With changing times, the way any information is stored has also changed. Earlier, people used to note down sensitive data in heavily guarded paper bits. The documents that carried vital data were locked up in cupboards or banks to provide utmost safety. But with modernisation and the improvement of big data, any data has no physical presence anymore but can be found stored as data chips in cloud servers!
People are ready to trust specific sources of information storage readily due to the certification these sources acquire. Banks, clouds and other agents are approved due to the iso 27001 certification that the government offers them.
The ISO Survey is an annual inspection that takes place worldwide to assess the number of ISO certified organisations that year and to review the standards set by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) to stay with the times. There has been an unprecedented 200% increase in ISO certification when it comes to Australian companies! This is due to the Australian Digital Security Policy that wanted to ensure that these IT companies that handle people’s information protect it better.
What is ISO certification?
The International Organisation for Standardisation is a worldwide organisation that works in every commercial field to develop measures and levels of standards for other upcoming companies to follow. The ISO aims to come up with trustable international standards. So once a company acquires this seal of approval, it means that people’s information is in safe hands.
Each certificate serves a different purpose. Ultimately, however, all the authentications aim to provide a paradigm to be achieved by functional organisations. For example, the iso 27001 certification is a risk-based standard that companies must acquire to manage their information assets effectively. It adds a seal of approval and automatically strengthens the quality of client protection that an organisation offers.
This particular certificate consists of a two-audit process. The first audit deals with the safety and management practices undertaken in the contending company, whereas the second audit is proof of these safety practices being used in the company.
ISO Certification Report
Several agencies in Australia offer assistance to acquire ISO standards. This is because obtaining a certificate is a daunting process that needs to satisfy an entire list of standards and practices along with several critical confirmatory documents. Such services often inspect the companies based on the reports they submit and then provide a pre-audit statement. This pre-audit report consists of three primary criteria that offer an extensive analysis of the gaps that the company’s system has and how they can tackle them:
- Gap Assessment: As the name suggests, the first part of the report is a gap assessment that compares the company’s existing safety systems and procedures with the ISO standard. The gap analysis will inform the company of loopholes that they may/may not be aware of. Based on the company’s requirements, this segment can be an overview or a full-blown analysis.
- Compliance and Risk Assessment: In this report segment, the qualified auditor will offer tips to acquire the certification as quickly as possible. The auditor will also draft a plan that assesses the company’s existing compliance policies and safety maturity to ensure that it meets the requirements.
- Compliance Implementation: This is the concluding segment of the report. The compliance implementation segment will combine all the three headings to offer a plan of action that the company can immediately implement to fulfil the gaps identified in the gap analysis and ensure the strategies used stick up to the specified requirements.
Author name Alison Lurie
