How Immuta’s ISO 27001/27701 Compliance is Enhancing Data Security

As the world becomes increasingly digital, data security has become a critical concern for businesses of all sizes. Threats to data are evolving as technology and bad actors become more sophisticated, which makes the challenge of protecting sensitive information that much more complicated. Ensuring that data protection processes and policies are sufficient is a must for organizations that want to compete with data, remain compliant, and maintain customer trust. One of the best and most widely recognized ways to do this is by achieving ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 certification.

ISO 27001 is an international standard that outlines best practices for implementing data security systems and processes. It provides a systematic approach to managing and protecting sensitive information, including data confidentiality, integrity, and availability. ISO 27701 is an extension of ISO 27001, and sets the standard for data privacy management systems, including the management of personal data, privacy risks, and compliance with rules and regulations.

I’m proud to announce that Immuta has officially achieved both ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 compliance, demonstrating our commitment to data security and validating that our policies, procedures, and controls satisfy international standards. While our goal is continuous improvement and delivery of best-in-class data discovery, security, and monitoring, this certification provides our customers with peace of mind that their data is secure and protected.

What Does It Take to be ISO 27001/27701 Certified?

Achieving ISO 27001/27701 certification does not happen overnight, and it takes a dedicated cross-functional team to execute. Stakeholders should not only consider the certification process an organizational imperative and be prepared to give it the appropriate time and attention, but they must also understand the standards’ guidelines from the start. Setting expectations before kicking off the process will improve long term efficiency and likelihood of success.

Beyond that, ISO 27001/27701 compliance requires a systematic approach to managing information security and data privacy. Here are a few of the steps our team followed to achieve compliance:

Conduct a Risk Assessment

This first step is critical for setting a baseline. It involves identifying and assessing the risks to your company’s sensitive information, including those related to physical security, network security, and data access control.

Develop a Data Security and Privacy Management Strategy

Next, you’ll develop a system that outlines the policies, procedures, and controls for managing and protecting sensitive data. The results of the risk assessment should inform this step, so that your data security and privacy management strategy is tailored to your organization’s specific needs.

Implement Controls to Mitigate Identified Risks

Once you’ve developed your strategies for managing data security and privacy, the next step is to implement controls to mitigate the identified risks. These may include physical security measures such as badge systems for office spaces; network security measures like authentication and identity management systems; and access controls that dynamically grant or restrict access to data sets.

Monitor the Effectiveness of Your Data Security and Privacy Strategies

The final step in achieving ISO 27001/27701 compliance is to monitor and review the effectiveness of your data security and privacy management strategies. This involves regularly auditing and assessing whether the controls are working as intended, and making adjustments as needed.

Why Should You Care About ISO 27001/27701 Compliance?

The benefits of achieving ISO 27001/27701 compliance are significant, especially in tandem with our maintenance of a successful SOC 2 Type 2 attestation. Here’s why the certification matters for modern data-driven organizations:

Increased Trust and Confidence

Your customers are becoming more aware of data security risks and are increasingly concerned about how their data is being protected. The Data Policy Management Report found that customer trust is expected to become the top driver of policy management improvement, beating out compliance and cost savings. Leveraging a platform that is ISO 27001/27701-compliant helps show your customers that you take data security and privacy seriously and have implemented best practices to protect their data.

Simplified Legal and Regulatory Compliance

The list of compliance laws and regulations requiring companies to implement data security and privacy controls seems to grow by the day. ISO 27001/27701 certification signals that auditors have verified the right measures are in place to protect sensitive information and adhere to regulatory guidelines. Specifically, ISO 27701 provides a framework that can be easily used to comply with regulations like the GDPR and HIPAA, among others, ultimately helping save time while avoiding legal penalties.

Improved Operational Efficiency

On a related note, ISO 27001/27701 achievement helps increase efficiencies that can in turn accelerate time to data access. While the standards are not explicitly required by highly-regulated industries like healthcare, finance, and government, compliance is generally seen as an indicator that data security and privacy systems are sufficient in meeting industry-specific regulatory requirements. This helps remove the guesswork from having to manually implement data security and privacy controls that are verifiably compliant, and ensure that they are consistently enforced across all data sets and platforms. By streamlining these processes, you can dedicate resources to other value-driving tasks.

Stronger Competitive Advantage

Although more companies are seeking ISO 27001/27701 certification, the vast majority have not yet achieved it. With data use now ubiquitous across industries, the ability to claim ISO 27001/27701 achievement demonstrates a proactive commitment to data security that can help set you apart from competitors and build a strong reputation. In a competitive negotiation, this could be the tipping point that either wins you a deal or causes you to miss out.

It’s true that not all companies are ISO 27001/27701 certified – in fact, we’re far from that point. But that’s not to say that achieving compliance is unnecessary. The increasing number of threats to data and regulations dictating its use means that failing to understand risks, standardize processes, implement controls, and build a culture around data security awareness will increase risk exposure and the likelihood of a damaging data breach. Taking the initiative to become ISO 27001/27701 certified proactively mitigates those threats and can set you up for long term success.

What’s Next?

Immuta’s ISO 27001 certification is a crucial step in validating our data security posture. With it, we’re proving our commitment to reducing risk exposure, increasing trust and confidence with our customers, and continuing to be the data security platform of choice for our partners.

Immuta can also be an asset for others looking to implement ISO 27001 at their organizations. By automating data discovery and classification, data security and access control, and data monitoring and threat detection, you can eliminate the manual effort and guesswork that typically complicates access management processes, so you can simplify operations, improve data security, and unlock more data.

Want to find out how Immuta can help you achieve ISO 27001 compliance? Talk with one of our data security experts.

Safely Unlock Your Data

Talk with our team.

Request a Demo
Blog

Related stories