Information Security Management System, or ISMS for short, is a system that protects all Proprietary or sensitive information in an organization.
You might be asking….” What information falls under an ISMS?”
In short, an ISMS should safeguard all types of proprietary or sensitive information assets, whether the information is paper based, saved digitally, or reside in the cloud.
What are Information Assets?
Information Assets can include, but is not limited to:
- Personal Data
- Intellectual Property
- Financial Data
- Customer Data
- Data entrusted to companies through third parties
How will an ISMS help me and my business?
Violation of legal regulations could incur staggering fines for non-compliance, especially in highly regulated industries such as Finance and Healthcare.
The ISMS does not only help with your Information Asset protection, but it insures that your organization meets regulatory compliance.
You will also have a better grasp of your contractual requirements and the legalities surrounding information Systems.
The ISMS will provide greater Business Continuity, as it automatically increases your level of defense against threats such as Cyber Attacks. This will in turn cause less disruption and downtime in your day-to-day work, which has a direct impact on your Business Continuity.
Is the cost of an ISMS worth it?
Implementation of the ISMS, prioritizes the highest risk to your Information Security, making targeted spending on defense a need, instead of fruitless expenditure on non-related defenses for low-risk assets.
A structured approach to the expenditure on Defense for High-Risk Assets, will lower the overall costs allocated to unnecessary or redundant systems.
Finally, addressing the Highest risk to your Information Assets, will reduce the downtime caused by security breaches, and will significantly cut the organization’s total spending in security.
How do I know if I have a best practice ISMS?
Implementation of ISO 27001, offers you best-practice guidelines for setting up an ISMS. The team at Van Dijk Auditing and Consulting are always ready and able to assist in your ISO 27001 implementation, we are reachable via email : carien@vandijk-ac.co.za
