ISO 27001 Documented Information
ISO 27001 documented information is the documentation that makes up your information security management system.
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.
Table of contents
What is ISO 27001 Clause 7.5.1?
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.
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.
Compliance with the standard may not make you more secure.
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.
Definition
ISO 27001 defines ISO 27001 Documented Information as:
The organisation’s information security management system shall include:
ISO 27001:2022 Clause 7.5.1 Documented Information
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.
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.
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 organisation 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.
Watch the Tutorial
Watch the ISO 27001 Clause 7.5.1 Documented Information tutorial – How to implement ISO 27001 Clause 7.5.1 Documented Information
ISO 27001 Templates Toolkit
Every mandatory document that you need is in the ISO 27001 Toolkit.
ISO 27001 templates are a great way to fast track your implementation and leverage industry best practice.
How to comply
Time needed: 5 days
How to comply with ISO 27001 Clause 7.5.1 Documented Information
- Build your Information Security Management System
Rather than building your information security management system from scratch, download a copy of the ISO 27001 Toolkit. The ISO 27001 toolkit will save you months of effort and thousands in consulting fees. It has been built specifically to address the requirements of ISO 27001. We can not over emphasise what a bad idea it is to build your information security management system from scratch.
- Document your processes
All of your operational process require documenting. You will document what you actually do not what you think an auditor wants to hear. When it comes time to be audited, and auditor can only audit you against what you say you do. If what you have written down is not what you do then you will fail. Why set yourself up for the fall?
- Retain documented evidence of operation
For the processes that you operate you want to ensure that you have documented evidence of their operation. This could take the form of operational reports, management reports, system reports, system logs, help desk tickets, change tickets, version control in documents. There are many ways to evidence the effective operation of the Information Security Management System.
- Before you get audited
Check, double check and recheck your documentation before you get audited. The documentation is the primary thing that you will be audited on. Make sure all your version controls are up to date, documents are clean of comments and review mark up, that they have appropriate approvals, appropriate document markup. Ensure that the version control has been touched at least once in the last 12 months before the audit happens.
How do you demonstrate compliance to ISO 27001 Documented Information?
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 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
What are the ISO 27001:2022 Changes to ISO 27001 Documented Information?
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 FAQ
The ISO 27001 standard requires an that the organisation documents everything and retains copies of documentation for audit including:
a) Documented policies
b) Documented Information Security Management System
c) Documented records of the effective operation of processes
d) Appropriate documentation markup with version control
e) Documentation review and approved within the last 12 months
You evidence compliance to the ISO 27001 Clause 7.5.1 by having a good documentation in place. You document everything.
a) Documented policies
b) Documented Information Security Management System
c) Documented records of the effective operation of processes
d) Appropriate documentation markup with version control
e) Documentation review and approved within the last 12 months
You can download ISO 27001 7.5.1 Documented Information templates in the ISO 27001 Toolkit.
An example of ISO 27001 Clause 7.5.1 can be found in the ISO 27001 Toolkit.
The ISO 27001 documentation templates toolkit can be downloaded in the ISO 27001 Toolkit.