ISO 27001 tips for hybrid companies
When running a business, there are many things to keep track of to ensure everything proceeds smoothly and securely. As society shifts to more flexible working methodologies such as working from home and hybrid models, many challenges appear alongside the wealth of benefits to staff and employers. While the pros do often outweigh the cons for hybrid companies, it’s important to take a hard look at those challenges, especially when it comes to security.
One key method of ensuring you and your team are aware of the risks and controls of cyber security is to obtain ISO 27001 certification. This is a very long process, and there are many things to consider during the creation of your documentation.
Identify the risks of hybrid working
First and foremost, when aiming to get your ISO 27001 certification, you’ll want to identify all of the potential security risks within your business. When your staff are working from home, there is generally much less room for control over their devices and working habits. If you allow your team to use their own devices, for example, there is a higher risk that the data that passes through your business could be intercepted due to poor network security on the end of your employees.
Other risks include the use of public Wi-Fi networks when working and general ignorance when it comes to security. Not being able to identify phishing emails or understanding how to create a secure and safe password can all lead to data breaches.
Find ways to train your staff
If your business uses this hybrid model of working, one of the largest risks is your untrained staff. While employees who have received training in cyber security can still make mistakes, those who have had no guidance on using secure practices and no knowledge of why that’s so important are much more likely to make mistakes.
It’s therefore essential that you train your team and teach them the importance of good security no matter where they are working. This is one of the many things you’ll need to layout within your ISO 27001 documentation so that auditors know that you’re taking steps to limit these human risks as much as possible.
Simplify the ISO 27001 process
The process of creating the documentation for your ISO 27001 certificate itself is no easy task. In fact, this can take upwards of six months to one year to complete and requires a huge amount of focus and clarity. This tends to be why many larger organisations outsource this task to experts who are fully knowledgeable of the ISO 27001 process. However, this is unfortunately very expensive due to the complexity of the task, even for experts.
Handling this yourself may cut those costs, but it can be a gruelling process making sure you’ve got everything in order. Luckily certain experts offer templates. While these templates won’t equate to a team handling this for you, they can significantly simplify the process, helping you to save money too. Learn more about ISO 27001 templates from experts High Table to find out how they work and how you can follow the standard.
Test your company’s systems
Suppose you’re continuing to handle this process yourself. In that case, you’ll now want to test all of your systems, preferably with the assistance of your IT team, to identify any potential weaknesses which could lead to a breach. There are many areas that can become vulnerable within your systems, especially when working remotely. Applications that are used via the web, cloud storage systems, and remote access can all be much easier to gain access to by nefarious individuals and groups than you’d expect. Once someone does breach these systems or even finds a backdoor, your data is at risk of theft. Testing your system’s security yourself will allow you to see how secure they are and what needs improving.
Track the flow of your data
When attempting to understand how your systems work and where potential risks may lie, you’ll want to also get a solid understanding of how your data moves around your company. Understanding the internal flow of data between individuals and departments and the flow of that data externally is an essential part of the ISO 27001 certification process, as failing to know exactly where your data is going is a huge potential risk.
While having an ISO 27001 certificate doesn’t ensure full compliance with GDPR, it shows that you have systems to support that compliance and your dedication to protecting sensitive data of your business, employees, and clients. A great way of understanding your data flow is to use a data flow map. This can help you see where your data is going and where it’s stored and provide you with the information you need to reduce the risk of that data getting into the wrong hands.
