ISO 27001 Leadership and Commitment
ISO 27001 is a top down management system that needs leadership to be engaged and driving information security.
In ISO 27001 this is known as ISO27001:2022 Clause 5.1 Leadership and Commitment. It is one of the mandatory ISO 27001 clauses.
Getting this right is important. Without the leadership and the commitment the information security management system will fail. Think about why you are doing it and check that the management agrees. If they do not, or they see it has a burden then you are doomed to fail from the offset. It can be just a tick box exercise, to succeed, it really really should not be.
Key Takeaways
- It’s a Top-Down Mandate: The success of the Information Security Management System (ISMS) hinges on the active and genuine commitment of the leadership team. Without their buy-in and drive, the system is likely to fail.
- Leadership Responsibilities are Clear: Top management is responsible for ensuring the information security policy and objectives align with the company’s strategic goals. They must also provide necessary resources, integrate ISMS requirements into business processes, and communicate its importance throughout the organisation.
- Ensure Intended Outcomes: Leadership’s role is to ensure the ISMS achieves its planned results, support staff in contributing to its effectiveness, and promote continuous improvement.
- Key to Implementation: To demonstrate compliance, organisations should establish a Management Review Team with senior representatives and assign a dedicated person to own the ISO 27001 process.
Table of contents
- ISO 27001 Leadership and Commitment
- Key Takeaways
- What is ISO 27001 Clause 5.1 and Why is it Important?
- ISO 27001 Clause 5.1 Explained: A Complete Guide
- How to implement ISO 27001 Clause 5.1: Step-By-Step
- What is the biggest challenge in implementing clause 5.1?
- What roles does leadership have in policies?
- What role does leadership have in documentation?
- What is the role of leadership in directing and supporting people?
- What is the role of leadership in communicating information security?
- What is the role of leadership in measuring objectives?
- What is the role of leadership in resources?
- What is the role of leadership in promoting continual improvement?
- What is the role of leadership in operational processes?
- How to communicate the importance of information security
- How can an ISO 27001 Toolkit help with ISO 27001 Clause 5.1?
- How to audit ISO 27001 Clause 5.1
- How to pass the ISO 27001 Clause 5.1 Audit
- Top 3 ISO 27001 Clause 5.1 Mistakes and How to Fix Them
- ISO 27001 Clause 5.1: Leadership and Commitment FAQ
- Related ISO 27001 Controls
What is ISO 27001 Clause 5.1 and Why is it Important?
ISO 27001 Clause 5.1 is Leadership and Commitment. It requires you to to make sure you have the support and buy in of your leadership team for your information security management system (ISMS).
Leadership and commitment is about having an information security management system (ISMS) that is driven and led from the top.
Without this level of commitment and drive the information security management is doomed to fail.
Giving this to IT to solve or devolving it to the lower ranks will see people not doing what they should do due to conflicting priorities.
As a top down leadership led standard, for ISO 27001 you are going to make sure that top management can demonstrate leadership and commitment with respect to the information security management system.
That leadership and commitment will:
- Ensure the information security policy and the information security objectives are established and are compatible with the strategic direction of the organisation.
- Ensure the integration of the information security management system requirements into the organisational processes.
- Ensure that the resources needed for the information security management system are available.
- Communicate the importance of effective Information Security Management and of conforming to the information security management system requirements.
- Ensure that the information security management system achieves its intended outcomes.
- Direct and support persons to contribute to the effectiveness of the information security management system.
- Promote continual improvement
- Support other relevant management roles to demonstrate their leadership as it applies to their role and information security.
Purpose and Definition
The purpose of ISO 27001 Clause 5.1 Leadership and Commitment is to make sure that information security is driven from the top.
The ISO 27001 standard defines ISO 27001 Clause 5.1 Leadership and Commitment as:
Top management shall demonstrate leadership and commitment with respect to the information security management system by:
ISO27001:2022 Clause 5.1 Leadership and Commitment
a) ensuring the information security policy and the information security objectives are established and are compatible with the strategic direction of the organisation;
b) ensuring the integration of the information security management system requirements into the organisation’s processes;
c) ensuring that the resources needed for the information security management system are available;
d) communicating the importance of effective information security management and of conforming to the information security management system requirements;
e) ensuring that the information security management system achieves its intended outcome(s);
f) directing and supporting persons to contribute to the effectiveness of the information security
g) promoting continual improvement
h) supporting other relevant management roles to demonstrate their leadership as it applies to their
ISO 27001 Clause 5.1 Requirement
There are 8 specific requirements when it comes to leadership and commitment. This is a testament to how importantly the standard takes it. Read the implementation guide below to see exactly what they are how to quickly and simply meet the requirements.
ISO 27001 Clause 5.1 Explained: A Complete Guide
For a complete visual guide to this process, check out our video tutorial: How to implement ISO 27001 Clause 5.1 Leadership and Commitment
How to implement ISO 27001 Clause 5.1: Step-By-Step
ISO 27001 is a top down leadership standard. It’s actually aligned with the majority of the ISO standards. They all follow a very similar format and if you’ve implemented other ISO standards such as ISO 9001 then a lot of what you will see here is going to be familiar to you. It may well be that you’re going to reuse what you have or just do a slight tweak.
You have to show and have to lead from the top. This isn’t driven by someone in IT. This isn’t driven by some information security person like me with their police hat on or their parent hat on telling you what it is that you need to do.
This has to be driven from leadership. It has to be driven from the top.
Time needed: 1 hour and 30 minutes
How to implement ISO 27001 Clause 5.1 is Leadership and Commitment
- Put in place a management review team
Working out who your information security leadership team is will be straightforward and you will implement a Management Review Team that will be responsible for the oversight of the information security management system (ISMS). The best way to work out who attends this is to have a senior representative from each department in the business plus ( if not already covered ) and member of the senior leadership team.
- Assign someone to own ISO 27001
To lead the work you really should consider bringing in some specialist help. The knowledge and experience of someone how has done this many times before will pay dividends and stop you making costly mistakes and wasting a lot of time. If that is not an option for you then getting members of your team trained in ISO 27001 lead implementor or ISO 27001 lead auditor may be a viable option. These courses come with a word of caution though as they are mainly booked based and generic in nature. They do not share the real world trials and tribulations of how you actually implement in your organisation. Which ever route you go, having a resource to lead the implementation and certification is a requirement.
- Write your information security policies
Write your information security policy and your associated topic specific information security policies based on the needs of the business and the risks the business faces. These are defined as part of the process of building your information security management system (ISMS).
- Write your information security objectives
Ensure that your information security objectives are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely (SMART) and for each objective clearly set out what the measures are. The information security objectives are recorded and communicated in the Information Security Policy and they are included as part of the structured agenda at the Management Review Team meeting for reporting and oversight.
- Agree and sign off the policies and objectives
The senior leadership team agree and sign off the policies and objectives.
- Implement an information security management system (ISMS)
The first resource you need is the information security management system. This is the ISO 27001 toolkit. The success of your ISO 27001 implementation and your ISO 27001 certification will hang on having the right resources available, allocated and engaged.
- Integrate the information security management system requirements into the organisational processes
Ensure the integration of the information security management system requirements into the organisational processes. The concept of ‘if it is not written down it does not exist’ plays through ISO 27001 certification. The organisation processes are going to need writing down and formatting in documents with appropriate documentation mark-up and version control. Stating what we do and not what we think auditors want to hear is key here as we will be audited against what we say we do. If we don’t do what we say we do we will fail.
You will document your processes simply and you will pay attention to having at least one exception step. An exception step caters for the ‘what if’ scenario that the process does not work or go to plan. What if the change fails? What if the software update fails? What if the virus is not quarantined? You get the idea. Auditors will always seek this out and ask. It is a common audit failure where it has not been considered and documented.
Satisfy this by having information security policies in place and then write and align your actual processes to those policies. Don’t forget to document the processes of the in scope products and services. Policies are statements of what we do not how we do it. How we do it is covered in these process documents. The process steps recorded are very specific so that anyone, even someone who has never worked in this area before, can follow them and achieve the same and consistent result. - Ensure Necessary Resources are Allocated
Understand the ISO 27001 standard and the ISO 27001 Annex A controls (referred to as ISO 27002) and allocate members of your team to those controls. You do this by recording them in an ISMS Annex A Controls – Accountability Matrix which assigns responsibility for each ISO 27001 Annex A Control.
It is ok that the work is carried out by a third party company but you must still assign internal responsibility for managing it and ensuring it gets done. There are a number of recommended documents to demonstrate this. There is the roles and responsibilities document that sets out all the roles and responsibilities and it states what those responsibilities are. You just allocate people to it. - Communicate on information security
You are going to communicate the importance of an effective information security management system and of conforming to the manage system requirements. There are a number of different ways that to demonstrate that from a leadership point of view.
For a detailed run through read ISO 27001 Clause 7.4 Communication
Communication is expected at all levels, across all medium and has some very specific requirements. It can easily be implemented and evidenced.
It can take many forms. For example it will be part of any legal contracts that you have with suppliers and with clients as well as employees.
You will implement an Information Security Awareness and Training Policy that sets out the training and awareness for the company as well as deploying training tools that allow you to schedule your communications and include acknowledgement of understanding such as tests or quizzes that you can use to evidence your compliance. You will plan your training based on business need and business risk but you will do Basic Information Security Awareness Training and Basic Data Protection Training at least annually. You may tailor your training and communication to specific groups and sub groups based on their specific needs.
You will implement a Communication Plan that sets out the communications for the year across media and approaches. It will be a record and a plan of what was communicated, who communicated it, to whom they communicated it, what they communicated and how they communicated it and it will include the evidence the communication took place.
There may be other processes that involve communication that you will evidence. Here we think about off boarding an employee when they leave or due to termination where we want to communicate again their requirements under contract for information security and the expectations that we place on them. - Direct and support people
You will direct and support people to contribute to the effectiveness of the management system via
1. Policies
2. Training
3. Communication
4. Competency Management and Competency Matrix
We want people to contribute effectively and the way we do that is via communicating and supporting them. If we don’t tell people what is expected we can not expect them to do it. You will have employment contracts and third party contracts that include coverage of information security requirements.
You will have a Competency Matrix that captures the core competencies and training requirements of staff in relation to information security.
Your Information Security Awareness and Training Policy sets out the training and awareness and your training tool and package is used to manage the process and the compliance.
The Communication Plan sets out the communications for the year across media and approaches as discussed above. - Promote continual improvement
As discussed continual improvement is baked in and a core principle. This is not a one and done. The external audits will happen every year as will your ongoing internal audits. Incidents will happen that need managing. Deviations from policy and procedure will happen. New ways of working and new tools will be identified.
Your Continual Improvement Policy sets out the continual improvement policy and the Incident and Corrective Action Log captures and manages the corrective actions and improvements.
The Communication Plan sets out the communications for the year across media and approaches and your management review team oversees the entire continual improvement process.
Implement continual improvement – further reading – ISO 27001 Clause 10.1 Continual Improvement - Support management roles
Support other relevant management roles to demonstrate their leadership as it applies to their areas of responsibility.
Examples of how to support other management roles include:
competency matrix
training plans
communication plans
management review meeting
top-down communication
What is the biggest challenge in implementing clause 5.1?
This video explains that leadership is often the hardest part of implementing ISO 27001, even though it may seem simple. You might find that leaders in organisations are not very involved and it can be tough to get the money needed for the project.
What roles does leadership have in policies?
Find out about what leaders do with information security policies. In this short video I explain that a policy is a statement of what an organisation does. You use policies to tell your employees and customers what you do for information security. They are different from processes, which explain how you do things. You separate them so that secret information doesn’t get out.
What role does leadership have in documentation?
This video explains how you can demonstrate leadership’s role in ISO 27001 documentation by using various documents. You are shown how to use documents like the roles and responsibilities chart and an accountability matrix to demonstrate who is in charge of specific clauses and controls.
What is the role of leadership in directing and supporting people?
In this video, you learn that leadership plays a crucial role in directing and supporting individuals to ensure the effectiveness of a management system, particularly concerning ISO 27001 Clause 5.1. You discover that a key method for this support involves using a competency matrix, which outlines the necessary skills and experiences for those involved in information security management and helps identify knowledge gaps. Additionally, the video highlights the importance of information security awareness, general training, and specific one-on-one and job-role training to help you develop your skills and contribute effectively.
What is the role of leadership in communicating information security?
This video explains how leadership and communication are vital for an effective information security management system. You must have a plan for how you communicate the importance of conforming to system requirements, which can include regular updates, training, and tracking employee progress.
What is the role of leadership in measuring objectives?
You can measure your ISO 27001 objectives regularly, not just for external audits. This can be done by including them in your management review meetings, which you should have monthly or at least every three months.
What is the role of leadership in resources?
Leadership’s role is to make sure you have the necessary resources for information security management. You need to show that you have people and a management review team available to handle information security within your organisation.
What is the role of leadership in promoting continual improvement?
In this video, you learn about how leadership promotes continual improvement. You are shown a continual improvement policy and process, with the speaker noting that continual improvement is built into the standard.
What is the role of leadership in operational processes?
Leadership plays a critical role in weaving the requirements of an information security management system into an organisation’s existing processes. It is your responsibility to ensure these two elements are properly integrated, especially since security controls are deeply embedded in how you run your business.
How to communicate the importance of information security
This video explains how you can communicate the importance of information security, particularly regarding ISO 27001 Clause 5.1. You can use various methods, like board and team meetings, company away days, and supplier contracts, to explain what will happen if certain security measures are not followed.
How can an ISO 27001 Toolkit help with ISO 27001 Clause 5.1?
For this sub clause the ISO 27001 Information Security Roles and Responsibilities Template sets out the roles and responsibilities with allocated resource. A Management Review Team should be put in place with representatives from across the business. The ISO 27001 Competency Matrix Template captures the core competencies and training requirements of staff in relation to information security. The ISO 27001 Communication Plan Template sets out the communications for the year across media and approaches. All of this in is the ISO 27001 toolkit.
How to audit ISO 27001 Clause 5.1
This audit checklist is a guide on how to conduct an internal audit of ISO 27001 Clause 5.1 Leadership and Commitment based on what the ISO 27001 certification auditor will audit. It gives practical audit tips including what to audit and how.
1. Review the Information Security Policy
Verify that the policy is documented, approved by top management, and relevant to the organisation’s purpose. Check if it addresses key principles like confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
Audit Technique: Document review, interviews with top management.
2. Assess Communication of Importance
Evaluate how top management communicates the importance of information security throughout the organisation. Look for evidence of communication through various channels.
Audit Technique: Interviews with employees at different levels, review of communication materials (e.g., emails, intranet posts).
3. Verify Roles and Responsibilities
Check if information security roles, responsibilities, and authorities are clearly defined and assigned. Look for documented roles and responsibilities (e.g., RACI matrix).
Audit Technique: Document review, interviews with individuals in key roles.
4. Examine Resource Allocation
Verify that top management has provided adequate resources (financial, human, technological) to support the ISMS. Review budget allocations and resource plans.
Audit Technique: Review of budget documents, interviews with top management and resource managers.
5. Evaluate Culture Promotion
Assess how top management promotes a culture of information security awareness and continual improvement. Look for evidence of training programs, awareness campaigns, and feedback mechanisms.
Audit Technique: Interviews with employees, review of training records and awareness materials.
6. Check Achievement of Intended Outcomes
Verify that the ISMS is achieving its intended outcomes. Review performance metrics, audit reports, and management review minutes.
Audit Technique: Review of performance data, interviews with process owners.
7. Assess Direction and Support of Personnel
Determine how top management directs and supports personnel to contribute to the effectiveness of the ISMS. Look for evidence of performance reviews, feedback mechanisms, and training opportunities.
Audit Technique: Interviews with employees and managers, review of performance records.
8. Verify Stakeholder Engagement
Check if top management engages interested parties relevant to the ISMS. Look for evidence of communication with stakeholders and consideration of their needs and expectations.
Audit Technique: Review of communication records, interviews with stakeholders.
9. Evaluate Support for Continual Improvement
Assess how top management supports continual improvement of the ISMS. Look for evidence of management review, identification of improvement opportunities, and allocation of resources for improvement projects.
Audit Technique: Review of management review minutes, improvement plans, and project documentation.
10. Confirm Maintenance of ISMS Integrity
Verify that top management ensures the integrity of the ISMS is maintained when changes are planned and implemented. Look for evidence of change management processes that include security considerations.
How to pass the ISO 27001 Clause 5.1 Audit
To successfully pass an audit of ISO 27001 Clause 5.1 Leadership and Commitment you are going to:
- Understand the requirements of ISO 27001 Clause 5.1
- Demonstrate that information security is driven from the top and that their is a culture of information security management
What an auditor looks for
The audit is going to check a number of areas for compliance with ISO 27001 Clause 5.1 Leadership and Commitment. Lets go through them
1. An interview with senior leadership
Part of the audit process will be a series of interviews and at least one will be with senior leadership. Here they will ask questions about the information security management system. They will ask about the objectives for information security, when they last did a management review, where the policies are, if there are incidents in the last 12 months. This is a general interview but will catch you out if your senior leadership is not actually involved.
2. Your documentation
It is simple but they will check the required documents and processes of the information security management system (ISMS) that relate to leadership and commitment. This usually means the communication plan and communications sent, that management reviews have happened and you can evidence them. That all document and processes have been signed off and communicated. Work through the implementation guide above and be sure to complete it.
3. That you have resources allocated
Part of leading and showing commitment is to have adequate resources in place to run the ISMS. Here they are looking at roles and responsibilities, the competency matrix, the training plan. Are people allocated to roles and do they have the skills to perform the tasks.
Top 3 ISO 27001 Clause 5.1 Mistakes and How to Fix Them
In my experience, the top 3 mistakes people make for ISO 27001 Clause 5.1 Leadership and Commitment are
1. Leadership are not engaged
It is easy to document roles and responsibilities and say leadership is engaged and committed but it is another thing for it to actually happen. If they pay lip service, come the audit and the interviews you will get caught out. Putting aside not having commitment means it is highly likely your ISMS isn’t actually effective and if you are responsible for it you are going to spend most of your career there frustrated.
2. You cannot evidence management reviews
The guides and toolkit give you the resources to address this but many organisations just don’t do reviews. Or when they do the wrong people attend making it ineffective. Be able to evidence management reviews that follow the structured agenda of the standard.
3. Your document and version control is wrong
Keeping your document version control up to date, making sure that version numbers match where used, having a review evidenced in the last 12 months, having documents that have no comments in are all good practices.
Audit Technique: Review of change management records, interviews with change managers.
ISO 27001 Clause 5.1: Leadership and Commitment FAQ
There are no changes to ISO 27001 Clause 5.1 Leadership and Commitment in the 2022 update.
Top management includes individuals or a group at the highest level who can direct and control the organisation. This could be a CEO, a board of directors, or other senior stakeholders who have the authority to make decisions and allocate resources.
They can demonstrate accountability by actively participating in management reviews, approving key policies, ensuring adequate resources are available, and owning responsibility for the outcomes of the ISMS.
It means that security isn’t treated as a separate, isolated function. Instead, information security requirements and controls should be seamlessly integrated into day-to-day business operations like human resources, procurement, and product development.
Communication should be visible and consistent. Examples include town hall meetings, internal memos, company-wide emails, and intranet updates that reinforce the importance of security and its connection to the organisation’s success.
Resources can include financial budget, competent personnel (like an information security manager), technology, and time. Leadership must ensure these are available and sufficient to implement and maintain the ISMS.
Responsibility for ISO 27001 Clause 5.1 Leadership and Commitment lies with the Information Security Manager.
Accountability for ISO 27001 Clause 5.1 Leadership and Commitment lies with senior management and leadership.
Ownership of ISO 27001 Clause 5.1 Leadership and Commitment lies with the Information Security Manager.
1. Improved security: You will have an effective information security management system that is led by senior leadership and their commitment
2. Reduced risk: You will reduce the risk to your information security management system by having the most senior leadership on board
3. Improved compliance: Standards and regulations require leadership commitment to be in place
4. Reputation Protection: In the event of a breach having leadership commitment will reduce the potential for fines and reduce the PR impact of an event
ISO 27001 Clause 5.1 Leadership and Commitment is important because without it your information security management system will fail and you won’t achieve your ISO 27001 certification. It is a simple as that.
By actively engaging and supporting employees, top management sets a precedent and fosters a culture where everyone understands their role in protecting information. This includes mandating security awareness training and even participating in it themselves.
Without genuine commitment, an ISMS is likely to fail. An external auditor will look for evidence of leadership’s involvement, and if they cannot find it, for example, a CEO who is unaware of the ISMS goals, the organisation will likely fail its audit.
In a smaller organization, a single leader like the owner or CEO can demonstrate commitment by personally launching the project, regularly checking progress, and being present during key meetings like risk assessments.
Clause 5.1 is about the overarching leadership and commitment from top management. In contrast, Clause 5.3 focuses on the organisational roles, responsibilities, and authorities, clarifying who is responsible for specific tasks within the ISMS.
