In today’s globally connected environment, individuals generate tremendous amounts of data daily, raising concerns about how businesses gather, use, and preserve personal data. In response to public demand, governments worldwide are passing comprehensive legislation to ensure the privacy and security of personal data. These include, but are not limited to, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the General Data Protection Law (LGPD) of Brazil, and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
The ISO 27701 certification went into effect in August 2019 as an update to the ISO 27001 regulatory guidelines to help businesses manage personal data in accordance with consumer expectations and in compliance with progressively tightening regulatory restrictions. Implementing an ISO 27701 Privacy Information Management System (PIMS) allows your business to handle customer data with the highest transparency and responsibility.
Since new frameworks inevitably come with many questions, we at Akitra have curated this blog exclusively to address the most popular and frequently-asked queries pertaining to the ISO 27701 security framework.
What is the ISO 27701 security guideline?
A recent development in the already-existing ISO 27001 regulatory framework, ISO/IEC 27701:2019, further supports data privacy. It is a recently released information security standard that guides companies looking to build infrastructure to enable compliance with GDPR and other data privacy laws.
The ISO 27701 security standard goes into great length about data privacy management. It offers a framework for Personally Identifiable Information (PII) Controllers and PII Processors and is frequently referred to as PIMS (Privacy Information Management System). Systems can also handle privacy information for handling personal data.
This standard is an excellent way to demonstrate to customers and external and internal stakeholders that GDPR and other related privacy rules are being followed. To be GDPR compliant, organizations must either already have ISO 27001 certification or apply for both ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 certifications as part of a single implementation assessment. The ISO 27701 regulatory framework naturally benefits from expanding the standards and requirements specified in ISO 27001. If you want to learn more about it, check out our blog here, which provides a brief overview of the entire framework and enumerates its benefits.
4 Most Frequently-Asked Questions About ISO 27701
- What benefits does ISO/IEC 27701 provide for changing regulatory requirements?
The operational controls of ISO/IEC 27701 are mapped to the applicable GDPR requirements for controllers and processors in an annex that is part of the standard. This mapping illustrates how privacy laws might be implemented in relation to the ISO framework. The operational controls from the standard can move straight from regulatory review to implementation as more mappings with other regulations become available and are validated. Organizations can dependably apply the relevant regulatory standards thanks to this uniform architecture.
- How does ISO/IEC 27701 assist with PII-related commercial agreements?
Personal information may be moved in connection with commercial agreements that call for confirmation of compliance. Modern enterprises participate in complicated data exchanges with various business partners, including co-controllers, processors like cloud providers, and sub-processors like vendors who support those same processors. Regulation non-compliance in any one area of this network may result in cascade compliance problems throughout the supply chain. Here, compliance verification may be beneficial in addition to the confidence that the agreements between these firms’ contracts offer. It is reasonable to utilize an international standard from ISO to manage compliance throughout the network because the global economy requires that most of these firms be dispersed throughout the globe.
- What roles are involved in implementing ISO 27701?
Given its scope and scale, several individuals from different parts of hour organization will have to be responsible for successfully implementing the ISO 27701 standard. These positions frequently consist of:
- Project Manager or Lead Implementer;
- Data protection officer or Chief Privacy Officer;
- Data protection manager or Privacy Manager;
- Internal and external auditors;
- Privacy analysts (responsible for translating functional requirements into technical execution); and,
- Software consultants and database specialists
- What is the process of getting ISO 27701 certified?
Three actions can be used to get the ISO 27701 certification:
- Contrary to previous strategies of hiring a consulting firm, companies nowadays can use multi-framework compliance automation platforms like Akitra Andromeda, which can help you prepare for compliance readiness and audit using our certified audit partner firms.
- Check whether a fully operational personal information management system (PIMS) has been implemented.
- The certification body will evaluate if your organization has met the requirements, and if the audit passes, they will issue you a certificate certifying that your business complies with the needs of the standard. Until your ISO 27001 certificate expires or for the following three years, whichever comes first, the certification is valid.
ISO 27701 Compliance with Akitra!
Establishing trust is a crucial competitive differentiator when courting new SaaS businesses in today’s era of data breaches and compromised privacy. Customers and partners want assurances that the organizations they work with are doing everything possible to prevent disclosing sensitive data and putting them at risk. 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 service helps customers become certified for ISO 27701, along with other frameworks like SOC 1, SOC 2, ISO 27001, ISO 27017, ISO 27018, HIPAA, GDPR, PCI DSS, CMMC, FedRAMP, NIST CSF, NIST 800-53, NIST 800-171 and many other frameworks such as CIS AWS Benchmark Foundation, etc. rapidly and cost-effectively. Our compliance and security experts will also provide the customized guidance you need to navigate the end-to-end compliance process confidently.
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 your company grows, and can become certified under additional frameworks using a single compliance automation platform.
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