ISO 27001:2005

ISO 27001 specifies requirements for the establishment, implementation, monitoring and review, Maintenance and improvement of a management system - an overall management and control framework - for managing an organization’s information security risks. It does not mandate specific information security controls but stops at the level of the management system.

The standard covers all types of organizations (e.g. commercial enterprises, government agencies and non-profit organizations) and all sizes from micro-businesses to huge multinationals.

Bringing information security under management control is a prerequisite for sustainable, directed and continuous improvement. An ISO 27001 ISMS therefore incorporates several Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) cycles: for example, information security controls are not merely specified and implemented as a one-off activity but are continually reviewed and adjusted to take account of changes in the security threats, vulnerabilities and impacts of information security failures, using review and improvement activities specified within the management system.

According to JTC1/SC27, the ISO/IEC committee responsible for ISO27000 and related standards, ISO 27001 “is intended to be suitable for several different types of use, including: Use within organizations to formulate security requirements and objectives;

Use within an organization as a process framework for the implementation and management of controls to ensure that the specific security objectives of an organization are met;

The definition of new information security management processes;

Identification and clarification of existing information security management processes;

Use by the management of organizations to determine the status of information security management activities;

Use by the internal and external auditors of organizations to demonstrate the information security policies, directives and standards adopted by an organization and determine the degree of compliance with those policies, directives and standards;

Use by organizations to provide relevant information about information security policies, directives, standards and procedures to trading partners and other organizations that they interact with for operational or commercial reasons;

Implementation of a business enabling information security;

and Use by organizations to provide relevant information about information security to customers.”