ISO 27001 Understanding the Context of the Organisation: Your Complete FAQ Guide

What is it?

Understanding the Context of the Organisation is all about figuring out your company’s internal and external issues that can affect your information security management system (ISMS). You’re basically asking yourself, “What’s going on around us and inside our company that could impact our ability to keep our data safe?” This includes things like your company’s goals, the laws you have to follow, and even what your customers expect from you. It’s all laid out in Clause 4 of the ISO 27001 standard.

Applicability to Small Businesses, Tech Startups, and AI Companies

Understanding the Context of the Organisation is useful for businesses of all sizes, including small businesses, tech startups, and AI companies.

• Small Businesses: For you, it’s about being practical. You don’t have a huge team or a massive budget, so you focus on what’s most critical to your business. Maybe it’s customer data, financial records, or something else specific to what you do.
• Tech Startups: Speed is your thing, but security can’t be an afterthought. By defining your context early on, you can build security into your product from day one. This makes you more trustworthy to investors and future customers.
• AI Companies: Your intellectual property (IP) is your lifeblood. Understanding your context means identifying threats to your proprietary algorithms and data sets. You need to consider who has access to your training data and how to protect it from being stolen or tampered with.

ISO 27001 Context of Organisation Template

The ISO 27001:2022 Context Of Organisation template is designed to fast track your implementation and give you an exclusive, industry best practice policy template that is pre written and ready to go. It is included in the ISO 27001 toolkit.

Why do you need it?

You need it because it’s the foundation of your entire ISMS. Without understanding your context, you’d be trying to build a security system in the dark. It helps you:

• Identify Risks: You can’t protect against threats you don’t know about. Understanding your context helps you spot potential risks.
• Meet Requirements: It helps you figure out what you need to do to comply with laws like GDPR or other industry regulations.
• Build Trust: Showing that you’ve thought through all these factors builds confidence with your customers and partners.

When do you need it?

You need to do this at the very beginning of your ISO 27001 journey. It’s the first major step after deciding to pursue certification. You should also review and update it regularly, especially if your business changes, like launching a new product or entering a new market.

Who needs it?

The leadership team needs to be heavily involved. They set the direction for the company, so they know the strategic goals and challenges. However, it’s a team effort, and you should get input from people across different departments, like IT, HR, and legal, to get a complete picture.

Where do you need it?

You need to document it, typically in a formal document or a series of documents, that becomes part of your ISMS documentation. This documentation is what an auditor will look at to see if you’ve correctly addressed Clause 4.

How do you write it?

1. Identify Internal Issues: Think about your company’s values, culture, governance structure, and technology. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
2. Identify External Issues: Look at the bigger picture. What laws apply to you? Who are your customers, and what are their expectations? What are your competitors doing?
3. Use the PESTLE Framework: This is a popular tool to help you think through external factors. It stands for:
   • Political
   • Economic
   • Sociological
   • Technological
   • Legal
   • Environmental

How do you implement it?

Once you have your documented context, you need to use it. This isn’t just a piece of paper! You’ll use this information to:

• Define the Scope: This helps you decide which parts of your company and what information assets will be covered by your ISMS.
• Conduct Risk Assessment: The issues you identified in your context will feed directly into your risk assessment process.
• Set Objectives: Your security objectives should align with your business goals, which you’ll have identified while understanding your context.

Examples of using it for small businesses

 A small e-commerce shop might identify a key external issue as “customer demand for secure online payments.” An internal issue could be “limited IT budget.” This context helps them focus their security efforts on getting a secure payment gateway rather than trying to protect every single piece of data they have.

Examples of using it for tech startups

A startup building a new app might identify an external issue as “fierce competition and need to protect our unique code.” An internal issue could be “a remote workforce.” This context would lead them to implement strong access controls and data encryption to protect their IP, and secure remote access policies for their team.

Examples of using it for AI companies

An AI company creating a new facial recognition system might identify a critical external issue as “strict data privacy laws related to biometric data” and an internal issue as “high value of our proprietary training algorithms.” Their context would then drive their security strategy to include robust data anonymization techniques and strong intellectual property protection measures.

How can the ISO 27001 toolkit help?

The ISO 27001 toolkit is a lifesaver. It provides you with pre-made templates, checklists, and guides that simplify the entire process. Instead of guessing how to write your context document, you can just fill in the blanks. It’s a huge time-saver and helps ensure you cover all the requirements.

Which other information security standards need it?

ISO 27001 is the big one here. It’s the standard that mandates this process. However, other standards and frameworks, like NIST and SOC 2, also emphasise the importance of understanding your environment and risks, even if they don’t use the exact same terminology.

• GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
• CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act)
• DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act)
• NIS2 (Network and Information Security (NIS) Directive) 
• SOC 2 (Service Organisation Control 2)
• NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) 
• HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)

What are the relevant ISO 27001:2022 controls?

The ‘context’ part of ISO 27001 is about setting the stage, so it doesn’t have specific “controls” in the same way as, say, “access control.” It is actually an ISO 27001 Clause – ISO 27001:2022 Clause 4.1: Understanding the Context of the Organisation. However, the results of your context analysis will inform which controls you choose to implement. For example, if your analysis shows you handle a lot of sensitive data, you’d prioritise controls like

• ISO 27001:2022 Annex A 5.34 Privacy And Protection Of PII and
• ISO 27001:2022 Annex A 5.23 Information Security For Use Of Cloud Services

For Small Businesses:

Focus on basics like

• ISO 27001:2022 Annex A 5.1: Policies for Information Security
• ISO 27001:2022 Annex A 5.12 Classification Of Information
• ISO 27001:2022 Annex A 8.25: Secure Development Life Cycle

You can start with these and grow as you need to.

For Tech Startups:

You’ll want to focus on

• ISO 27001:2022 Annex A 5.19 Information Security In Supplier Relationships
• ISO 27001:2022 Annex A 8.28: Secure Coding
•  ISO 27001:2022 Annex A 8.29: Security Testing in Development and Acceptance.

This protects your IP and user data.

For AI Companies:

You’ll need to think about 

• ISO 27001:2022 Annex A 5.23 Information Security For Use Of Cloud Services
• ISO 27001:2022 Annex A 8.8: Management of Technical Vulnerabilities
• ISO 27001:2022 Annex A 8.9: Configuration Management

These are key to keeping your models and data safe.

ISO 27001 Understanding the Context of the Organisation FAQ