ISO 27701 is a standard for privacy protection that provides guidance for establishing, implementing, maintaining, and continually improving a Privacy Information Management. It offers the internationally accepted approach to privacy protection as a component of information security.

Organizations looking to get certified to ISO 27701 in order to satisfy GDPR requirements will either need to have an existing ISO 27001 certification or implement ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 together as an integrated management system audit.

The GDPR is an updated version of the EU Data Protection Directive, which was created in 1995. This legislation came into effect on 25th May 2018 and aims to protect European Union citizens’ personal data by imposing strict requirements on how this data may be processed.

The GDPR is governed by following key principles: Lawfulness, Fairness, Transparency, Purpose limitation, Data minimization, Accuracy, Storage limitation, Integrity and confidentiality, Accountability. These principles guide how data may be handled to ensure the privacy rights of data subjects. They are frameworks designed to enhance the broader purpose of GDPR.

ISO 27701 and GDPR have several requirements in common, e.g: Data Confidentiality, Risk Assessment and Accountability for Data Breaches. They both aim to support data privacy and emphasizes on the process of obtaining, managing, and protecting data and information.

If you wish to become GDPR Compliant, you may consider getting Certified to ISO 27701. GDPR requires that your organization to demonstrate compliance with the law. You can demonstrate this by getting certified to GCC’s ISO 27701 scheme which covers majority of requirements of GDPR

Our ISO 27701 certification has been developed in line with and to comply with GDPR and other personal data regulations.

The ISO 27701 standard designates responsibilities for data protection based on organizational requirements. It builds privacy into systems and processes by embedding it into system designs, workflow processes, and human behavior. It also provides guidance on how to identify, classify and label personal data that is collected or handled

An ISMS is an information security management system. But what exactly does this mean and what is the purpose of an ISMS? An ISMS describes your company’s information security and privacy procedures and processes. It is intended to demonstrate the measures you have taken to ensure that the information stored in your systems is protected from outside threats. It also covers the plans you have made to deal with any security breaches if they should occur. Whether or not your organisation wishes to achieve ISO 27001 certification, it’s important to have an ISMS in place that clearly states the steps you have taken to secure your infrastructure and the sensitive data it contains.

The decision to establish and implement an ISMS should be made by top management; however, security responsibilities lie with everyone in the organisations. Management, personnel and even contractors are a part of the ISMS and may present a significant risk if not trained well.A common awareness program may be good to start but needs to be followed up with documented policies and procedures with clear responsibilities for protecting data and information. Policies and procedures can facilitate Access to information as well as Integrity and Confidentiality (CIA), can help mitigate the risk of a breach and guide staff in specific situations. Well implemented policies and procedures are an indication of an organisation’s strength on security and may enhance people’s commitment to ISMS.

The confidentiality, integrity and availability of data and information are the focus of ISO 27001. These three are usually threatened by a variety of internal and external threats and the only way we can protect our data and information is a proper risk assessment. Risk management helps us to target our efforts and security measures in the right place at the right time. No organisation has unlimited resources, and need to use resources wisely as per the risk assessment.

Risk assessment is an important element of information security management systems. The methodology used for risk assessment is particularly important to be effective, otherwise it would be hard to identify and evaluate risks an organisation have and difficult to define right and effective security response. Every organisation has its own specific environment, specific structure, business model, and culture, and needs to design and agree on its own specific Risk assessment methodology.

There are a number of mandatory requirements that must be met to achieve ISO 27001 certification, the two most important of which are:

• Defining the Scope of Your ISMS – You need to produce a detailed definition of the information your system is designed to protect
• Risk assessment/treatment methodology – This should identify all potential threats and how you intend to deal with them.

If you would like to obtain ISO 27001 certification in Australia or elsewhere, please get in touch to discuss the certification process with a member of our team. In the meantime, you can check out our code of conduct to get a better idea of how we operate.