ISO 27001 Internal Auditor training – Is it good for my career?

With business processes under constant pressure from management, customers, and other interested parties, to protect information exactly as requested, by means of technical specifications, legal requirements, or business objectives, and the greater complexity and sophistication of operations, the use of audit expertise in information security is becoming a critical point to add value to organizations, and that is a great opportunity for professional development.

In this article I will show you how ISO 27001 Internal Auditor Training knowledge can help boost a professional’s career, as a tool to promote proper information security, and better control and continual improvement of business processes; I’ll also show you the means by which you can obtain this expertise.

What is the ISO 27001 internal audit?

An audit is a gathering process for obtaining and evaluating evidence (information that is relevant and verifiable) to determine the extent to which the audit criteria (e.g., a set of policies, procedures, or requirements) are fulfilled. The term "internal" means that the audit is performed within organizations’ own boundaries and rules, not involving external parties like customers, suppliers, or certification bodies.

According to the ISO 27001 standard, the internal audit process must be systematic, i.e., planned, performed, verified, and improved in a well-known and defined manner, with properly trained personnel, performed internally, or by means of external hiring.

Internal audit benefits

During ISO 27001 implementation, the audit knowledge can help the organization to identify what needs to be done to be compliant with the standard, minimizing implementation costs by avoiding rework and the creation of unnecessary controls. In addition to standards requirements, it can help in the evaluation of customers’ and suppliers’ contracts, as well as applicable regulations and laws, ensuring that information security requirements established in these also be considered in the Information Security Management System (ISMS).

During internal audit activities, the audit knowledge can provide benefits like:

• Improvement in the risk treatment plan: with better understanding of potential non-conformities and opportunities for improvement, the people who perform the process can act more preventively, through the risk treatment plan, to prevent minor issues from becoming non-conformities.
• Decrease in the internal audit costs: one criterion to define the audit program is the result of previous audits. If a process has shown that it can properly identify and deal with non-conformities on its own (few or no non-conformities identified by the internal audit, besides those already made by the people running the audited process), the frequency by which the process must be audit can be decreased.

As for information security auditors, the audit knowledge can provide really good insights about how to elaborate and apply security checklists to evaluate processes’ compliance and performance. This will make their job easier and objective-driven, increasing the organization’s chance to identify problems and opportunities for improvement and treat them properly

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