evaluates potential weaknesses, while an ISO 27001-compliant risk assessment also aligns with Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) standards, ensuring continued eligibility for certification.

ISO 27001 risk assessment: A step-by-step process

The complexity of ISO 27001 requirements can be daunting, but breaking down the risk assessment into manageable steps makes it actionable. Here are the seven key steps to performing an ISO 27001-compliant risk assessment:

  • Choose an approach: Decide between a scenario-based or asset-based risk assessment based on your company’s specific needs.
  • Select a methodology: Choose a comprehensive risk assessment methodology within your chosen approach. ISO 27001 doesn’t prescribe specific methods, allowing flexibility in how you assess risk.
  • Identify vulnerabilities: Determine the gaps or weaknesses in your current security measures that expose your business to potential threats.
  • Evaluate risks: Rank the risks according to their severity and likelihood, ensuring that the most urgent threats are prioritized.
  • Triage risks: Decide how to address each identified risk — whether to modify, retain, avoid, or transfer them — starting with high-priority threats and moving on to lesser ones.
  • Document your findings: Record all risks, the controls you are implementing or omitting, and how these decisions align with ISO 27001 standards.
  • Review regularly: Schedule risk assessments at least annually to identify new vulnerabilities and confirm that your ISMS remains effective at managing risks over time.

By following these steps, your company can conduct a compliant ISO 27001 risk assessment that not only safeguards your information but also positions your business for a successful certification audit.

Step 2: Address Required Domains & Related Controls for ISO 27001 Annex A

To achieve ISO 27001 compliance, companies must evaluate their existing security practices and compare them against the 114 controls outlined in Annex A. These controls are grouped into 14 domains, each focusing on a specific area of information security management. While the controls are comprehensive, the goal isn’t to apply all of them but to implement those that directly address your company’s unique vulnerabilities and risks.

Annex A allows for flexibility — your organization only needs to adopt the controls that are necessary based on the risks identified in your risk assessment. This targeted approach ensures that resources are focused on the areas that will have the greatest impact on your security posture while still meeting ISO 27001 requirements.

It’s important to document any decisions to omit specific controls, as auditors will want to see why certain controls were deemed unnecessary. Collaborating with teams across legal, IT, compliance, and risk management ensures that decisions are made collectively and align with your broader business goals. Cross-departmental collaboration also ensures that selected controls are integrated seamlessly into workflows and systems.

Understanding the 14 domains of Annex A

Here’s a breakdown of the 14 domains within Annex A, each focusing on a different aspect of information security:

  • A.5 Information Security Policies: Establishes policies to guide your ISMS and ensure your security objectives are clearly defined.
  • A.6 Organization of Information Security: Ensures that security roles and responsibilities are defined across the organization.
  • A.7 Human Resource Security: Focuses on securing sensitive information throughout the employee lifecycle, from hiring to termination.
  • A.8 Asset Management: Requires organizations to classify and secure their information assets according to their sensitivity and importance.
  • A.9 Access Control: Controls who has access to information and systems, ensuring only authorized personnel can access sensitive data.
  • A.10 Cryptography: Covers the use of encryption and cryptographic controls to protect data.
  • A.11 Physical and Environmental Security: Ensures that physical access to information and IT systems is restricted to authorized personnel.
  • A.12 Operations Security: Focuses on maintaining the security of your IT systems, including monitoring, malware protection, and backup processes.
  • A.13 Communications Security: Protects the security of information in networks and communications systems.
  • A.14 System Acquisition, Development, and Maintenance: Ensures that security is embedded into the lifecycle of systems from acquisition to decommission.
  • A.15 Supplier Relationships: Manages the risks involved with third-party suppliers and contractors who have access to sensitive information.
  • A.16 Information Security Incident Management: Establishes processes for responding to information security incidents.
  • A.17 Information Security Aspects of Business Continuity Management: Ensures security measures are maintained during a business disruption.
  • A.18 Compliance: Addresses legal, regulatory, and contractual obligations to ensure your business remains compliant with relevant laws.

Applying the relevant Annex A controls

To efficiently implement ISO 27001 controls, a methodical approach is needed. Here’s how to align Annex A controls with your risk management strategy:

  • Conduct a gap analysis: Start by comparing your existing security practices to the Annex A controls. This helps identify gaps where your current measures fall short.
  • Assess control relevance: Not every control will be necessary for your organization. Focus on controls that mitigate the risks identified in your ISO 27001 risk assessment (Step 1). For example, if data encryption is a priority for your business, then focusing on the A.10 Cryptography domain would be crucial.
  • Document control decisions: Any controls that are not implemented should be backed by clear, well-documented justifications. This documentation will be essential during your ISO 27001 audit to prove that your decisions are risk-based and aligned with your specific security needs.
  • Collaborate across departments: Engaging teams from IT, risk management, legal, compliance, and HR ensures that the controls selected are appropriate and have buy-in across the organization. Collaborating with departments also provides the opportunity to ensure that workflows and technology integrate seamlessly.
  • Regular review and updates: Security needs evolve, and so should your controls. Conduct regular reviews (at least annually) to ensure that any new vulnerabilities or risks are accounted for, and that existing controls remain effective.

When is an Annex A control unnecessary?

Chris Hall, an ISO 27001 expert, offers an example to help determine helpful versus unnecessary Annex A controls. He says:

“An example [of identifying relevant controls] I have seen many times is organizations operating internal CCTV but when you look at it you realise that internal CCTV is not really a necessary control to manage an information risk. Or it might [be] a control that you want to continue operating because the cost of operating it is very low or it is very expensive to remove it. You may want to operate internal CCTV to manage fraud risk or theft of personal property. [But] CCTV may not be necessary to help you manage any of your information risks.”

In many cases, companies might operate internal CCTV systems as part of their overall security measures. However, when evaluating Annex A controls, it may become clear that CCTV isn’t essential for information security risks. For example, the primary role of the CCTV system could be to prevent fraud or theft, which might not directly affect the protection of digital information.

In this case, the company may decide to omit this control from its ISO 27001 scope. However, if the cost of maintaining the CCTV system is low, or if it serves other critical functions, it could still be justified as a measure to support physical security, even though it’s not crucial for ISO 27001 compliance. In all cases, it’s important to document the rationale behind these decisions for audit purposes.

Cross-referencing your ISMS with the Annex A controls that address your specific risks helps ensure that your organization remains ISO 27001-compliant. A methodical approach to implementing these controls increases the likelihood of a successful certification audit. Ultimately, the stronger the alignment between your ISMS and the relevant Annex A controls, the smoother the certification process will be. Ensuring that each control is directly tied to mitigating an identified risk will not only keep your security posture robust but also make the audit process more straightforward.

Step 3: Document Your ISO 27001 Process and Send a Certification Proposal

Documenting your ISO 27001 process is essential for proving compliance during audits. Proper documentation demonstrates that your organization meets ISO 27001 standards. To streamline this, establish a dedicated certification team or use compliance management software to securely organize all necessary documents.

The documentation must cover every aspect of your security policies, risk treatment plans, and control procedures. Each ISO 27001 clause requires specific documentation, making this phase time-intensive, often taking months to complete.

But don’t worry! There’s no strict deadline for ISO 27001 certification, so focus on developing a complete and accurate documentation set. Taking time to ensure thorough documentation increases your chances of certification success and long-term compliance.

After documenting your ISO 27001 process, the next crucial step is to prepare for the certification audit. Here’s what you should do to ensure a successful audit:

  1. Conduct an internal audit: Before engaging with a certification body, perform an internal audit to review your Information Security Management System (ISMS). This helps identify any gaps or non-conformities in your documentation and implementation, allowing you to address them before the formal audit.
  2. Address non-conformities: If the internal audit reveals any issues, take immediate action to correct them. Ensure all documentation is updated and any missing controls are implemented to align with ISO 27001 standards.
  3. Select an accredited certification body: Choose an accredited Certification Body (CB) that aligns with your industry and has experience in ISO 27001 certifications. Accredited bodies like ANAB or UKAS provide global recognition and ensure your certification is credible. Many resources exist to help you choose the right CB to evaluate your proposal against ISO 27001 requirements and grant certification.
  4. Prepare for the certification audit: Once ready, submit your documentation to the chosen certification body for Stage 1 of the audit. This involves a thorough review of your documentation, followed by Stage 2, an on-site audit to assess the effectiveness of your ISMS.
  5. Certification and ongoing compliance: If you successfully pass both stages, your organization will receive ISO 27001 certification. Remember, certification is an ongoing process, with regular surveillance audits conducted to ensure continuous compliance.

By following these steps, your organization is positioned for ISO 27001 certification, enhancing its security posture and ensuring ongoing compliance.

Integrating ISO 27001 and Risk Management

For organizations pursuing ISO 27001 certification, a strong risk management framework is essential. By integrating risk management into your ISO 27001 processes, you can address vulnerabilities more strategically, ensuring your security controls align with broader business goals. This approach also helps your organization manage ongoing compliance more efficiently and adapt to emerging risks as they arise.

Resolver’s platform bridges the gap between ISO 27001 certification and your greater Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) strategy, making it easier to navigate the complexities of certification while optimizing your IT security efforts. Our solution supports your team through every phase of the ISO 27001 process, from risk assessment to ongoing compliance management.

Ready to streamline your ISO 27001 journey? Request a free demo to see how Resolver can help you achieve certification faster, strengthen your security posture, and create a sustainable risk management strategy.

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