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Contact with Special Interest Groups

13/09/2025

Author: Stuart Barker | ISO 27001 Expert and Thought Leader

Having a plan for talking to non-government organisations that care about information security. This helps your organisation stay informed and work with groups that have similar goals, like industry clubs or privacy advocates.

Examples

  • Industry Group: Your company could talk to a group of banks about new cyber threats.
  • Privacy Advocates: An organisation might work with a group that supports strong privacy laws to learn about new rules.
  • Technology Forum: A business could share information about new software bugs with other companies in a technology forum.

Context

This control is about being proactive and collaborative. It helps your organisation learn about new threats and best practices by connecting with others in your field. By building these relationships, you can better protect your information and be seen as a responsible member of the community.

Relevant ISO 27001 Controls

The following controls from the ISO/IEC 27001:2022 standard are related to contact with special interest groups:

About the author

Stuart Barker is an information security practitioner of over 30 years. He holds an MSc in Software and Systems Security and an undergraduate degree in Software Engineering. He is an ISO 27001 expert and thought leader holding both ISO 27001 Lead Implementer and ISO 27001 Lead Auditor qualifications. In 2010 he started his first cyber security consulting business that he sold in 2018. He worked for over a decade for GE, leading a data governance team across Europe and since then has gone on to deliver hundreds of client engagements and audits.

He regularly mentors and trains professionals on information security and runs a successful ISO 27001 YouTube channel where he shows people how they can implement ISO 27001 themselves. He is passionate that knowledge should not be hoarded and brought to market the first of its kind online ISO 27001 store for all the tools and templates people need when they want to do it themselves.

In his personal life he is an active and a hobbyist kickboxer.

His specialisms are ISO 27001 and SOC 2 and his niche is start up and early stage business.