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What Is the ISO 27001 Benefit to Business? Understanding Security Compliance

What Is the ISO 27001 Benefit to Business? Understanding Security Compliance

ISO/IEC 27001

Businesses considering implementing this standard have to answer the question of what the ISO 27001 benefit to business is. The British Assessment Bureau informs us that ISO 27001 helps companies achieve an information security management system (ISMS) that allows the company to minimize or remove the chance of a data breach.

Data security isn’t a new concern for companies. The BBC mentions that cybersecurity is of the utmost importance to any business in the twenty-first century. However, while we are aware of how important data security is, how does this tie into the ISO 27001 benefit to business?

Data Integrity and Restoration

Data corruption can be a plague that can cause an entire company’s databases to buckle and collapse. Ensuring that individual records maintain their integrity is crucial to ensuring that the company can meet its mandate to clients and suppliers alike.

With integrated databases, minor corruption could cost a company quite a lot. There’s no way to isolate and repair the corrupted data. By implementing data security systems under the ISO 27001 standard, a business sets up a framework. This framework deals with data integrity and can help with compromised datasets.
Data organization, access control, and a specific backup protocol ensure that datasets remain viable and avoid corruption. Comparing the latest backup with the current version can help a company restore the damaged data without too much hassle.

Privacy of User Data

Another crucial ISO 27001 benefit to the business is increased privacy for the company’s data. An ISMS helps businesses avoid problems that arise if they fail to secure data appropriately. Access control, group management policies, and destruction of data no longer in use are crucial parts of an ISMS. They ensure that user information doesn’t leave the company’s servers or fall into the wrong hands.

ISO 27001 regulations keep businesses secure in knowing that the data they have on their systems are protected. It also helps to avoid messy legal battles associated with data leaks.

Intellectual Property Protection

Businesses all have their own intellectual property generated within the company. Protecting a business’s intellectual property (IP) ensures that it maintains its competitive edge. Risk management techniques can help spot issues with how the company currently deals with its IPs.

Once more, access controls per ISO 27001 are crucial in ensuring that the company keeps ahold of its intellectual property rights. Secure systems stop external access to the company’s IP records. This practice helps to create an impenetrable digital barrier to anyone who would seek to appropriate the company’s IPs.

Peace of Mind to Customers

Digital security is now a hot topic for many consumers. Data breaches have become commonplace, and most users have had account information from one or more large companies compromised in the past. The incidence of these occurrences makes them less likely to trust businesses with their data.

An ISO 27001 benefit to business that is often overlooked is increased confidence in the company’s data management. This certification allows clients to be aware of how the business manages data. Customers understand the steps that the firm undertakes to ensure that all data collected by the company is stored securely. They can also rest assured that the data is destroyed when no longer in use. These steps can go a long way towards convincing a client that they can trust their user data with the business.

ISO 27001 Benefit to Business – The Never-Ending Arms Race

Business security is always about staying one step ahead of malicious actors. By implementing the guidelines set forward under ISO 27001, a company can apply industry best practices that may help them avoid problems with their data security. If you’re looking at implementing a new ISMS, we’ve got you covered. Maybe you need to audit the ISMS the business already has with the aim of certification? Contact Sync Resource today. We’d be glad to help you make your business data management a more secure process.

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Bits and Bytes – The No. 1 Formula for Learning the Benefits of How to get ISO Certification for Software Company

Bits and Bytes – The No. 1 Formula for Learning the Benefits of How to get ISO Certification for Software Company

ISO 9001, ISO/IEC 27001

Understanding how to get ISO certification for software company brings a lot of potential and possibilities for a small business. Certification underlines the company’s dedication to upholding industry standards.

Indeed reinforces this by stating that ISO certification establishes credibility within the industry and increases consumer trust with their service provider.

Many software companies avoid ISO certification because they don’t think the standards apply to their industry.

This opinion isn’t strictly true. Software companies stand to benefit from implementing two essential ISO standards: ISO 9001 and ISO 27001.

In this article, we’ll delve into what these certifications are and what they bring to the table for software companies.

Defining The Standards for How to Get ISO Certification for Software Company

Software companies, like many small businesses, utilize several standard practices. ISO 9001, as we previously explained, deals with establishing a quality management service within the company.

The International Standards Organization itself states that certifications from the ISO 9000 family help businesses to maintain the quality of their products and customer service through an iterative methodology.

In particular, software companies depend upon excellent customer support and high-quality products to help make a name for themselves and stand out from the competition.

Another vital certification that software companies shouldn’t overlook is ISO 27001.

We’ve touched on how this particular certification can be critical to small businesses since it deals primarily with data protection.

The International Standards Organization mentions that the ISO 27001 certification offers peace of mind when it comes to data security by helping a business establish an Information Security Management System (ISMS).

How to Get ISO Certification for Software Company – The Steps Involved

Each of these ISO certification standards has its own requirements, and as such, we will be covering each one separately.

ISO 9001

In a previous post, we mentioned a simplified 5-step process that a company could undertake to achieve ISO 9001 certification. For those who missed that post, the five steps we mentioned are:

  1. Get Informed:
    Source basic and essential information about the ISO certification process. Companies should start by designating a member of staff as the “point person” for this process, making them the go-to person for all ISO-related issue.
  2. Prepare Documentation:
    ISO 9001 is heavily based on documentation. At this stage, a company should be getting the documents they currently have and note the materials they lack compared to what the standard requires.
  3. Implement Certification Requirements:
    Using the information generated from the previous step, a company can note its weakest areas and its lack of documentation. Taking into account the requirements for certification, the company can see where they comply with the regulations entirely, partially, or not at all.
  4. Internal Audit:
    Once the company has arranged its documentation, it can undergo an internal audit. At this stage, the company inspects its documentation and compares it to the requirements. Glaring errors can be picked up and rectified here, and the company may need to go through multiple internal audits before it’s ready for the next step.
  5. External Audit and Certification:
    A third-party certification body will visit the company in the final step and perform a thorough audit of the company’s documents and system improvements. If it meets the standards, the company will achieve ISO 9001 certification.

ISO 27001

We also outlined a detailed methodology of how a company can obtain ISO 27001 certification in a past post. The process is a bit more involved, covering eleven steps:

  1. Identify objectives
  2. Get management on board with the plan
  3. Ensure the scope of the project is acceptable
  4. Develop an ISMS brief covering the policy
  5. Define the Methodology for Risk Assessment and the Strategy the company intends to pursue
  6. Develop a risk treatment plan and manage the risks that already exist within the system
  7. Create policies to take on risks
  8. Define the resources required for implementing those policies and train the staff to be more aware of the implementation process
  9. Monitor the ISMS after it goes online
  10. Prepare for an internal audit
  11. Have management review the ISMS periodically for improvements or updates

Certification Raises Marketability

A company that learns how to get ISO certification for software company raises its stature on the open market. Businesses know they can trust ISO certified companies. As a result, those companies tend to get more consideration compared to others in tendering processes around the world.

If you’d like to have a more competitive business, contact Sync Resource today, and let’s help you achieve how to get ISO certification for software company.

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How to get ISO Certified — 10 Step Guide

How to get ISO Certified — 10 Step Guide

General

 

When you get ISO certified you receive a document or certificate of proof. A certificate is a documented piece of paper that increases the credibility to the product or service of an organization/industry. This document demonstrates that the company is doing everything according to ISO standards. The company has implemented a reliable system of producing and delivering products and services.

The two-fold focus is involved in this ‘system’ to provide consistent products and services. Continual improvement in processes helps achieve better results. Certification is a contractual or legal requirement for most companies. ISO has over 2100 standards and each standard serves a different purpose.

ISO itself does not perform certification, it is an organization that set only international standards and provides general auditing terms and conditions. Certification is given by a third party. This third party gives certification after a thorough audit and according to the type of industry.

Now about the ISO certification process.

How Do You Get ISO Certified?

The first step to get ISO certified is a need assessment. This is accomplished by asking some questions and then trying to find the answers to those questions. Different gap analysis is performed and flaws in the existing system are determined.

  • What are the specific requirements of ISO?
  • How the requirements of the ISO are related to my company?
  • What requirements are applicable to my company?
  • Is there a need to implement the complex documentation process?
  • How long will this take?
  • What are the resources required to get the certification?
  • Will ISO be able to tackle or remove the flaws in the system and add value to the business?
  • How to ensure that ISO doesn’t merely become a documentation exercise only?
  • What are the other options to get this done?
  • Is the company in a position to adopt a change?

Get ISO Certification Readiness Review Report FREE, from one of our expert Consultants.

Effective Change Management

The next step to get ISO certified is effective change management. Workers and staff always oppose the change and they do not want to come out of their comfort zone and this is the very challenging stage. To overhead this, awareness sessions are conducted, in which workers and staff are told about the benefits of the new system and how will the new system help them and increase efficiency and productivity. Benefits may be related to ease in work, better environment, better health activities, and Pollution free environment.

Change implementation is a tough task because it involves a complete change of mind of working staff. That’s why effective change management is required to get the desired results.

Staff Allocation

Staff allocation is very important for getting ISO certified. Only those members of the staff are kept in the team who are responsible and can understand the nature of work. Clear instructions are given to them and they should be provided with their job descriptions and clearly state them what is company expecting of them and where their responsibilities lie.

It’s likely that a whole team of staff will be involved in getting the organization ready for certification.  Specific standard ISO Certified Requirements are breaking down into smaller parts and are fed in the intranet system available within the organization with some elaborations which help the staff navigate their way through the requirements and made the requirements available and accessible everywhere in the company.

Sharing of Information

Information sharing, communication, and coordination among the team members are the key factors responsible for the success and failure of a project. Modes of information sharing may be different and vary from company to company. The better way of doing it is to create some space in the intranet or any software available in the company so that every activity being performed must be approachable and accessible to every member of the team. Staff must be allowed to collaborate, share ideas and insights as well as the latest news and updates in the system.

Documentation Management

Management of documentation is fundamental to get ISO certified. Every process must be documented by the staff members whether an organization is certified or is starting, the key is to let the processes that are used to meet its goals determine documentation requirements. The standard has many instances where it calls for the specific evidence of conformity.

The Standard asks several times for the evidence of conformity which can only be dealt with by providing specific documented results. A documented procedure must be established to define the controls needed for records:

  • Identification of specific document when required
  • Storage of documents at allocated space
  • Protection of the documentation
  • Retrieval of documents when to ask for
  • Retention of documents as it could be asked any time
  • Keep every record legible, readily available, identifiable, and retrievable.

Documents can be kept in an updated version of the intranet system of the company so that the documents are available online and staff members can work simultaneously and can edit the same document in real-time.

Corrective and Preventive Actions

This is the practical stage and things will go wrong from time to time. When getting ISO certified the important thing is how you deal with problems and what type of countermeasures you would take to prevent them. The organization shall take actions to eliminate the causes of nonconformity in order to prevent recurrence (Corrective Actions) and the organization shall determine actions to eliminate the causes of potential non-conformity in order to prevent their occurrence (Preventive Actions). All these actions must be documented because these will help in the future for reality-based decision making.

Awareness and Training Sessions

To get ISO certified, training is necessary to check the capability of the members and their commitment in meeting the challenge. A proper and comprehensive training plan must be made which will include the step by step processes and procedures involved in achieving the certification. These training sessions will help the members to understand the complete framework for gaining the certification. Assessment of the training will help to measure the effectiveness of training sessions. In training sessions, those who are performing well must be rewarded and encouraged to keep it doing the same way.

Customer and Staff Involvement

An encouraging environment must be established so that staff members feel easy to share ideas and a mechanism for involving the customer must be established.

COMMON TERMS OF ISO STANDARDS

After performing the above tasks, some activities which are common in every ISO must be taken into account:

Context of Organization

It must be in a documented form that:

  1. What type of organization?
  2. Define the scope of the organization.
  3. What type of products or services is the company producing?
  4. Internal & External Issues

Internal and external issues must be defined and what type of competitors are a company in the competition.

Needs and Expectations of Interested parties

What are the needs and expectations of customers and suppliers and what is the company expecting from them?

Risk-Based thinking

Risk-based thinking is the main feature of every standard. In this risk analysis of every action is done and then control actions are advised to take.

Risks & Opportunity

After finding out the risks, actions are taken to counter the risks (Corrective actions), and also the actions are taken to prevent their re-occurrence (Preventive actions). With all this plan is established to avail every opportunity.

Policy

After doing all that upper management will design the policy. The policy includes a clear statement about what we do and what we achieve.

Audits

First initial audit (surveillance audit) is done which will give the idea about how much the system is in compliance with ISO standards. After that internal audit and external audits are done and if the system is found in compliance then certification is awarded.

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