How to get started with ISO 27001

Runecast Academy Series 2 – Part 2. How to get started with ISO 27001

‍

ISO-27001 is a leading international standard focused on information security. It was published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in partnership with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Part of the ISO/IEC 27000 series, ISO 27001 is designed to manage information security in organizations, and its framework helps organizations establish and maintain an Information Security Management System (ISMS). 

As an international standard, ISO 27001 is recognized all around the world. Being ISO 27001 compliant not only benefits the security of your organization, but it is also a proof for your partners and customers that their data is safe. 

The focus of ISO 27001 is to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the information in an organization. This is done through two main processes, risk assessment and risk mitigation. Firstly, by finding out what potential problems could happen to the information, and then defining what needs to be done to prevent such problems from happening. Accordingly, the main philosophy of ISO 27001 is based on a process for managing risks: find out where the risks are, and then systematically treat them, through the implementation of security controls (or safeguards).

In most countries, implementation of ISO 27001 is not mandatory. However, some countries have published regulations that require certain industries to implement ISO 27001. Public and private organizations can define compliance with ISO 27001 as a legal requirement in their contracts and service agreements with their providers. Further, as mentioned above, countries can define laws or regulations turning the adoption of ISO 27001 into a legal requirement to be fulfilled by the organizations operating in their territory.

Non-compliance with ISO 27001, especially for organizations that are governed by certain security standards, can lead to limited business activity and costly fines if any breach event were to happen. 

Challenges to ISO 27001 Compliance

Time-Consuming

Security standards are becoming a considerable concern for organizations and particularly IT teams, as each of them require a lot of time to be implemented in an organization’s environment. The implementation process for ISO 27001 requires a lot of time as there are a lot of rules for each IT environment. As a result, this becomes challenging to your team as they will have a lot of other tasks that need to be done on a daily basis.  

Lack of IT Resources

Staying on top of security audits requires more resources. Implementing all the rules in an environment and keeping up with the daily tasks is not easy as it requires a lot of people. In the modern technological setting, organizations need to be compliant with many security standards and their IT resources are not able to fulfill all the tasks involved in the compliance process. 

Different  IT Environments

The fact that most organizations operate in a complex environment makes the compliance journey even more difficult. Checking all these systems manually and applying the required resolution to each specific rule puts the organization in an unfavorable position. 

‍

Runecast

Real-time Security Analysis and Reports 

Keeping up with the compliance of all the security standards is a challenging task as it requires more time and resources. These two are the most valuable assets in a company and dealing with the implementation of a certain security standard makes them even more scarce. Considering how burdensome it is to stay on top of compliance with all the security standards, and at the same time handle all the other tasks within an organization, we designed a simple solution for you: Runecast. Now, with Runecast, you can say goodbye to long hours of scanning and implementing security standard rules.

Runecast is a platform designed to bring an easy and fast solution to your organization. In a matter of minutes it scans your configurations and provides you with fit-gap analysis and remediation scripts. Also, you can easily filter and sort issues and compare historical configurations at your convenience. In addition, it offers a wide range of tech solutions regarding security hardening guidelines, vendor best practices, vulnerability management, configuration drift management etc. Runecast automates your vulnerability management and security standards compliance audits for AWS, Azure, Kubernetes and VMware, as well as for Windows and Linux OS.

Runecast proactively assists with Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM), Kubernetes Security Posture Management (KSPM), and Governance, Risk Management and Compliance (GRC). In addition, it provides continuous audits against other common security standards such as: NIST, HIPAA, PCI DSS, DISA STIG, BSI IT-Grundschutz, GDPR, Cyber Essentials (UK), Essential 8 (Australia), and the CISA KEVs catalog. 

Summary

Compliance with ISO 27001 is relevant to any organization that wants to operate in a secure environment. Maintaining a secure environment is becoming more challenging and so is the security compliance journey.  Considering all the struggles, Runecast has come up with a quick solution to make your job easy for you. With an automated solution, now you can save time and other resources by quickly scanning your environment and remediating. Runecast also comes with a lot of up-to-date solutions, such as security hardening guidelines, vendor best practices, vulnerability management, configuration drift management, etc, that will ease your journey to compliance.  Lastly, it provides audits against security standards for AWS, Azure, Kubernetes and VMware, as well as for Windows and Linux OS.

‍