ISO 27001 Organisational roles, responsibilities and authorities
The focus for this ISO 27001 Clause is assigning people to roles to run the management system. As one of the ISO 27001 controls this is about working out the roles you need and who will perform them. It is quite straightforward.
You will learn what ISO clause 5.3 is, how to simply and easily implement it for ISO 27001 certification and I will show you some common gotchas so you can avoid them.
What is ISO 27001 Clause 5.3 Organisational Roles, Responsibilities and Authorities?
ISO 27001 Clause 5.3 requires you to define roles and responsibilities relevant to your information security management system and allocate them to people.
An information security management system is made up of the ISO 27001 documents, ISO 27001 policies and processes that deliver your information security controls and keeps you safe.
ISO 27001 Clause 5.3 Purpose
The purpose of clause 5.3 is to make sure you have defined, assigned and communicated the roles and responsibilities that you need to run your information security management system to people. This will ensure that the management system is effective.
ISO 27001 Clause 5.3 Definition
The ISO 27001 standard defines ISO 27001 clause 5.3 as:
Top management shall ensure that the responsibilities and authorities for roles relevant to information security are assigned and communicated within the organisation.
Top management shall assign the responsibility and authority for:
a) ensuring that the information security management system conforms to the requirements of this document
ISO 27001:2022 Clause 5.3 Organisational roles, responsibilities and authorities
b) reporting on the performance of the information security management system to top management.
ISO 27001 Clause 5.3 Requirement
The actual requirement is to make sure that roles, responsibilities and appropriate authority is assigned to people and that this is communicated. We document this in the ISO 27001 Roles and Responsibilities document.
We need to make sure that responsibility is assigned to someone for ensuring the standard is met and for reporting on the effectiveness and performance of the information security management system to the business leaders, which they refer to as ‘top management’.
ISO 27001 Templates
ISO 27001 templates have the advantage of being a massive boost that can save time and money so before we get into the implementation guide we consider these pre written templates that will sky rocket your implementation. Not interested in ISO 27001 templates, then you can skip to the next section.
The ISO 27001 Roles and Responsibilities document fully satisfies the requirements of ISO 27001 Clause 5.3 and is pre written with common examples. Available as individual download it is also part of the internationally best selling and award winning ISO 27001 Toolkit.
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ISO 27001 Clause 5.3 Implementation Guide
Document Roles and Responsibilities
Document the Information Security Roles Assigned and Responsibilities and set out the roles and responsibilities with allocated resource.
Assign the Management Review Team
Document the Management Review Team in the Information Security Roles Assigned and Responsibilities and document that it has responsibility for overseeing the Information Security Management System. This group reports to the board and has board representation and certain board designated authority for decision making. The Management Review Team meeting should meet at least quarterly and follow the agenda as defined in the standard.
Implement Management Reviews
Implement a Management Review Team with representatives from across the business and ensure meetings follow the structured Management Review Team Agenda.
Document Competence
Document a Competency Matrix to capture the core competencies and training requirements of staff in relation to information security.
ISO 27001 Clause 5.3 FAQ
The changes to ISO 27001 clause 5.3 for the 2022 update are minor at best. Changing the word ‘International Standard’ to the word ‘document’ and adding clarification that communication is within the organisation as was always implied but never said out right. Nothing material.