The security standards issued by the International Standards Organization (ISO) are some of the most well-recognized data safety frameworks worldwide. Many SaaS organizations need to encourage their customers’ faith and confidence in their abilities to secure and handle data and implement the guidelines from these standards to continue growing as a reputable company.
The ISO standards can assist companies in cultivating enduring relationships with customers, resulting in unblemished credibility and consistently increasing revenue for the business. However, certification may require substantial time, energy, and money. Companies seeking this certification want to guarantee that their efforts are not wasted, and they also need to ensure that they maintain their ISO compliance seamlessly after achieving it.
This is where the need for an internal audit becomes apparent. These audits are designed to evaluate your organization like an external auditor, helping you determine whether your business is ready to achieve certification and maintain compliance. From preparing for the audit to compliance with industry standards, internal auditing requires organizations to go through several steps. However, it is a necessary part of achieving ISO certification. The following blog outlines the five stages of achieving ISO certification.
What is an ISO Internal Audit?
In short, an ISO internal audit assists your company in locating any weaknesses or holes that may affect the ISMS’s capacity to achieve its information security goals. It accomplishes this by pointing out areas that need improvement and drawing your attention to them. Conducting an internal audit before an external auditor evaluates your organization’s data governance policies to know more about whether your Information Security Management System (ISMS) satisfies ISO criteria is advisable. Internal audits are a continuous process. According to ISO/IEC 27001 criteria, organizations must do internal audits at predetermined times. The ISO/IEC 27001 standard specifies in clause 9.2 that internal audits need to be:
- planned to be conducted at regular intervals;
- containing defined audit criteria along with a scope of each audit, recorded and documented formally;
- performed by auditors selected after careful consideration so that the audit report is objective and impartial;
- reported to the management with recorded observations; and,
- included with proper documentation in the organization’s records.
Now, let’s delve into the objectives of conducting an ISO internal audit.
What is the Purpose of Conducting an ISO Internal Audit?
As discussed above, an ISO internal audit is a preventive measure to identify security gaps and remediate them to achieve certification smoothly. However, there are more nuanced benefits that an organization can reap from conducting an internal ISMS audit, such as:
- Gain an objective evaluation: Internal audits give businesses objective data and an understanding of the ISMS and its operations.
- Find non-conformities: Internal audits make it comparatively easier to find holes, missteps, and oversights in the policies, processes, and documentation.
- Respond promptly: By filling in the holes and failings in the ISMS before the final certification, organizations can save time and money.
- Achieve continuous improvement: Internal audits help companies maintain compliance with ISO standards by assisting them to monitor the operations of their ISMS constantly.
- Preserve the security culture: Internal audits assist companies in figuring out how to tell their staff about different policies and procedures.
Following this, let’s understand the five stages of an internal ISO audit that can help you attain certification to ISO’s numerous standards.
Five Stages of an Internal ISO Audit to Attain Certification
Unlike popular opinion, more than simply selecting an internal auditor and listing the purpose of the ISO internal audit report is required.
Below is a step-by-step guide on conducting an ISO internal audit to help organizations navigate the entire process seamlessly:
Before we begin, you should know that before starting the certification process, you must know which security standard you are certifying to. While ISO 27001 is the most popular one, there are many alternatives. For example, the ISO 27017 standard specifically deals with cloud security, while ISO 13485 deals with quality management for medical devices.
Stage 1: Make an Audit Plan and Review Documentation
The first step in an internal audit is creating an audit plan. Information systems should be explicitly defined in this audit plan. To avoid making any false representations, you should confirm that you meet all of the Annex A standards and ISO guidelines relevant to your certification.
The internal auditor will examine all of your documents in the following part to ensure that everything is in line with the goals of the ISMS. This includes the scope statement, statement of applicability, information security policies, risk assessment plan, and risk treatment plan. An essential part of the ISO internal audit checklist is identifying whether or not your organization has implemented ISO standard controls correctly. This is something that the documentation review will help the internal auditor with.
Stage 2: Readiness Assessment and Management Review
Most auditors will start with a preliminary assessment to see whether you fulfill the requirements for ISO certification. This should be a painless examination if you follow the previous instructions. This is intended to prevent squandering funds on businesses not ready for audit. If the auditor finds significant gaps in your readiness evaluation, they will advise you on what needs to be fixed. If you pass your initial screening, you can go on to the next round.
The readiness assessment is followed by several management review calls for the organization’s management to examine and approve the audit plan in its entirety. The management must also arrange review meetings to review the audit report’s findings and assess the organization’s readiness for the certification audit.
Stage 3: Stages 1 and 2 of the Internal Audit
During the first stage of the internal audit, also called the documentation audit, the audit will review your Information Security Management System (ISMS) documentation to see what security measures are already in place. The auditor will provide specific corrective steps if you fail this evaluation. If and when you pass your stage 1 audit, you will advance to the subsequent action.
The stage 2 audit, otherwise called the compliance audit, involves an assessor reviewing your ISMS paperwork during the first part of the assessment. They will go one step further and test the controls in your ISMS to ensure they operate as intended during the stage 2 audit. The auditor will advise you on the necessary corrective measures if this audit finds any holes or malfunctions jeopardizing your security.
Stage 4: Analysis
Once analyzed and reviewed, the analysis matches the gathered evidence to the organization’s risk treatments and control objectives.
Non-compliant acts generally fall into three categories: principal non-conformity, trace non-conformance, and possibilities of enhancement. Every problem or non-conformity found during the internal audit must be monitored, recorded, examined, and fixed.
Sorting, filing, and reviewing the audit material in light of the risks and control goals is necessary. Analysis might sometimes point out gaps in the evidence or suggest that additional audit tests may be required.
Stage 5: Reporting
This final but crucial step in the auditing process usually entails:
- an introduction outlining the goals, timing, scope, and volume of the job completed;
- a succinct analysis, a conclusion, and an executive summary outlining the main conclusions;
- the targeted report recipients and, if applicable, classification and distribution guidelines;
- comprehensive results and evaluation, and
- Conclusions and suggestions, including a declaration from the auditor outlining any scope restrictions or recommendations.
Management should be shown the draft audit report and allowed to discuss it. Since management usually commits to an action plan in the final report, more review and amendment may be required.
Maintaining ISO Compliance
To continue adhering to your select ISO framework, you must conduct surveillance audits for the first two years, followed by a complete audit. This aligns with each ISO certification audit’s validity of 3 years.
A surveillance audit is a quick, cursory assessment to ensure you still adhere to the main requirements of ISO 27001 standards. Your ISO certification is valid for an additional year if you pass in year one and year 2. If you fail, you’ll have to reapply for ISO certification, which entails internal audit, stage 1, and stage 2 audits.
You must re-certify through a comprehensive audit and certification process three years following your initial certification. This initiates the next three-year cycle.
ISO Compliance Readiness with Akitra!
Establishing trust is a crucial competitive differentiator when prospecting new SaaS businesses in today’s era of data breaches and compromised privacy. Customers and partners want assurances that their organizations are doing everything possible to prevent disclosing sensitive data and putting them at risk, and compliance certification fills that need.
Akitra offers an industry-leading, AI-powered Compliance Automation platform for SaaS companies. Using automated evidence collection and continuous monitoring, together with a full suite of customizable policies and controls as a compliance foundation, our compliance automation platform and services help our customers become compliance-ready for ISO security standards like ISO 27001, ISO 27701, ISO 27017, ISO 27018, ISO 9001, ISO 13485 as well as other compliance frameworks, such as SOC 1, SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, PCI DSS, NIST CSF, NIST 800-53, NIST 800-171, FedRAMP, CCPA, CMMC, SOX ITGC, and more such as CIS AWS Foundations Benchmark, Australian ISM and Essential Eight, etc. In addition, companies can use Akitra’s Risk Management product for overall risk management using quantitative methodologies such as Factorial Analysis of Information Risks (FAIR) and qualitative methods, including NIST-based for your company, Vulnerability Assessment and Pen Testing services, Trust Center, and AI-based Automated Questionnaire Response product to streamline and expedite security questionnaire response processes, delivering huge cost savings. Our compliance and security experts will provide customized guidance to navigate the end-to-end compliance process confidently. Akitra Academy provides easy-to-learn short video courses on security, compliance, and related topics of immense significance for today’s fast-growing companies.
The benefits of our solution include enormous savings in time, human resources, and cost savings, including discounted audit fees with our audit firm partners. Customers achieve compliance certification fast and cost-effectively, stay continuously compliant as they grow, and can become certified under additional frameworks using a single compliance automation platform.
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