How much does it cost to get ISO 27001 Certified?

What Is the Price to be ISO 27001 Certified?

Cost of preparation to be ISO 27001 Certified

Paying for an ISO 27001 Consultant

Costs of Implementation

Cost of Maintenance of being ISO 27001 Certified

In this article, we’ll examine the total cost of obtaining one ISO 27001 Certification as well as some of the cost-impacting variables and the reasons why costs differ between firms. You will discover the many costs associated with being ISO 27001 Certified, from the audit and associated ISO 27001 exam fee to implementation and maintenance. Additionally, the cost of certification in other nations varies somewhat. After reading this article, you should have a better understanding of the aspects that go into ISO 27001 Certification and be able to compare prices to determine what your company requires.

It’s becoming more and more important to protect our data with approx. 4 billion internet users, a booming work-from-home industry, and many of our financial, medical, and intellectual property assets are being held in the cloud. The number of businesses seeking ISO 27001 security certification has increased; from 2010 to recent, applications have increased by approx. 22%. The methods used by various businesses to comply with ISO’s security and compliance criteria vary. As a result, asking “How much does it cost to get ISO 27001-certified?” rarely results in detailed responses. The price of obtaining an ISO 27001 certification varies. Variations will depend on:

• How big is your business?
• How many certifications do you decide to obtain
• The level of risk in your business (high-risk industries come with added costs)
• Your information security management system’s degree of complexity (ISMS)

Charges consist of administrative fees as well as audit costs (audit days, time spent, travel expenses for on-site work). In small businesses with fewer than 50 employees, an audit typically takes three to six days and the cost depends accordingly. Depending on the certification bodies (CBS), the total cost per audit day varies from company to company. Therefore, the cost of the ISO 27001 lead auditor certification is only a portion of the overall cost.

The audit, however, may only represent a minor portion of the overall certification expense. Without accounting for internal staff time, preparing for a certification audit can cost anywhere depending on the nature of your organisation.

Companies that have never defined their ISMS should prepare for certification with a lot of time and money, and expenditures. Why? They must: before the audit starts.

• Create regulations that will lessen the hazards that users encounter.
• Select a method for risk assessment.
• Perform a risk analysis
• Create a Statement of Applicability that lists the security measures implemented and makes arguments against those that were not.
• Create a risk treatment plan that details the risks (as determined by the risk assessment) and how they will be handled, along with dates, dependencies, and the personnel involved.
• Decide how and at what levels to evaluate the effectiveness of controls.
• Conduct an internal audit, identify issues, and address them.

The first stage is to conduct an internal audit before the ISO 27001 Standard external audit to find any potential issues that could result in failing the assessment. An independent auditor or a team within your organization can carry out the internal audit. Many small businesses decide to hire an impartial expert to conduct the audit because they lack the manpower.

For a company’s internal staff, the preparedness stage is the lengthiest and most labor-intensive.

You must select an implementation team, determine the purpose and goals of the information security management system (ISMS), and create an implementation strategy at this phase of the certification procedure. You must also create a framework for risk assessment, identify, assess, and rank security concerns. Finally, you must put a plan into action to handle those risks and establish a method for assessing and tracking the risk environment over time.

Your auditor visits during stage two of the audit. To assess your operations and interact with the staff, they hang around at your actual site. The requirements for clauses four through ten, Annex A controls, and the technical evidence related to these controls are all examined by auditors as part of the on-site audit.

Your internal team and the auditor must spend a lot of face time together during this stage of the process. Clarification and confirmation of the security procedures in place for the company’s physical security, access controls, vendors, etc. are the objectives of the auditor.

But after this phase is over, your teams ought to be prepared to ask the auditor to look over the supporting paperwork for your ISMS.

After this on-site inspection or the virtual tour, the auditor will be prepared to offer a certification. You have to fix any non-conformities that are pointed out. Before reaching a determination regarding certification, the auditor will assess their first findings.

You will proceed to stage two of the certification audit if your auditor determines that your business has complied with all of the requirements of ISO 27001 Standard.

You will need to address any non-conformities found by your auditor, though. Non-conformities are instances where your business failed to meet an obligation. Before moving on to the next phase of the audit, auditors expect you to address them. It’s not unusual to find non-conformities. Don’t worry; slight nonconformities occur 50% to 75% of the time, according to one cyber-risk specialist.

Rarely, the audit may find significant nonconformities that cause further delay in certification. Before the auditor advances to stage two in these situations, your organization will need to create a correction for the non-conformity and a strategy to routinely monitor the problem.

A consultant may explain to a company the best practices, the meaning of the standards, and how to implement them successfully. Additionally, they are skilled at creating special solutions to meet the particular requirements of ISO 27001 individual certification costs depending on a company’s tech stack.

The paperwork created during the preparation stage is worthless if it is not incorporated into your firm, much like a blueprint without a structure. Costs associated with implementation include all of the cooperation involved in creating compliant security systems, as well as worker training and process management so you can be sure your systems are being used correctly. Along with labor costs, you’ll also keep logs to show that your strategies are effective.

You must perform an internal audit and a surveillance audit in years two and three after becoming ISO 27001 certified, respectively. Both costs are counted for a total annual cost.

Are you prepared to begin? Request a free demo to learn more about ISO 27001 Certification; how it can help you protect customer data and become ISO 27001 certified.