When small business owners read the term “Threat Intelligence,” they often picture a military bunker with wall-to-wall screens and analysts shouting code words. It sounds expensive, complicated, and frankly, like overkill for a company of 20 people.
But here is the secret: ISO 27001 Annex A 5.7 isn’t asking you to build a spy agency. It is simply asking you to be aware of what is trying to attack you so you can close the door before they get in.
For a small business, this control is actually your best friend. It moves you from “hoping nothing happens” to “knowing what might happen and fixing it.” Here is how to implement Threat Intelligence without blowing your budget or your sanity.
Table of contents
What is Annex A 5.7 Actually Asking For?
The standard requires you to “collect and analyze information about information security threats.”
In plain English, this means:
- Listen: Pay attention to news about hackers and viruses.
- Think: Ask, “Does this affect my business?”
- Act: If yes, do something about it.
That’s it. You don’t need expensive AI tools or a 24/7 Security Operations Center (SOC). You just need a process to ensure you aren’t the last person to know about a major security flaw in the software you use.
Why This Matters for Small Teams
You might think, “I’m too small to be a target.” Unfortunately, automated bots don’t care how small you are. They scan the internet looking for easy openings—like an unpatched router or a WordPress plugin that hasn’t been updated in three years.
Annex A 5.7 helps you spot these issues early. By subscribing to the right alerts, you can patch a vulnerability on Tuesday morning that would have caused a ransomware attack on Tuesday night.
How to Implement Threat Intel (The “Keep It Simple” Method)
You can satisfy this control with zero budget if you are smart about your sources. Here is a step-by-step guide for small businesses.
Step 1: Choose Your Sources (Curate, Don’t Collect)
The biggest mistake is signing up for everything. You will drown in emails and stop reading them. Pick 3-4 high-quality sources that are relevant to your technology.
Recommended Free Sources for Small Biz:
- Vendor Alerts: This is non-negotiable. If you use Microsoft 365, you need their security emails. If you use Adobe, sign up for theirs. These are the people who built your tools; listen when they say “update now.”
- National CERTs: Your country’s Computer Emergency Response Team (like CISA in the US or NCSC in the UK) publishes excellent, plain-English alerts about major threats.
- Industry News: A reputable tech news site or a newsletter relevant to your sector (e.g., a legal tech security blog if you are a law firm).
Step 2: Assign a “Watcher”
Intelligence is useless if nobody reads it. In a small business, you probably don’t have a CISO. That’s fine. Assign the role to your IT Manager, or even a tech-savvy Operations Manager.
Their job description is simple: Spend 15 minutes a week scanning the alerts. If they see something big (like “Critical Vulnerability in Windows”), they flag it.
Step 3: filter for Relevance (The “So What?” Test)
This is the “Analysis” part of the standard. When an alert comes in, apply the “So What?” test.
- Alert: “Critical flaw in Oracle Database Servers.”
- Your Analysis: “We run everything on Google Workspace and don’t own a single server.”
- Conclusion: Ignore/Discard.
Conversely:
- Alert: “New phishing campaign targeting HR teams with fake CVs.”
- Your Analysis: “We are hiring right now and receiving lots of CVs.”
- Conclusion: Action Required.
Step 4: Take Action and Document It
To pass the audit, you need to prove you did something. In the phishing example above, the action might be sending a Slack message to the team saying, “Hey everyone, watch out for fake CVs today.”
You should maintain a simple Threat Intelligence Register. It doesn’t need to be complex. Just a log that says:
- Date: 12th Oct
- Threat: Google Chrome Zero-Day Exploit
- Source: CISA Alert
- Action: Instructed all staff to restart browsers to apply update.
If you want a professional template that is already set up with the right columns and categories, Hightable.io offers ISO 27001 toolkits specifically for small businesses. Using their pre-built registers can save you time and ensures you don’t miss any required fields for the auditor.
DO IT YOURSELF
STOP SPANKING £10,000s on CONSULTANTS and ISMS ONLINE PLATFORMS
Common Pitfalls to Avoid
Doing Nothing: Ignoring the control because it sounds too technical is the most common failure. Even a basic process is better than no process.
Over-Complicating: Don’t buy expensive threat feed subscriptions unless you have a security analyst to read them. Free sources are usually sufficient for small business compliance.
Confusing A 5.7 with A 5.6: Remember, Annex A 5.6 is about joining groups (networking). Annex A 5.7 is about using the data (analysis). They work together, but they are different.
Conclusion
ISO 27001 Annex A 5.7 for a small business is really just about “keeping your ear to the ground.” It protects you from being blindsided by preventable attacks. By curating a few good sources, checking them weekly, and acting on the relevant ones, you turn a scary-sounding requirement into a simple habit that keeps your business safe.
Don’t overthink it. Get your sources lined up, use a simple tracking template like the ones from Hightable.io, and you will breeze through this part of your audit.
About the author
Stuart Barker is a veteran practitioner with over 30 years of experience in systems security and risk management.
Holding an MSc in Software and Systems Security, Stuart combines academic rigor with extensive operational experience. His background includes over a decade leading Data Governance for General Electric (GE) across Europe, as well as founding and exiting a successful cyber security consultancy.
As a qualified ISO 27001 Lead Auditor and Lead Implementer, Stuart possesses distinct insight into the specific evidence standards required by certification bodies. He has successfully guided hundreds of organizations – from high-growth technology startups to enterprise financial institutions – through the audit lifecycle.
His toolkits represents the distillation of that field experience into a standardised framework. They move beyond theoretical compliance, providing a pragmatic, auditor-verified methodology designed to satisfy ISO/IEC 27001:2022 while minimising operational friction.
