ISO 27001 standard refers to the relatively new system of ISMS (information security management system) which is often used to control information security. Indeed, the need to have this kind of standard is obvious because of all the cyber spying that is going on these days.

Most companies have some sort of system in place but not many companies will adhere to the same standard. If they do not use the system mentioned above, the whole control through the different companies tends to be haphazard and disorganized.

Some companies have come with the idea of ensuring that all systems in a company are kept at the same level of security. Although most companies are aware of cyber spying and hackers, they really do not think about hard copies or paperwork which is often vulnerable to anyone with dishonest motives.

What they do is to put in controls to ensure that no information is leaked from the company even by those people who have access across departments. Indeed, loose talk around the coffee machine is also frowned upon and these systems ensure that different departments do not mix their information thus cutting down on leaks to interested parties.

These security companies, which are very necessary to other companies who want to hold onto their secrets, have developed education classes to give those who are working for the company the chance to train to higher degrees in information control. They also have compliance automation which assesses the procedures that the company has in place and picks out where the weaknesses are.

Any company, no matter what kind of business it is in, will want to keep information to itself. Theft of this secret information is big business in some circles so the company will want to put in some form of system to hold on to what it needs to. That is, for example, if it is developing some new kind of product that has far-reaching uses, it will certainly want to keep it under wraps until the time is right to launch it onto the open market.

Research and development takes inordinate amounts of money and it is this which has to be recovered when the product hits the market. There are those though who would prefer others to do the work and they themselves pick up the profit without doing any of the hard work.

In some countries, this would be called ‘reaping where you did not sow’ and the practice, although frowned upon, is going on all the time.

Everyone must wonder how two large companies can come up with practically the same product just weeks apart where one sells it for much less than the other. Well, this could well be the outcome if sensitive information was stolen so that the second company could bring out the product first.

These are international standards now so if a company is sensitive to theft of information, they should surely contact a security company, with this standard as its selling point, to come in and figure out the next course of action.

Author Bio: Stewart Wrighter recently searched the term ISO 27001 online while conducting research for an article. He learned a lot about isms which helps companies control security information.

Category: Business
Keywords: ISO 27001,isms