What is an ISO 27001 risk assessment template?
An ISO 27001 risk assessment template guides you through evaluating and documenting each vendor's level of alignment with ISO 27001:2022. ISO 27001 risk assessments usually comprise three components:
- ISO 27001 vendor security questionnaire: You provide this questionnaire to vendors to gather information about their level of compliance with the international information security standard.
- Statement of Applicability (SoA): An outline of all ISO 27001 controls that the organization is implementing, benchmarked against the Annex A control set of ISO 27001:2022. An organization presents an SoA to external auditors during an independent audit for an ISO 27001 certification.
- ISO 27001 risk assessment: A report consolidating the ISO 27001 alignment data from the vendor security questionnaire and SoA. You usually provide ISO 27001 risk assessments to the board and senior management to keep them informed of your risk treatment plans for each vendor in the context of the ISO 27001 framework.
Who needs to use an ISO 27001 Risk Assessment template?
Though compliance with ISO 27001 isn't mandatory, it's very beneficial to a company's reputation as it demonstrates a commitment to protecting customer data with a globally recognized standard for exemplary information security. ISO 27001:2022 alignment could also serve as an incentive for securing new business partnerships since it signifies a vendor is less likely to suffer a security incident.
Every industry processing sensitive customer data would benefit from an ISO 27001 certification.
The following industries would especially benefit from an ISO 27001 certification, given the level of sensitivity of customer data they process:
- Finance companies: Financial services are pathways to customer financial information, the most critical category of Personal Identifiable Information (PII).
- Healthcare entities: The healthcare industry processes sensitive medical records are at a high risk of being targeted in extortion-based attacks, like ransomware attacks.
- Information technology: If a technology company doesn't directly process sensitive customer information, they are likely to be in the supply chain of high-value targets, making them vulnerable to supply chain attacks.
- Insurance brokers: Like healthcare entities, insurance brokers likely process sensitive patient records that could be used as bargaining chips in ransomware attacks.
- Government agencies: These entities house a nation's most confidential, making them prime targets for nation-sponsored cyberattacks.
Though an ISO 27001 certification is voluntary, its reputation amongst cybersecurity-conscious businesses is such that a vendor's services could be rejected without formal evidence of its high data security standards, a requirement that could be satisfied with an ISO 27001 certification.
ISO 27001 alignment could also help businesses align with strict data protection regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which should serve as a sufficient indication of the level of information security this framework could provide.
An ISO 27001 risk assessment template could help organizations bound to data security regulations comply with standards like the GDPR.
Why is an ISO 27001 risk assessment template important?
An ISO 27001 risk assessment template is important because it helps companies identify vulnerabilities in their information security that hackers could exploit. An ISO 27001 risk assessment template is also an important tool in achieving an ISO 27001 certification, an achievement that could result in more business opportunities with data security-focused partners.
In a threat landscape rife with data breaches, alignment with ISO 27001 offers peace of mind for security-conscious business owners.
ISO 27001 risk assessment template example
Here is an example snapshot of the ISO 27001 risk assessment template available to download in this toolkit:
This ISO 27001 risk assessment report template consolidates the data gathered from an ISO 27001 security questionnaire and a Statement of Applicability, both included in this ISO 27001 toolkit download.
This ISO 27001:2022 risk assessment template is divided into four parts:
- Evidence used to generate this report: A list of all the sources referenced to complete the ISO 27001 risk assessment template.
- Executive summary: A summary of the ISO 27001 risk assessment findings based on the listed evidence sources.
- Vendor background: An overview of the vendor being assessed and their primary service offerings.
- Assessment summary: An overview of the vendor's security policies list of identified ISO 27001 alignment risks across six primary security risk categories defining a vendor's security posture.
How to complete the ISO 27001 risk assessment template
This ISO 27001 risk assessment template toolkit is comprised of three components:
- Vendor questionnaire
- Statement of Applicability (SoA)
- Risk assessment report.
Completing the ISO 27001 vendor security questionnaire template
Send the ISO 27001 vendor security questionnaire template in this toolkit to each vendor being assessed against the standards of ISO 27001:2022. For each of the four control group themes, the vendor should either answer "Yes," "No," or "NA." In the "Implementation Details" field, the vendor should outline their efforts to address the specific data security process each question refers to.
Best practice is to include implementation details for every question. When "No" or "NA" options are chosen, the vendor should still outline their reasoning for that question in the implementation field.
Completing the ISO 27001 Statement of Applicability template
The ISO 27001 Statement of Applicability (SoA) template should indicate all of the security controls you have chosen to implement based on the vendor's response in the completed ISO 27001 questionnaire template. You should consider your company's third-party risk appetite when choosing ISO 27001 controls.
This ISO 27001 SoA template lists all of the Annex A controls across all four control themes of ISO 27001:2022. There are nine response options for each control item:
- Control Applied?: An indication of whether the vendor has applied a specific control. Options are:
- Yes: The control has been applied.
- No: The control has not been applied.
- Partial: The control has been partially applied
- Not Applicable: The control does not apply to the vendor's context
- Finding: An internal decision about how compliant the vendor is with each listed Annex control. Options are:
- Compliant: Vendor is fully compliant.
- OFI: There is an "Opportunity for Improvement" for the associated ISO 27001 control.
- Minor N/C: A minor "Non-Conformity" with the associated ISO 27001 control that could be resolved with risk mitigation actions.
- Major N/C: A major "Non-Conformity" with the associated ISO 27001 cannot be resolved with risk mitigation actions.
- Opportunities For Improvement: To be completed when an "OFI" option is indicated in the "Finding" column. Details how control alignment can be improved.
- Control Notes: Any helpful notes about the associated control.
- Control Requirement: An indication of which governing body necessitates this control. Options are:
- ISO 27001 Requirement: When the ISO 27001:2022 standard influences your control choice.
- Business Requirement: When the control is required to meet a business requirement.
- Contractual Requirement: When contractual obligations require the control to be implemented, either pertaining to the vendor being assessed or other partnership contracts.
- Legal Requirement: Implementing a security control is a legal requirement, for instance, when ISO 27001 is being used to achieve compliance with regulations like GDPR.
- Not Applicable: When control requirement response is not required.
- Control Owner: The person assigned to oversee the control's implementation and/or management.
- Justification Exclusion: Your reason for excluding the control from your risk management framework.
- Date of Implementation: The date the ISO 27001 Annex A control was implemented.
- Date of last assessment: The date a particular control was last evaluated.
Completing the ISO 27001 Risk Assessment template
These steps offer guidance with completing the ISO 27001 risk assessment template contained in this ISO 27001 toolkit download.
Step 1: Provide an overview of the ISO 27001 risk assessment objectives
Insert your company name, the vendor being assessed, and the date the ISO 27001 risk assessment template was completed. A concise overview of the assessment report's objectives helps readers understand its purpose.
For example:
This report provides a detailed overview of the key factors contributing to the security posture and level of ISO 27001 compliance of [name of vendor].
Step 2: List all evidence sources
List all of the sources that were referenced to complete this ISO 27001 risk assessment template. At the very least, this section should include the two data collection documents included in this ISO 27001 toolkit:
- ISO 27001 vendor security questionnaire
- ISO 27001 Statement of Applicability
List any other helpful sources or certifications the vendor might provide, such as completed questionnaires for other standards or an ISO 27001 certificate.
The more data sources you can reference, the more accurate your ISO 27001 risk assessment will be.
Step 3: Executive summary
This is a formal summary of the entire report and your recommended risk treatment plan. The executive summary should address the following details:
- An overview of the vendor's security posture
- A list of the vendor's ISO 27001 compliance risks
- An overview of your recommended risk treatment plan to improve alignment with ISO 27001:2022. A strategy considering your unique business objectives and corporate risk appetite.
Step 4: Vendor background
A brief summary of the vendor's primary service offering and how their partnership supports the achievement of specific business objectives. When presenting this completed ISO 27001 risk assessment template to the board, aim to quantify the vendor's projected impact on the business in financial terms.
Step 5: Risk assessment summary
An overview of the vendor's performance against the six risk categories defining a vendor's security posture:
- Security Policies and Processes
- Infrastructure and Asset Management
- Data Classification and Handling
- Application Security
- Risk Management
- Recovery and Response
Here is an example of the Security Policies and Processes risk category field in the ISO 27001 risk assessment template available in this toolkit. To the right, the number of detected risks across three severity levels are summarized to make the report easier to digest.
Step 6: Key risks
This is a list of compliance risks identified from the completed ISO 27001 vendor security questionnaire template. Each identified risk should include a severity rating and corresponding risk treatment plan.
Board members and senior management will expect to always see risk treatment details for all identified risks; otherwise, this risk assessment report will be of little use to them.
How to use this ISO 27001 risk assessment template toolkit
Follow these step for guidance on how to gain the most value from this ISO 27001 risk assessment toolkit.
Step 1: Understand all of the Annex A controls in ISO 27001
All 93 controls of Annex A of ISO 27001 focus on different areas of data security, and not all of these areas may apply to your data security objectives. Learn the objectives of all controls to determine their applicability to your business. The SoA template in this toolkit is the best resource to reference for this task as it provides a concise summary for each Annex A control.
Step 2: Customize the questionnaire
The ISO 27001 questionnaire template may need to be modified based on your final choice of applicable Annex A controls. This step isn't necessary since responses to controls that are not directly applicable could still offer helpful context for risk treatment decisions concerning applicable controls.
Step 3: Send the ISO 27001 security questionnaire template
Send the ISO 27001 questionnaire template to all relevant vendors. Be sure to request responses in each "implementation Details" field to broaden the context of the vendor's compliance efforts and security posture.
Step 4: Complete Statement of Applicability
Once the vendor sends back the completed ISO 27001 questionnaire, determine which Annex A controls are required to manage the security and ISO 27001 compliance risks identified from the completed questionnaire. Document your choice of controls in the ISO 27001 SoA template supplied in this toolkit.
Step 5: Develop a risk treatment plan
Based on the vendor's questionnaire responses and your choice of Annex A controls, develop a risk treatment plan to elevate your baseline level of ISO 27001 compliance to your desired level of information system security.
Step 6: Monitor ongoing compliance
After the vendor has reached an acceptable level of ISO 27001 compliance, track the impact of their improved information security controls by resending the ISO 27001 vendor security questionnaire template, ideally, periodic point-in-time vendor risk assessments should be coupled with automated third-party security risk scanning processes to achieve real-time visibility into emerging threats potentially impacting ISO 27001 compliance.
