Getting ISO 27001 Certified in San Diego, California (CA)
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Working in the growth of your company isn’t simple at all. After all, many tasks and actions are involved in achieving the desired results, including implementing standards such as ISO 9001 or ISO 27001 in any company in San Diego, California.
If you are very new and don’t know much about the standards and rules you have to follow and meet in order to continue operating, you have a long way to go. On the other hand, what are ISOs or standards? Are they mandatory regulations and norms? Yes and no. Some ISOs are mandatory for every company in the state regardless of its size and type, but some of them are also voluntary and completely up to the business to implement them and get certified.
However, let’s focus on the mandatory ones. Unlike what you might believe, they are a great addition to your organization if you put aside the need of implementing it due to legal requirements. They usually aim to establish, maintain, and improve a specific management system in the company, and this only brings drastic growth as well as an advantage in the market or industry.
Standards also tend to offer you much more in order to protect your organization and only help you to obtain positive and optimal outcomes you’ll want forever. Now, where should you start? With an ISO that is mandatory or voluntary? Definitely mandatory. Before thinking about implementing standards that focus on the system of your company in specific, make sure to go for the generic ones.
ISO 9001 is a good starting point since it is one that every organization that offers services or products should get certified in. But going for other ISOs that aim for different purposes and other systems is completely up to you. At IQC The ISO Pros, we suggest you focus on the priorities of your company and determine what you need the most. Security? Quality? Environmental measures? Based on this, you choose a standard to implement.
One we would recommend for anyone would be ISO/IEC 27001, which aims for the information security management system (ISMS) of any company. Why? Because protecting any type of information in your hands is a top priority that needs to be handled even before other aspects. With us, you can get trained in this standard to understand the requirements and guidelines and finally, implement it. You can also access our services to allow our experts to implement the ISO for you and offer advice when needed. All this is available for companies in San Diego, California, and any other city in the state.
Why ISO/IEC 27001 for your business?
Any company that wants to have control over its information to prevent risks and address problems, should definitely implement it. More than a case of meeting requirements and fulfilling certain regulations, it’s about the security of the organization and how much it can achieve in order to have control over every information that exits and enters its system or the organization itself. But isn’t this possible to achieve without following ISO/IEC 27001 guidelines?
Organizations in San Diego, California, or any other city of the state, are able to establish their own information security management system. However, to demonstrate it is actually safe and will deliver the desired results, every company needs to get ISO 27001 certified. Besides, the standard offers a long list of requirements that more than looking at them as mandatory, ’s more about nothing the benefits. After all, most organizations aim to establish and maintain the ISMS, but they don’t think too much about its improvement over the years.
It’s not easy to look further and have a plan for the growth and improvement of the system, but it is the main reason why ISO/IEC 27001 is so relevant. This normative provides a very specific model for companies to establish, implement, operate, monitor, review, maintain, and improve their information security management system. And unlike what it is believed, the standard may be a generic one for this system alone but it helps you to address and focus on your organization’s needs in this area alone. By the end of the day and its implementation, you should be able to have a safe and reliable system that will help you to prevent any threats and risks to finally keep your information for you alone and ensure third-party’s data won’t be in danger.
What’s the planning process to implement ISO/IEC 27001?
Just like any other standard, it takes time to meet every requirement established in order to get certified. Therefore, the best action organizations can take is to focus on a plan and determine the actions to be taken. Most of the time, the guidelines provided by the ISO itself will help you 90% with this process. It is all about understanding it and being able to adjust the process to the needs of your organization. For a standard just like ISO/IEC 27001 that aims for your information security management system, the needs of your company are pretty much clear. However, it is normal to have very specific on your own depending on the type and size of your business as well as its activities.
With that said, at IQC The ISO Pros, we will start helping you right now to determine this. Since ISO 27001 is more about using a risk-based approach and is technology-neutral, the process isn’t divided into too many parts but rather 6:
- Define a security policy.
- Determine the scope of the information security management system.
- Perform a risk assessment in the organization.
- Once identified the risks, manage or address them.
- Define and select control objectives and controls to be implemented.
- Finally, prepare a statement of applicability.
Although the steps are short in terms of numbers, each one of them takes its time. The entire process will involve many processes such as internal audits, having to detail all the documentation, aim for continuous improvement, take preventive actions as well as corrective ones, and much more.
Now, what makes it more difficult according to all our years of experience is the need for cooperation among all sections or areas in the company. No, it isn’t only about working in your ISMS alone and without looking at the rest. Instead, every sector is involved in this process. Since information is provided from all the sections and all of them also manage it, it’s required to set standards and measures for every area in the organization.
Does it take a long time to implement and finally, get certified?
Since ISO/IEC 27001 must be implemented in any organization regardless of its size, type, and activities, the time it will take is going to depend a lot on this. Some take half a year to handle all the clauses, steps, and controls established in the standard, while others need to spend more time determining if they have met all the requirements. Also, it will depend on how well you are implementing it and if you followed the ISO guidelines properly.
This is why having an expert or several professionals handling the process can be decisive for your certification. Not only for the need of obtaining it but also the resources and time you are investing in having the ISO implemented. Therefore, here’s what we suggest you: take your time to get trained, implement it properly, and find help when necessary. In our company, we will deliver our consulting, training, and implementation services to any company that needs to handle ISO 27001 in San Diego, California, and other cities in the state.
With this clear, we don’t want you to think you will have to spend months or years implementing this standard. Once a company has a good idea of its goals, understands the ISO, and knows which security controls to implement and maintain, everything becomes easier. Just focus on the normative as what it is, a risk management process that includes many guidelines for risk assessment and risk treatment.
What are the requirements in ISO/IEC 27001?
Since you need to meet every requirement established to get certified, it is only natural to be aware of each one of them. But before getting there, you must understand that all standards come with long documents and a lot of information. You won’t be able to understand everything in the ISO in a few days, but it is a good option to start as soon as possible to ensure you are able to implement it properly.
This is our main advice for you since we understand you might be aiming for someone who can do everything for you. But the truth is it is also necessary for you—the company—to know what you’re implementing and all the requirements to meet to get certified. Therefore, here’s what you need to do: Read through the documentation, start training, and implement the ISO. With this clear, let’s proceed to the requirements and structure of ISO/IEC 27001.
In total, there are 12 main sections you need to put into consideration and invest as much time as needed whenever you are in one of them. Since the standard focuses on information security and everything about it no matter from where it comes, it is natural that each section addresses a different need:
- Risk assessment: it is required to identify all the possible risks and the current ones that are taking place in order to prevent them.
- Security policy: part of the requirements is to build a document that focuses on the new policies to ensure the system is working properly and guaranteeing the best outcome when establishing and maintaining it.
- Organization of information security: determine the place for every part of the information and how its security will take place by establishing a framework.
- Asset management: have control over assets to also gain control over processes and new methods that will be established in the company, also, identify information assets and define the right protection responsibilities.
- Human resources security: who are you employing? Can he or she meet the required security measures? Make sure you have reliable and trustworthy workers and protect them from possible risks involved with their information.
- Physical and environmental security: focuses on preventing the loss, damage, or theft of the organization’s information asset containers or any threat in the system.
- Communications security: establishes the guidelines that help companies to set regulations that allow them to protect the information in networks.
- Access control: sets regulations to ensure workers or employees only access and view information that is relevant and crucial for their job or role in the company.
- System acquisition, development, and maintenance: guarantees that information security remains a central part of the organization and all its processes to achieve a well-established and safe system during all its lifetime or lifecycle.
- Information security incident management: sets the guidelines to establish the method companies need to manage and report security incidents that take place.
- Business continuity management: builds the system of the company that aims to manage business disruptions.
- Compliance: can your company identify relevant and crucial laws as well as regulations? This section ensures that you are able to do so and mitigate risks of non-compliance and possible penalties as a result.
When should you start to work on it?
As soon as you can. Guaranteeing that your organization works with a safe and functional information security management system will allow you to work with more confidence and worry less whenever there’s a threat or risk. Also, clients and customers will feel more attracted to working with you since you are able to ensure the safety of the information they will share with your organization.
Remember, ISO 27001 isn’t only about protecting yours but also, other people’s information. Therefore, the sooner you start, the better for the growth and improvement of your company. Something most companies don’t understand is that ISO 27001 not only aims for their own information security but also their clients’ data. If you read through the document or normative, you will notice it is possible to achieve a good security system for the information you manage that isn’t about your organization alone.
It is common to mistake the standard as an individual ISO that focuses on your company’s information and its security only, and it actually may be. But when you are able to harmonize the guidelines and requirements established in the standard with your needs and the rest of your information and systems, you are able to achieve much more than just a basic information security management system for yourself.
What we want to tell you is: if you start soon, you will be able to have an advantage when it comes to offering more to your clients as well. After all, no one wants to hire a company or service that isn’t compromised to protecting their information. If you ask us, we wouldn’t do it, but we would definitely choose one that is concerned for its data but also, its clients.
How can you implement ISO/IEC 27001?
We, IQC The ISO Pros, are ready to start with the implementation as soon as you are. Our team of experts will get you trained in no time and either be next to you to implement it or handle the entire task on their own. It is completely up to you.
Since we have been in business for over 15 years, we are confident about our capabilities and what we can do for your company not only in implementing the standard but also, in improving your processes and systems while assisting you. You have to look at standards as a new addition that will bring more benefits than it seems.
To begin with, having a better information security management system will allow you to bring more value to your company when it comes to the number of clients you can handle and how safe your operations and processes are. Also, you will be more competitive in a local but also international market and industry. Since companies need to look forward to growing and improving as much as possible, we are confident you will find what you need when it comes to protecting your information with ISO/IEC 27001.
Although the standard isn’t mandatory, you will gain a lot from it and will be one of those cases where the benefit is more than the investment. And our professionals at IQC The ISO Pros are ready to help you to obtain every single benefit available with it. To have access to our training, implementation, and consulting services, make sure to contact us right away.
We are available in San Diego but also, in almost every city in California, which allows us to assist you regardless of your location and ensures we are here for you to count on us. Just let us know where you are, what your company is about, its type and size, and we will have our experts getting there in no time.