Our journey to ISO 27001 accreditation

By Shery Shafei, IT Manager

What is the ISO 27001 accreditation?

ISO 27001 is a globally recognised standard for Information Security Management . It helps organisations establish, implement, maintain, and improve information security practices, focusing on protecting sensitive data like financial information, intellectual property, and customer details. The standard emphasises the CIA triad (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability) and effective risk management through identification, assessment, and control implementation. Key components include risk analysis, policies aligned with ISO 27001, security controls, and continuous improvement.

Achieving ISO 27001 certification involves formal assessments by accredited bodies to ensure compliance and ongoing surveillance audits for verification.

At Mirus Australia, securing ISO 27001 accreditation reflects our commitment to information security for customers, partners, and stakeholders and to ensure our client data is protected at all costs. Furthermore, it enables us to conduct regular status checks, ensuring compliance with legal and regulatory data protection standards. This commitment reaffirms our promise to customers and highlights our determination to exceed industry benchmarks.

ISO 27001 accreditation offers significant benefits for our organisation, particularly in protecting client data. Some of the key advantages include:

1. Strengthened Information Security: ISO 27001 provides a structured method for handling information security risks, assisting us in safeguarding sensitive client data, managing threats, and ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information.
2. Better Compliance: ISO 27001 ensures we stay compliant by meeting legal, regulatory, and contractual information security requirements.
3. Effective risk management: ISO 27001 promotes a risk-based approach to information security, enabling us to identify, assess, and mitigate risks effectively. Implementing controls and safeguards aligned with ISO 27001 requirements helps reduce the likelihood and impact of security incidents and breaches.
4. Business continuity: ISO 27001 has assisted us in developing business continuity plans and disaster recovery procedures to ensure the uninterrupted operation of critical business processes during disruptions or disasters. This helps minimise the impact on our clients using our systems and reduces downtime, thereby maintaining customer satisfaction.
5. Stakeholder confidence: ISO 27001 certification provides independent verification of our information security management system by accredited certification bodies. This instils confidence in our customers, partners, investors, and other stakeholders, demonstrating the implementation of best practices for protecting information assets.
6. Continuous improvement: ISO 27001 underscores the importance of ongoing enhancement by mandating regular review and updating of the information security management system. This ongoing commitment to improvement helps us stay ahead of emerging threats, technological advancements, and changing business requirements.

Our journey in implementing and maintaining ISO27001 accreditation:

Starting the ISO 27001 accreditation process at Mirus Australia made us look at our organisation and how we do things in a new way. We developed a comprehensive training program to ensure all of our staff understood the ISO 27001 requirements and their individual responsibilities to stay compliant.

Aligning our current processes with the ISO 27001 requirements turned out to be quite challenging, demanding meticulous attention to detail and requiring adjustments to our usual ways of working. Time management, along with document version control, regular monitoring, and reporting, became even more critical, given the stringent deadlines.

Achieving ISO 27001 accreditation marked a significant milestone, yet it was just the beginning of the journey. The real challenge lies in maintaining compliance and upholding information security principles amidst evolving threats and organisational changes.

The landscape of cyber security is constantly evolving, with new vulnerabilities emerging regularly. Staying updated on emerging threats and technological advancements requires vigilance and adaptability. Regular risk assessments and proactive measures, coupled with comprehensive incident recovery and business continuity plans, serve as our guiding compass. This was really put to the test during the pandemic when remote work was prevalent and making sure we continued to safeguard our data and adhere to the requirement of ISO 27001.

Lessons Learned:

Reflecting on our ISO 27001 accreditation journey so far, we carry with us many valuable lessons. Perseverance, collaboration, and a dedication to excellence have been the key to our success.

Maintaining accreditation is an ongoing journey, not just a destination. It requires a diligence and a willingness to adapt to change. ISO 27001 accreditation goes beyond being a mere badge of honour; it signifies our unwavering commitment to safeguarding sensitive information and maintaining trust. As we move forward, we do so confidently, knowing that the principles we’ve embraced on this journey will guide us through any challenges that may arise in the future.