Blog Become Certified to the ISO27001 Standard

How can becoming ISO 27001 certified benefit your business?

There are several benefits to your organization from becoming ISO27001 certified, impacting both internal and external stakeholders.

• Complying to ISO27001 will strengthen your organization’s structure by defining responsibilities and duties of day-to-day processes and procedures.
• Strengthening your organization’s information security and processes through risk management reduces threat of data breaches and cyber-attacks, meaning you could avoid unnecessary fines and loss of reputation.
• The ISO27001 certification provides a competitive advantage in the marketplace, as well as increasing the perception of credibility and trust among potential and existing customers.
• The certification is globally recognised and in line with several regulatory requirements such as GDPR and other cyber security laws, demonstrating effective information security and risk management.

How long will it take to become certified?

The amount of people who will be involved in the process can vary the project length substantially. However, on average we expect the amount of time to become certified using our detailed toolkit is between six and nine months. (See our blog “How long to certification for more information on this).

Is there anything else your business needs to assist the process?

We recommend having a copy of the ISO27001:2022 standard. You can either purchase this directly from the ISO website, or it is included in our Enhanced Gap Assessment Tool. This includes the exact text of sections 4 to 10 of the standard, broken down by individual requirement within a user-friendly spreadsheet. Our licensing agreement with ISO means we can offer this enhanced tool which provides a further level of detail over and above the standard gap assessment provided within the toolkit. A detailed Statement of Applicability is also included.

What is the certification process?

1: Using the CertiKit toolkit documentation, become compliant by working through the policies and procedures within the document and applying them to your organization’s practices.

2: Perform an internal audit to highlight any non-conformities before the external audit. We advise an internal audit to be completed by an independent third-party auditor or an impartial qualified auditor within your organisation.

3: This is the final external audit to achieve certification by an accredited Registered Certification Body (RCB). This is not a requirement but is recommended as certification validates your ISO27001 compliance. (Find out more about choosing the right RCB for your organisation).

What’s next?

As CertiKit Ltd is ISO27001 certified ourselves we understand that it may seem like a lot of hard work to become certified. However, we believe that the benefits quickly outweigh the challenges. With the impact the standard has on company procedures, competitive advantage and customer trust, becoming ISO27001 certified is a great return on investment.

Note, this blog has been reviewed and updated in November 2022 to reflect the ISO27001:2022 standard. 

More ISO27001 resources

CertiKit is a provider of ISO toolkits, consultancy and internal auditing services, and has helped more than 4000 organizations worldwide with their compliance.

For more guidance on implementing the ISO27001:2022 standard, we’ve put together a list of our best free resources including video guides, blogs and downloadable documents.

Free ISO27001 Resources