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---
name : iso27001-compliance
description : Implement ISO 27001 Information Security Management System. Configure ISMS controls and risk management. Use when implementing enterprise security frameworks.
license : MIT
metadata :
author : devops-skills
version : "1.0"
---
# ISO 27001 Compliance
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Implement an Information Security Management System (ISMS) aligned with ISO/IEC 27001:2022.
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## When to Use
- Establishing an ISMS for the first time in an organization
- Preparing for ISO 27001 certification audit
- Conducting risk assessments and developing risk treatment plans
- Creating the Statement of Applicability (SoA)
- Transitioning from ISO 27001:2013 to the 2022 revision
- Meeting customer or regulatory requirements for ISO 27001 certification
## ISMS Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle
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```yaml
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pdca_cycle :
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plan :
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- Define ISMS scope and boundaries
- Establish information security policy
- Conduct risk assessment
- Develop risk treatment plan
- Produce Statement of Applicability
- Obtain management approval and commitment
- Define security objectives and metrics
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do :
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- Implement selected Annex A controls
- Deploy technical security controls
- Conduct security awareness training
- Document all procedures and processes
- Implement incident management process
- Establish supplier security management
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check :
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- Conduct internal audits (at least annual)
- Perform management review meetings
- Monitor and measure control effectiveness
- Review incident trends and near misses
- Assess compliance with legal requirements
- Evaluate security metrics against objectives
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act :
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- Address nonconformities with corrective actions
- Implement continual improvement initiatives
- Update risk assessment based on changes
- Refine controls based on audit findings
- Communicate improvements to stakeholders
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```
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## ISMS Scope Definition
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```yaml
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isms_scope :
template :
organization : "Company Name, Ltd."
scope_statement : |
The ISMS covers the design, development, operation, and support of
the Company's cloud-based SaaS platform, including all supporting
infrastructure, personnel, and processes at the following locations.
included :
locations :
- "Primary office: 123 Main Street, City, Country"
- "AWS us-east-1 and eu-west-1 regions"
- "Remote workers accessing corporate systems"
business_processes :
- "Software development and deployment"
- "Cloud infrastructure management"
- "Customer data processing and storage"
- "Customer support operations"
- "Corporate IT and internal systems"
information_assets :
- "Customer data (PII, business data)"
- "Source code and intellectual property"
- "Employee personal data"
- "Financial records"
- "Security configurations and credentials"
technology :
- "AWS cloud infrastructure"
- "SaaS application stack"
- "Corporate IT systems (Google Workspace, Okta, Jira)"
- "Development tools (GitHub, CI/CD pipelines)"
excluded :
- "Physical data center operations (inherited from AWS)"
- "Third-party SaaS platforms beyond integration points"
exclusion_justification : "Physical data center controls are inherited from AWS, which maintains its own ISO 27001 certification."
interfaces :
- "Customer API endpoints"
- "Third-party integrations (payment processor, email provider)"
- "AWS management plane"
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```
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## Risk Assessment Process
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```yaml
risk_assessment :
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methodology :
approach : "Asset-based risk assessment"
risk_formula : "Risk = Likelihood x Impact"
scale : "1-5 for both likelihood and impact (total 1-25)"
likelihood_scale :
1 : "Rare - less than once per 5 years"
2 : "Unlikely - once per 2-5 years"
3 : "Possible - once per 1-2 years"
4 : "Likely - multiple times per year"
5 : "Almost Certain - monthly or more frequent"
impact_scale :
1 : "Negligible - minimal operational impact, no data loss"
2 : "Minor - limited impact, small data exposure, <$10K cost"
3 : "Moderate - significant impact, data breach <1K records, <$100K cost"
4 : "Major - severe impact, large data breach, <$1M cost, regulatory action"
5 : "Critical - catastrophic, massive breach, >$1M cost, business viability at risk"
risk_matrix :
# Impact: 1 2 3 4 5
likelihood_5 : [ 5 , 10 , 15 , 20 , 25 ]
likelihood_4 : [ 4 , 8 , 12 , 16 , 20 ]
likelihood_3 : [ 3 , 6 , 9 , 12 , 15 ]
likelihood_2 : [ 2 , 4 , 6 , 8 , 10 ]
likelihood_1 : [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]
risk_appetite :
accept : "Score 1-4 (low risk, accept with monitoring)"
mitigate : "Score 5-14 (medium risk, implement controls to reduce)"
escalate : "Score 15-25 (high/critical risk, immediate action required)"
treatment_options :
mitigate : "Implement controls to reduce likelihood or impact"
transfer : "Insurance or contractual transfer to third party"
avoid : "Eliminate the risk by removing the activity or asset"
accept : "Accept with documented management approval"
example_risk_register :
- id : "RISK-001"
asset : "Customer database"
threat : "SQL injection attack"
vulnerability : "Insufficient input validation"
likelihood : 3
impact : 4
inherent_risk : 12
treatment : "mitigate"
controls : [ "A.8.28 Secure coding" , "A.8.8 Vulnerability management" ]
residual_likelihood : 1
residual_impact : 4
residual_risk : 4
risk_owner : "CTO"
- id : "RISK-002"
asset : "Source code repository"
threat : "Insider theft of intellectual property"
vulnerability : "Excessive access permissions"
likelihood : 2
impact : 5
inherent_risk : 10
treatment : "mitigate"
controls : [ "A.5.15 Access control" , "A.8.3 Information access restriction" ]
residual_likelihood : 1
residual_impact : 5
residual_risk : 5
risk_owner : "VP Engineering"
- id : "RISK-003"
asset : "Cloud infrastructure"
threat : "Cloud provider outage"
vulnerability : "Single-region deployment"
likelihood : 3
impact : 3
inherent_risk : 9
treatment : "mitigate"
controls : [ "A.5.30 ICT readiness for business continuity" , "A.8.14 Redundancy" ]
residual_likelihood : 3
residual_impact : 2
residual_risk : 6
risk_owner : "Head of Infrastructure"
```
## Statement of Applicability (SoA)
```yaml
# ISO 27001:2022 Annex A Controls - Statement of Applicability
soa_template :
organizational_controls_5 :
"A.5.1" :
control : "Policies for information security"
applicable : true
justification : "Required to establish security governance"
implementation : "Information security policy approved by CEO, reviewed annually"
"A.5.2" :
control : "Information security roles and responsibilities"
applicable : true
justification : "Required for accountability"
implementation : "RACI matrix for security responsibilities, CISO appointed"
"A.5.7" :
control : "Threat intelligence"
applicable : true
justification : "Required for proactive threat management"
implementation : "Subscribe to threat feeds, CVE monitoring, vendor advisories"
"A.5.15" :
control : "Access control"
applicable : true
justification : "Required for data protection"
implementation : "RBAC via Okta, least-privilege IAM policies, quarterly access reviews"
"A.5.23" :
control : "Information security for use of cloud services"
applicable : true
justification : "Primary infrastructure is cloud-based"
implementation : "AWS security baseline, CSP shared responsibility documented"
"A.5.29" :
control : "Information security during disruption"
applicable : true
justification : "Business continuity requirement"
implementation : "BCP/DR plans tested annually, multi-AZ deployment"
"A.5.30" :
control : "ICT readiness for business continuity"
applicable : true
justification : "Ensure technology supports continuity"
implementation : "DR runbooks, RTO/RPO defined, failover tested quarterly"
people_controls_6 :
"A.6.1" :
control : "Screening"
applicable : true
implementation : "Background checks for all employees before hiring"
"A.6.3" :
control : "Information security awareness, education and training"
applicable : true
implementation : "Annual security training, phishing simulations quarterly"
"A.6.5" :
control : "Responsibilities after termination or change of employment"
applicable : true
implementation : "Offboarding checklist, access revoked within 24 hours"
physical_controls_7 :
"A.7.1" :
control : "Physical security perimeters"
applicable : false
exclusion_justification : "No company-operated data centers, inherited from AWS"
technology_controls_8 :
"A.8.1" :
control : "User endpoint devices"
applicable : true
implementation : "MDM enrollment, disk encryption, screen lock policy"
"A.8.5" :
control : "Secure authentication"
applicable : true
implementation : "MFA required for all systems, SSO via Okta"
"A.8.8" :
control : "Management of technical vulnerabilities"
applicable : true
implementation : "Weekly vulnerability scans, 30-day patch SLA for critical"
"A.8.9" :
control : "Configuration management"
applicable : true
implementation : "Infrastructure as code, AWS Config rules, baseline hardening"
"A.8.15" :
control : "Logging"
applicable : true
implementation : "Centralized logging via CloudWatch + SIEM, 12-month retention"
"A.8.16" :
control : "Monitoring activities"
applicable : true
implementation : "SIEM alerting, 24/7 on-call rotation, anomaly detection"
"A.8.24" :
control : "Use of cryptography"
applicable : true
implementation : "TLS 1.2+, AES-256 at rest, KMS key management"
"A.8.25" :
control : "Secure development lifecycle"
applicable : true
implementation : "SAST/DAST in CI, code review required, dependency scanning"
"A.8.28" :
control : "Secure coding"
applicable : true
implementation : "OWASP guidelines, security code review, automated linting"
```
## Internal Audit Program
```yaml
internal_audit :
schedule :
frequency : "Annual full cycle, quarterly focused audits"
cycle : "All ISMS clauses and applicable Annex A controls audited over 12 months"
audit_plan_template :
audit_id : "IA-2025-Q1"
scope : "Clauses 4-10, Annex A controls A.5.1-A.5.15"
auditor : "Internal auditor (independent of audited area)"
audit_dates : "2025-03-10 to 2025-03-14"
areas :
- area : "Access Control (A.5.15)"
auditee : "IT Security Team"
evidence_requested :
- "Access review records from last quarter"
- "Joiner/mover/leaver process records"
- "Privileged access management logs"
- area : "Risk Management (Clause 6.1)"
auditee : "Risk Management Team"
evidence_requested :
- "Current risk register"
- "Risk assessment methodology document"
- "Management risk review meeting minutes"
finding_categories :
major_nonconformity : "Requirement not met, significant risk to ISMS effectiveness"
minor_nonconformity : "Requirement partially met, limited risk"
observation : "Area for improvement, no requirement breach"
positive_finding : "Notably effective implementation"
corrective_action :
major : "Root cause analysis within 10 days, corrective action within 30 days"
minor : "Corrective action within 60 days"
observation : "Address in next ISMS review cycle"
verification : "Auditor verifies corrective action effectiveness"
```
## Management Review Meeting
```yaml
management_review :
frequency : "At least annually, recommended quarterly"
attendees :
required :
- "CEO or Managing Director"
- "CISO or Information Security Manager"
- "Department heads"
optional :
- "Internal auditor"
- "Risk manager"
- "External consultant"
mandatory_inputs :
- "Status of actions from previous management reviews"
- "Changes in external and internal issues relevant to the ISMS"
- "Information security performance (metrics and KPIs)"
- "Audit results (internal and external)"
- "Incident trends and nonconformities"
- "Risk assessment results and risk treatment plan status"
- "Interested party feedback"
- "Opportunities for continual improvement"
mandatory_outputs :
- "Decisions on continual improvement opportunities"
- "Decisions on changes needed to the ISMS"
- "Resource allocation decisions"
- "Updated risk acceptance decisions"
kpis_to_report :
- "Number and severity of security incidents"
- "Vulnerability remediation SLA compliance"
- "Security awareness training completion rate"
- "Access review completion rate"
- "Audit finding closure rate"
- "Risk treatment plan progress"
- "Patch compliance percentage"
```
## ISO 27001 Certification Checklist
```yaml
certification_checklist :
stage_1_audit_preparation :
- [ ] ISMS scope documented and approved
- [ ] Information security policy published
- [ ] Risk assessment methodology defined
- [ ] Risk assessment completed with risk register
- [ ] Risk treatment plan developed
- [ ] Statement of Applicability completed
- [ ] ISMS objectives defined with measurable targets
- [ ] Internal audit program established
- [ ] At least one full internal audit completed
- [ ] Management review conducted with minutes documented
- [ ] Document control process in place
stage_2_audit_preparation :
- [ ] All Annex A controls implemented per SoA
- [ ] Evidence of control operation for 3+ months
- [ ] Corrective actions from internal audit tracked and closed
- [ ] Security awareness training delivered and recorded
- [ ] Incident management process operational with records
- [ ] Supplier security assessments performed
- [ ] Business continuity plan tested
- [ ] All mandatory documented information available
- [ ] Employees aware of security policy and their responsibilities
surveillance_audit_readiness :
- [ ] All corrective actions from certification audit closed
- [ ] Continuous internal audit schedule maintained
- [ ] Management reviews conducted per schedule
- [ ] Risk register updated with new threats and changes
- [ ] Metrics demonstrate ISMS effectiveness
- [ ] Changes to ISMS scope documented
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```
## Best Practices
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- Secure visible management commitment with a signed information security policy
- Define ISMS scope carefully; too broad makes certification expensive, too narrow reduces value
- Use an asset-based risk assessment approach to ensure comprehensive coverage
- Maintain the Statement of Applicability as a living document aligned with the risk register
- Conduct internal audits with auditors independent of the area being audited
- Hold management review meetings quarterly rather than only annually
- Integrate ISO 27001 controls into daily operations rather than treating them as a separate compliance exercise
- Use metrics and KPIs to demonstrate ISMS effectiveness to auditors and management
- Plan for the 3-year certification cycle: certification audit, then two surveillance audits
- Start collecting evidence of control operation at least 3 months before the Stage 2 audit