The ISO 27001 Risk Management Policy sets out the guidelines and framework for how you identify, manage and mitigate risks to your information security.
Table of contents
- What is it?
- Applicability to Small Businesses, Tech Startups, and AI Companies
- ISO 27001 Risk Management Policy Template
- Why you need it
- When you need it
- Who needs it?
- Where you need it
- How to write it
- How to implement it
- Examples of using it for small business
- Examples of using it for tech startups
- Examples of using it for AI companies
- How the ISO 27001 toolkit can help
- Information security standards that need it
- List of relevant ISO 27001:2022 controls
- ISO 27001 Risk Management Policy Example
- ISO 27001 Risk Management Policy FAQ
What is it?
Think of an ISO 27001 risk management policy as your company’s rulebook for handling security risks. It’s a key document that explains how you find, analyse, and manage threats to your information. Basically, it’s a plan that makes sure your sensitive data stays safe. It shows everyone what their role is in keeping information secure, and it helps you get ready for things that could go wrong. A good policy is like a roadmap for your whole security process.
Applicability to Small Businesses, Tech Startups, and AI Companies
This policy is useful for businesses of all sizes, including small businesses, tech startups, and AI companies.
- For Small Businesses: Even if you’re a small business, you handle important info about your customers and employees. This policy helps you protect that data and build trust. It’s not just for big corporations!
- For Tech Startups: Startups often deal with huge amounts of data. This policy helps you build security into your products and services from the very beginning. It shows investors and clients that you take security seriously.
- For AI Companies: AI companies deal with unique risks, like protecting the data used to train AI models. This policy helps you address these specific threats and manage the security of your algorithms and data sets.
ISO 27001 Risk Management Policy Template
You don’t have to start from scratch. You can find lots of templates online to help you create your policy. These templates give you a basic structure to follow, so you just need to fill in the details for your own company. It’s a great way to save time and make sure you don’t miss anything important.
The comprehensive ISO 27001:2002 Risk Management Policy Template is designed to fast track your implementation and give you an exclusive, industry best practice policy template that is pre written and ready to go. It is included in the ISO 27001 toolkit.
Why you need it
You need this policy because it’s the foundation of your security system. It helps you keep your data safe, avoid costly data breaches, and meet legal and industry requirements. Having a policy shows customers and partners that you’re a trustworthy business. It also helps you stay organised and consistent with your security practices.
When you need it
You need this policy as soon as your business starts handling sensitive information. It’s smart to create it early, before any security issues come up. If you’re planning to get certified with ISO 27001, you’ll definitely need to have this policy in place as part of the process.
Who needs it?
Everyone in your company needs to be aware of this policy. It’s not just for the IT or security team. Your employees, contractors, and even management all have a role to play in keeping information secure. The policy outlines everyone’s responsibilities.
Where you need it
You need to have this policy available to everyone in your company. It should be easily accessible, maybe on your company’s internal website or in a shared folder. It’s a document that you should refer to often, so it needs to be easy to find.
How to write it
Writing the policy should be straightforward.
- Start with a clear purpose: Explain why this policy exists and what it aims to protect.
- Define your goals: Talk about what you want to achieve with your risk management.
- Describe the process: Explain step-by-step how you will identify, analyse, and treat risks.
- Assign roles: Clearly state who is responsible for what.
- Review and update: Mention that you’ll review and update the policy regularly.
Time needed: 1 hour and 30 minutes
How to write an ISO 27001 Risk Management Policy
- Write the ISO 27001 Risk Management Contents Page
The contents of the risk management policy should include:
the purpose
the scope
the principle
what is risk management
what risk appetite is
low risk appetite
moderate risk appetite
risk identification
risk assessment
risk register
risk reporting
risk review
risk treatment
risk acceptance
risk mitigation
risk evaluation
policy compliance - Write the ISO 27001 Risk Management Purpose
The purpose of the ISO 27001 Risk Management Policy is to set out the risk management approach for the company for information security.
- Write the ISO 27001 Risk Management Scope
The scope of the ISO 27001 Risk Management Policy is all employees and third party users.
It is also risk management as applied to information security and the confidentiality, integrity and availability of organisation owned data processed, stored and transmitted. - Write the ISO 27001 Risk Management Principle
Information Security Management for the company is based on appropriate and adequate risk and risk management. ISO 27001 is a risk-based management system fundamentally, and underpinned by risk. Risk
is your goto. We base our security on risk. - Describe what risk is
Risk can be defined as –
the threat or possibility that an action or event will adversely or beneficially affect an organisation’s ability to achieve its objectives. - Describe what risk management is
Risk management can be defined as –
the systematic application of principles and approach and a process by which the company identifies and assesses the risks attached to its activities and then plans and implements a risk response. - Define your risk appetite
Overall the company has a moderate risk appetite or a risk appetite appropriate to you. Which means risks are mitigated in a cost effective and proportionate manner to the risk and some risk acceptance is acceptable based on business need.
Low risk appetite – the company actually has a low risk appetite to the following which means that risk will not be accepted and that we will have resources allocated to mitigate the risks in a proportionate and cost-effective manner, these are like no-brainer risks. What do we mean by that? So, you will now see low risk appetite for
– unauthorised access use or release of personally identifiable information or sensitive data
– non-compliance with technology laws regulations policies or procedures
– lack of resilience against cyber security threats.
Moderate risk appetite – the following will have resources allocated to mitigate risk in a proportionate and cost cost effective manner:
– alignment of Enterprise Information Systems data and business practices
– the ability to meet user demands and support a mobile workforce
– technology infrastructure and performance, eg stability, reliability, capability, capacity and duplicative
systems
– business resiliency planning and execution risk. - Set out when you do risk identification and assessment
Identification and assessment risk assessments are carried out at a regular interval or at least every 12 months and where there has been or likely to be a significant change risks are identified and assessed at
least for the processing storing or transmitting of confidential, personal or card holder information.
We’re going to at least do an annual full ISO 27001 risk assessment.
For third party suppliers that are processing, storing or transmitting any confidential, personal or card holder information, new systems, significant changes – an ISO 27001 controls risk assessment is carried out at least every 12 months. - Define the risk register
All risks are recorded in the company risk register. There’s a company risk register template you can download, the ISO 27001 risk register template. Yes. it’s part of the ISO 27001 Toolkit, the ultimate toolkit for ISO 27001 certification but you’re going to place reliance on that risk register.
- Set out your Risk Reporting
The risk register is reviewed at the management review team meeting. Risk are reported to the management review team. Significant risks are, being risks identified as requiring the attention of Senior
Management or risk with the score over 20 or risk classified as severe, are reported to the senior management team and form part of the company’s Enterprise risk management reporting.
So, there’s a reference there to scoring that’s included in the risk register. - Describe the process of Risk Review
Risks are regularly reviewed and monitored at the management review team meeting to review the
risk action progress, to ensure the risk action effectiveness and to look at the management of residual risk. - Set out how you do Risk Treatment
All risks are assigned a risk owner for risk acceptance. The decision to accept risks is taken by the relevant departmental manager and or Senior Management.
The criteria for accepting risk is:
based on the risk category being categorised as low or it is not cost effective to treat the risk,
a business or commercial opportunity exists that outweighs the threat and the impact,
a risk treatment does not exist
the impact of the risk occurring is acceptable to the company. - Define Risk Mitigation
Where a risk is to be mitigated a plan of action is approved by the relevant departmental manager and or the management review team and or Senior Management. Responsibility for implementing and managing the plan is assigned. Allocated risks are reported and reviewed at the management review team meeting and recorded in the risk register.
- Describe Risk Evaluation
The evaluation of risk impact is, consider, considered on impact to compliance under law, reputation, customers business goals and objectives, financial performance.
How to implement it
First, get your management to approve the policy. Then, share it with everyone in the company. You should also provide training so your employees understand their roles and responsibilities. Make sure to put the policy into action by following the steps you’ve outlined.
Examples of using it for small business
Let’s say you’re a small marketing agency. Your policy would include things like how you protect customer contact lists and creative project files. It would outline what to do if an employee’s computer gets a virus or if a client’s data is accidentally shared.
Examples of using it for tech startups
As a tech startup, your policy might focus on protecting your source code and customer data stored in the cloud. It would explain how you handle security during software development and what to do if you find a bug that could expose user information.
Examples of using it for AI companies
If you’re an AI company, your policy would address the security of your training data. It would describe how you ensure that the data used to train your models is secure and private. It would also cover how to protect the AI models themselves from being tampered with.
How the ISO 27001 toolkit can help
An ISO 27001 toolkit is a set of pre-made documents and tools designed to help you follow the standard. It often includes a pre-written risk management policy. Using a toolkit can save you a ton of time and make the whole process much easier.
Information security standards that need it
This policy is a key part of ISO 27001, which is an international standard for managing information security. Other standards that need it include:
- GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
- CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act)
- DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act)
- NIS2 (Network and Information Security (NIS) Directive)
- SOC 2 (Service Organisation Control 2)
- NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology)
- HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)
List of relevant ISO 27001:2022 controls
The ISO 27001:2022 standard has specific controls that relate to risk management:
- ISO 27001:2022 Clause 6.1.2: Information Security Risk Assessment
- ISO 27001:2022 Clause 6.1.3: Information Security Risk Treatment
- ISO 27001:2022 Clause 8.2 Information Security Risk Assessment
- ISO 27001:2022 Clause 8.3 Information Security Risk Treatment
ISO 27001 Risk Management Policy Example
An example ISO 27001 Risk Management Policy:
ISO 27001 Risk Management Policy FAQ
- Is this policy a legal document? It’s not a law, but it helps you follow laws and regulations.
- Can I just copy a policy from another company? No, because your risks are unique. You should customise any template you use.
- How often should I update the policy? You should review it at least once a year, or after any major change in your business.
- Do I need a security expert to write this? It helps, but you can use a toolkit and get guidance to do it yourself.
- What if we don’t have any risks? Every business has risks. This policy helps you find them.
- Does this policy cover cyberattacks? Yes, it’s designed to help you prepare for and respond to cyberattacks.
- What’s the difference between a policy and a procedure? The policy says what you do; the procedure says how you do it.
- Will this policy stop all security breaches? It can’t stop all of them, but it greatly reduces the chances and helps you recover faster.
- What if my employees don’t follow the policy? You should train them and explain why it’s important to follow the rules.
- Is this only for companies with lots of data? No, it’s for any company that wants to protect its information, no matter how much you have.
- Can I combine this with other policies? Yes, you can. It’s often part of a larger set of security policies.
- What does “risk treatment” mean? It means taking action to reduce a risk, like installing a firewall.
- Do I have to do a full risk assessment to write this? Yes, you need to understand your risks to create a good policy.
- Is this policy good for a remote team? Yes, it’s perfect for remote teams because it sets clear rules for everyone, no matter where they are.
- How long should the policy be? It should be just long enough to cover everything, but not so long that it’s hard to read.
