Information Security Standards: Managing Risk and Compliance

Maintaining information security can seem like an overwhelming task for organisations. But it’s a business risk that all organisations must address and manage on an ongoing basis. Information security Standards provide a structured approach for organisations to take in developing frameworks to protect against cyber threats and stay compliant with relevant privacy and data security legislation.

Topics: Information and Communication Technology Standards

What are information security Standards?

Developed by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the ISO 27000 series is a well-known family of information security Standards.

The Standards in the series are suitable for organisations of all types, sizes and industries. They cover a wide range of areas including cloud computing, storage security, IT disaster recovery programs and the gathering and protection of digital evidence.

The key Standards in the family include:

ISO/IEC 27000:2018 offers an overview of information security management systems (ISMS). An ISMS provides organisations with a systematic approach for managing information security, enabling central monitoring, review and improvement of security practices. ISO/IEC 27000:2018 also outlines the vocabulary and definitions used throughout the family of Standards.
ISO/IEC 27001:2022 helps organisations become more risk-aware, proactively identifying and addressing weaknesses. It sets out the requirements for an effective ISMS.
ISO/IEC 27002:2022 is one of the key cyber security Standards and frameworks. It provides a code of practice for developing ISMS best practices and controls related to aspects of cyber security, including access controls, cryptography and incident response.
ISO/IEC 27004:2016 aims to help organisations evaluate the performance and effectiveness of an ISMS.

Privacy, security, cyber attack and incident response Standards

Organisations operating in today’s marketplace must safeguard sensitive data, comply with relevant privacy legislation and have guidelines in place for responding to cyber incidents.

In addition to the above information security Standards and cybersecurity Standards that provide guidance on best practices in these areas, organisations can utilise:

ISO/IEC 27701:2019. This is a data privacy extension to ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 27002. It offers a framework for setting up and maintaining a privacy information management system (PIMS). It can help organisations maintain data security and comply with privacy requirements such as the GDPR.
ISO/IEC 27035 series. This series comprises ISO/IEC 27035-1:2023, ISO/IEC 27035-2:2023 and ISO/IEC 27035-3:2020. These Standards set out a structured approach to preparing for, identifying, reporting, assessing and dealing with cyber incidents. The Standards also offer guidelines on learning from attacks, identifying what could have been done better and implementing changes to improve processes and help prevent future incidents.
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What are software security Standards?

Software security Standards are established guidelines that ensure software systems are designed, developed and maintained to protect against vulnerabilities and cyber threats.

Examples of these Standards include the seven-part ISO/IEC 27034 series, which provides guidelines for integrating security into software development, addressing risk management, secure coding practices and ongoing security assessments. These Standards help ensure security is embedded within applications from design to deployment and maintenance.

They help developers, whether in-house or third-party, to build robust software by addressing security at every stage of the development lifecycle, reducing risks of exploitation.

Standards play a vital role in helping organisations put essential frameworks in place to underpin information security and help ensure they are able to protect data, respond quickly to attacks and maintain compliance.

On our website, you can purchase individual IT Standards in digital PDF or printed (hardcopy) formats. Or you may wish to manage your standards with i2i, our secure, configurable, cloud-based platform, made available through our subscription service.