Will ISO 27001 Become The UK Government's Standard For Cyber Security?

Online, January 15, 2012 (Newswire.com) - In the UK, many firms have looked towards becoming ISO 27001 certified to help protect their data. ISO 27001 is the newest member of the ISO certification family that works alongside the ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certifications but in this case implements an Internet Security Management System (ISMS) into an organisation.

Francis Maude, Minister for the Cabinet Office, has recently announced the UK's Cyber Security strategy but will the ISO 27001 feature in his plans?

UK's new cyber security strategy has £650m backing behind it and will include a cybercrime unit in the police department.

Maude made a hint to the fact that organisations need to take their cyber security into their own hands saying, "The key point to make is this is not just about what the government does, it's crucially important that the business world embraces the need to increase their own levels of security". Surely ISO 27001 will be able to do the job rather nicely.

By implementing ISO 27001, an organisation will benefit from an ISMS which constantly reviews itself, assessing any information security risks and controlling them so that a leak doesn't take place. It covers both malicious external threats as well as internal ones - many management departments do not realise that all of their staff need a good grasp on the processes to make sure that the levels of security are broken down.

Maude's security plan does not include ISO 27001 but many people are suggesting that it possibly should be as it proves that an organisation can withhold a certain level of cyber security. Maude has admitted that there are many businesses that are probably not completely aware of the threat they face through the use of email and websites and he hopes that through his new security plan they will increase their level of awareness.

The aim of the Security Cyber strategy is to make the UK the safest place in the world to do business, ultimately easing worries and will hopefully encourage overseas businesses to work alongside UK based organisations.