ISO 27001 Clause 7.5.1 Documented Information – Ultimate Certification Guide

Introduction

In this article I lay bare ISO 27001 Clause 7.5.1 Documented Information. Exposing the insider trade secrets, giving you the templates that will save you hours of your life and showing you exactly what you need to do to satisfy it for ISO 27001 certification.

I show you exactly what changed in the ISO 27001:2022 update.

I am Stuart Barker the ISO 27001 Ninja and this is ISO 27001 Clause 7.5.1

What is ISO 27001 Clause 7.5.1 Documented Information?

The ISO 27001 standard requires an organisation to document the information security management system.

It works on the premise that if it is not written down then it does not exist.

There is a lot of documentation required for ISO 27001.

Compliance with the standard may not make you more secure.

Often the ISO 27001 certification is about the minutia of documentation rather than whether you are actually secure. Unless you are buying an ISO 27001 Toolkit you are going to have a lot of ISO 27001 documents to create.

We are not here to defend it, rather to show you how to do it.

Hopefully saving you some time and money along the way.

ISO 27001 Clause 7.5.1 Documented Information is about documentation, documentation, documentation.

The ISO 27001 standard for ISO 27001 certification wants you to document pretty much everything. It is one of the ISO 27001 controls.

What are the ISO 27001:2022 Changes to Clause 7.5.1?

Great news. There are no material changes to ISO 27001 Clause 7.5.1 in the 2022 update. There is a general update across the standard to replace the words ‘International Standard’ to the word ‘document’. But this is not material but refers to how the standard refers to itself in the text.

ISO 27001 Clause 7.5.1 Definition

The ISO 27001 standard defines clause 7.5.1 as:

The organisation’s information security management system shall include:

a) documented information required by this International Standard; and
b) documented information determined by the organisation as being necessary for the effectiveness of the information security management system.

ISO 27001 Clause 7.5.1 Documented Information

ISO 27001 Annex A / ISO 27002 2022 Guidance on Documented Information

There is further guidance provided in the ISO 27001 Annex A Controls that was revised in 2022 with changes to the ISO 27002 standard and specifically calls out required communications. Let’s take a look at what Annex A says.

In broad brush terms, without exception, everything needs documenting. Everything.

It would be fruitless to list every ISO 27001 2022 control here as we have provided a complete guide to the ISO 27001 controls that includes the ISO 27002 / Annex A controls. Just be assured that you are going to have document everything.

I am not sure I have mentioned that you will have to document everything enough.

Lets take just a couple of examples to whet your appetite:

ISO 27002 Clause 5.1 Policies for Information Security

Information security policy and topic-specific policies should be defined, approved by management, published, communicated to and acknowledged by relevant personnel and relevant interested parties, and reviewed at planned intervals and if significant changes occur.

ISO 27002 Clause 5.1 Policies for Information Security

Here we see we need to document Information Security Policies.

ISO 27002 Clause 5.24 Information security incident management planning and preparation

The organization should plan and prepare for managing information security incidents by defining, establishing and communicating information security incident management processes, roles and responsibilities

ISO 27002 Clause 5.24 Information security incident management planning and preparation

Documenting the incident management process is a key step so that everyone knows what to do if things go wrong. The basics would be to document ‘how to report and incident’ and ‘who is responsible for information security’.

ISO 27002 Clause 6.4 Disciplinary Process

A disciplinary process should be formalised and communicated to take actions against personnel and other relevant interested parties who have committed an information security policy violation.

ISO 27002 Clause 6.4 Disciplinary Process

This is usually the function of the HR department and part of good HR practice. HR will have many documentation requirements of their own but we are interested for ISO 27001 certification in ensuring that they have documented the disciplinary process. The disciplinary process must include steps for what happens if staff breach information security.

You get the idea. Without exception, everything needs documenting. Everything.

How To comply with ISO 27001 Clause 7.5.1 

ISO 27001 Clause 7.5.1 Implementation Guide 

There are many ways to document your information security management system. Some are more efficient and proven than others.

Our ISO 27001 Toolkit has been built over 20 years and is used globally by thousands of businesses who want to save vast amounts of time and money.

You may be considering an Information Security Management System online solution.

These software solutions can be a great help to information security managers in larger organisations but they come at a massive cost.

Which ever route you go .. document everything.

How do you demonstrate compliance to ISO 27001 clause 7.5.1?

Having a documented information security management system, documented policies and document records of the effective operation of your processes will show you comply with ISO 27001 clause 7.5.1

You need the appropriate document mark up and you need to ensure that they are updated at least within the last 12 months.

ISO 27001 Clause 7.5.1 Templates

ISO 27001 templates are a great way to implement your information security management system. Whilst an ISO 27001 Toolkit can save you up to 30x in consulting fees and allow you to deliver up to 10x faster these individual templates help meet the specific requirements of ISO 27001 clause 7.5.1

ISO 27001 Clause 7.5.1 FAQ