Familiarise yourself with ISO 27001 and ISO 27002. Before you can reap the many benefits of ISO. Our ISO 27001 Auditor Training ppt kit is providing more than 400 presentation slides, case study and workshops as well as trainers handout for understanding the subject well. Some supportive documents like sample ISMS auditor certificate copy, sample audit forms and checklist with more than 500 audit questions considering standard requirements are also given along with presentation kit. ISO 27001 presentacion.ppt - Free download as Powerpoint Presentation (.ppt), PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or view presentation slides online. The ISO 27001 Auditor Checklist gives you a high-level overview of how well the organisation complies with ISO. The checklist details specific compliance items, their status, and helpful references. Use the checklist. This checklist is designed to streamline the ISO 27001 audit process, so you can perform first and second-party audits, whether for an ISMS implementation or for contractual or regulatory reasons. The checklist is intended as a generic guidance; it is not a replacement for ISO 27001.
Iso 27001 Audit Checklist Template
If you are planning your ISO 27001 or ISO 22301 internal audit for the first time, you are probably puzzled by the complexity of the standard and what you should check out during the audit. So, you’re probably looking for some kind of a checklist to help you with this task. Here’s the bad news: there is no universal checklist that could fit your company needs perfectly, because every company is very different; but the good news is: you can develop such a customized checklist rather easily.
The steps in the internal audit
Let’s see which steps you need to take to create a checklist, and where they are used. By the way, these steps are applicable for internal audit of any management standard, e.g. ISO 9001, ISO 14001, etc.:
- Document review. In this step you have to read all the documentation of your Information Security Management System or Business Continuity Management System (or part of the ISMS/BCMS you are about to audit) in order to: (1) become acquainted with the processes in the ISMS, and (2) to find out if there are nonconformities in the documentation with regard to ISO 27001 or ISO 22301.
- Creating the checklist. Basically, you make a checklist in parallel to Document review – you read about the specific requirements written in the documentation (policies, procedures and plans), and write them down so that you can check them during the main audit. For instance, if the Backup policy requires the backup to be made every 6 hours, then you have to note this in your checklist, to remember later on to check if this was really done.
- Planning the main audit. Since there will be many things you need to check out, you should plan which departments and/or locations to visit and when – and your checklist will give you an idea on where to focus the most.
- Performing the main audit. The main audit, as opposed to document review, is very practical – you have to walk around the company and talk to employees, check the computers and other equipment, observe physical security, etc. A checklist is crucial in this process – if you have nothing to rely on, you can be certain that you will forget to check many important things; also, you need to take detailed notes on what you find.
- Reporting. Once you finish your main audit, you have to summarize all the nonconformities you found, and write an Internal audit report – of course, without the checklist and the detailed notes you won’t be able to write a precise report. Based on this report, you or someone else will have to open corrective actions according to the Corrective action procedure.
- Follow-up. In most cases, the internal auditor will be the one to check whether all the corrective actions raised during the internal audit are closed – again, your checklist and notes can be very useful here to remind you of the reasons why you raised a nonconformity in the first place. Only after the nonconformities are closed is the internal auditor’s job finished.
Making your checklist usable for beginners
So, developing your checklist will depend primarily on the specific requirements in your policies and procedures.
But if you are new in this ISO world, you might also add to your checklist some basic requirements of ISO 27001 or ISO 22301 so that you feel more comfortable when you start with your first audit. First of all, you have to get the standard itself; then, the technique is rather simple – you have to read the standard clause by clause and write the notes in your checklist on what to look for.
By the way, the standards are rather difficult to read – therefore, it would be most helpful if you could attend some kind of training, because this way you will learn about the standard in a most effective way. (Click here to see a list of ISO 27001 and ISO 22301 webinars.)
What to include in your checklist
Normally, the checklist for internal audit would contain 4 columns:
- Reference – e.g. clause number of the standard, or section number of a policy, etc.
- What to look for – this is where you write what it is you would be looking for during the main audit – whom to speak to, which questions to ask, which records to look for, which facilities to visit, which equipment to check, etc.
- Compliance – this column you fill in during the main audit, and this is where you conclude whether the company has complied with the requirement. In most cases this will be Yes or No, but sometimes it might be Not applicable.
- Findings – this is the column where you write down what you have found during the main audit – names of persons you spoke to, quotes of what they said, IDs and content of records you examined, description of facilities you visited, observations about the equipment you checked, etc.
Don’t be afraid
So, performing the internal audit is not that difficult – it is rather straightforward: you need to follow what is required in the standard and what is required in the ISMS/BCMS documentation, and find out whether the employees are complying with those rules.
If you have prepared your internal audit checklist properly, your task will certainly be a lot easier.
Learn how to perform an internal audit in this freeISO 27001 Internal Auditor Online Course.
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If your organisation is to remain compliant with ISO 27001, you need to conduct regular internal audits.
An ISO 27001 internal audit will check that your ISMS (information security management system) still meets the requirements of the standard.
Regular audits can be beneficial, since they enable continual improvement of your framework.
This post will explain how to audit ISO 27001.
What is an internal audit?
An ISO 27001 internal audit involves a thorough examination of your organisation’s ISMS to ensure that it meets the Standard’s requirements.
Unlike a certification review, it’s conducted by your own staff, who will use the results to guide the future of your ISMS.
The requirements of an internal audit are described in clause 9.2 of ISO 27001.
Get started with your ISO 27001 audit plan
To help you achieve ISMS internal audit success, we have developed a five-step checklist that organisations of any size can follow.
1) Documentation review
You should begin by reviewing the documentation you created when implementing your ISMS.
This is because the audit’s scope should match that of your organisation.
Therefore, doing so will set clear limits for what needs to be audited.
You should also identify the main stakeholders in the ISMS.
This will allow you to easily request any documentation that might be required during the audit.
2) Management review
This is where the audit activity really begins to take shape.
Before creating a detailed audit plan, you should liaise with management to agree on timing and resourcing for the audit.
This will often involve establishing set checkpoints at which you will provide interim updates to the board.
Meeting with management at this early stage allows both parties the opportunity to raise any concerns they may have.
3) Field review
Iso 27001 Compliance Checklist Pdf
This is what you might think of as the ‘audit proper’. It is at this stage when the practical assessment of your organisation takes place.
You will need to:
- Observe how the ISMS works in practice by speaking with front-line staff members.
- Perform audit tests to validate evidence as it is gathered.
- Complete audit reports to document the results of each test.
- Review ISMS documents, printouts and any other relevant data.
4) Analysis
The evidence collected in the audit should be sorted and reviewed in relation to your organisation’s risk treatment plan and control objectives.
Occasionally, this analysis may reveal gaps in the evidence or indicate the need for more audit tests.
5) Report
You will need to present the audit’s findings to management. Your report should include:
- An introduction clarifying the scope, objectives, timing and extent of the work performed.
- An executive summary covering the key findings, a high-level analysis and a conclusion.
- The intended recipients of the report and, where appropriate, guidelines on classification and circulation.
- An in-depth analysis of the findings. Conclusions and recommended corrective actions.
- A statement detailing recommendations or scope limitations.
Further review and revision might be needed, because the final report typically involves management committing to an action plan.
How often do I need to conduct an audit?
Like many standards, ISO 27001 doesn’t specify how often an organisation needs to carry out an internal audit.
That’s because every organisation’s ISMS is different and will need to be treated as such.
Experts recommend carrying out an ISO 27001 internal audit annually. This won’t always be possible, but you need to conduct an audit at least once every three years.
This is the length that most ISO 27001 certification bodies validate an organisation’s ISMS for, suggesting that beyond this point there’s a good chance that the organisation has fallen out of compliance.
Need help with your ISO 27001 audit?
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Our unique combination of technology, methodology and expertise will give you the peace of mind that your organisation is secure and compliant.
You can take the hassle out of the audit process and save time and money with our market-leading ISO 27001 ISMS Documentation Toolkit.
Developed by expert ISO 27001 practitioners, it contains a customisable scope statement as well as templates for every document you need to implement and maintain an ISO 27001-compliant ISMS.
The ISO 27001 ISMS Documentation toolkit includes a template of the internal audit procedure.
A version of this blog was originally published on 18 July 2018.