ISO 27001 Report: 4 Steps to Prepare for it

ISO 27001, the internationally adopted standard for data security, specifies how an organization should manage its data and outlines the different controls and objectives to design the organization’s information security management system (ISMS). However, there’s one crucial step in achieving an ISO 27001 certification—the report.

The ISO 27001 report is a crucial document that every organization looking to get an external audit requires. The report addresses components such as the scope of the audit, areas of non-conformity, vulnerabilities, and issues. The ISO 27001 report essentially indicates how audit-ready your organization is.

What is an ISO 27001 report?

An ISO 27001 report is like a report card for the organization’s Information Security Management System (ISMS). It reflects how the organization handles and protects their data assets and the potential vulnerabilities that currently exist.

The report helps in getting a clear overview of the organization’s compliance with the ISO 27001 requirements so that the reliability and resiliency of the ISMS systems can be maintained. It is a part of the ISO 27001 internal audit process and helps the organization prepare for the external audit. It also assures the stakeholders that their data is safe.

Why is the ISO 27001 report required?

The ISO 27001 report is a reliable tool and a crucial document that allows you to track and manage the capabilities of an organization’s ISMS in accordance with ISO 27001 requirements.

Here are some more reasons why an ISO 27001 report is required.

• The ISO 27001 compliance report helps demonstrate compliance with the ISO 27001 standard as it describes the internal audit findings.
  
• The report helps the organizations address the non-conformities and vulnerabilities identified in the internal audit. This helps in identifying the areas of improvement to boost the organization’s security posture.
  
• The report also acts as a seal of assurance for the customers, business partners, and other stakeholders that their data is secure with your organization.

Here is a template for the internal audit:

What does the ISO 27001 compliance report include?

The ISO 27001 compliance report includes detailed information about the internal audit and its results so the stakeholders and the ISMS team can take further steps. 

Let’s look at the different sections of the ISO 27001 report:

1. Overview + executive summary

This section provides an overview of the ISO 27001 report and contains an executive summary that stakeholders and senior management can quickly refer to for understanding the findings of the internal audit.

2. Scope and audit plan

This section contains three important aspects of the ISO 27001 audit:

• The scope of the audit (areas that are covered in the audit, locations, staff, business processes, etc.)
• The name of the auditor(s) that conducted the audit.
• The date and time plus locations of the audit.

3. Audit methodology

This section describes the techniques and methodologies used for the audit, such as sampling procedures, vulnerability assessment processes, penetration testing methods, and more. It helps in understanding the process followed in conducting the audit.

4. Audit findings (Facts)

This section includes the findings for each area of the audit. It includes evidential samples (if possible) for the facts mentioned. It only contains the facts relevant to the ISMS and its compliance with the ISO 27001 standard and should not include any opinions based on assumptions from trends.

5. Vulnerabilities and non-conformities

This section is like the sub-part of the audit findings and includes areas of improvement, identified vulnerabilities, and minor/major non-conformities. It typically contains four sections:

• Scan metadata: The scan metadata generally provides scan details such as scan date/time, scan target, scan duration, description, risk level, average scan speed, etc.
  
• Vulnerabilities: This section contains a numerical or graphical representation of the identified vulnerabilities. The total number of issues and vulnerabilities detected is specified here.
  
• Vulnerability summary: The vulnerabilities identified are categorized based on their severity level. Furthermore, a detailed summary of each identified vulnerability is mentioned in this section.
  
• Vulnerability names and details: This section further describes the identified issues and vulnerabilities, and for each vulnerability, the Impact score, Proof of Exploit, and Remediation steps (if possible) are given.

6. Recommendations

This section contains any recommendations or feedback, or remediation steps from the auditor(s). Generally, the auditor suggests best practices and measures the organization can take to address both minor and major non-conformities to be ISO 27001 audit-ready.

Recommended: Automate ISO 27001 compliance

How to Prepare for ISO 27001 Report?

Before creating and documenting the audit report, you first need to carry out the internal audit to document the findings in the report.

Let’s quickly go through the steps involved to help you prepare for the ISO 27001 report.

1. Documentation review

Get started with the documentation part, such as the ISO 27001 scope statement, Statement of Applicability, Information Security Policies & Procedures, Risk Assessment & Treatment Plans, and more. Also, list the people who built the ISMS and the internal auditors. This way, auditors can ask the control owners to resolve any queries.

2. Evidential sampling and interviews

As discussed above, the audit report contains the sampling of evidence. It also includes interviewing the staff, control owners, partners, and more. Some other sources of evidential sampling are policy documents, instructions documents, previous audit reports, data summaries, external surveys, performance indicators, databases, and so on.

3. Analysis

After data gathering, the auditor will analyze the findings to identify the non-conformities and areas of improvement. To prepare for this, you need to understand the three categories of findings: major non-conformity, minor non-conformity, and opportunity for improvement.

It also includes positive points (if the organization has taken reasonable steps to improve security) and observation (early indications of a minor non-conformity).

4. Report

Well, this is the final step that you are preparing for. Once the auditor analyzes the findings, the audit report can be ready for the stakeholders to review and schedule the follow-up. For this, the control owners and relevant teams should be prepared to address the non-conformities.

Also, check out the breakdown of ISO 27001 certification cost

Conclusion

ISO 27001 report is a crucial document for the stakeholders and helps you prepare for the external certification audit. And while you’re looking for ways to simplify your ISO 27001 journey, consider a compliance automation solution like Sprinto. 

Sprinto’s compliance automation platform can help you put most compliance processes on auto-pilot. The platform helps you automate crucial tasks such as evidence collection and helps you speed up the path to getting audit ready. You can also monitor controls and risks in real-time from within a single dashboard. 

Want to learn more? Speak to our experts today.

FAQs

How do you write a good ISO audit report?

To write a good ISO 27001 report, you need to focus on the basics such as executive summary, audit plan, audit process, results, non-conformities, and corrective actions. When you follow the structure, you will be able to draft a good and comprehensive ISO audit report.

What is the difference between ISO 27001 and SOC 2?

The difference between ISO 27001 and SOC 2 is that ISO 27001 provides a framework through which organizations can manage their ISMS and secure the data, while SOC 2 proves that the organization has implemented necessary data security controls.

Is it mandatory to create the ISO 27001 report?

It is not mandatory to create the ISO 27001 report, but it is a very helpful and comprehensive document that helps you cover different ISO 27001 clauses (related to reporting requirements). The document demonstrates the findings of the internal audit.

Is cybersecurity part of ISO 27001?

Cyber security is a part of ISO 27001 as the standard guides organizations to take a holistic approach to information security by vetting people, technologies, and policies. The ISMS implemented by following ISO 27001 requirements is an efficient tool for cyber resilience, risk management, and more.