The IASME Governance standard was developed over several years during a government funded project to create a cyber security standard which would be an affordable and achievable alternative to the international information security management system standard, ISO 27001.
The IASME Governance standard allows the small companies in a supply chain to demonstrate their level of cyber security for a realistic cost and indicates that they are taking good steps to properly protect their customers information. It builds Information Security in to the way your company works, and grows as you grow. It can also offer a pathway to ISO 27001 if that is later required.
The standard includes all of the five Cyber Essentials technical topics and adds additional topics that mostly relate to people and processes, for example:
- Risk assessment and management
- Training and managing people
- Change management
- Monitoring
- Backup
- Incident response and business continuity
By gaining the Audited IASME Governance certificate your organisation is achieving IASME’s highest level of certification and providing assurance to customers and suppliers that your organisation’s security has been audited by a skilled, independent third-party
The IASME Governance assessment, includes an assessment against the GDPR requirements, which came intoforce in 2018. GDPR has specific impact on the way that you handle personal data and breaches of this law can mean serious fines and consequences for your business.
The GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulations are new EU regulations which will make the current Data Protection regulations much stronger. The GDPR comes into force in May 2018 and, if breached, could result in a fine of up to 4% of global turnover. The regulations will still affect UK organisations despite Brexit. The UK government and the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) have indicated that, even if they don’t continue with GDPR after Brexit, they will be looking for something equally as robust. Similarly, if you are processing the information of EU nationals or trading across the EU, then you will need to abide by its regulations.
Every organisation processing personal data must carry out safeguards against loss, theft and unauthorised access. Respect for privacy, security of data and awareness of breaches will be key. There is a duty to report a breach within 72 hours. If that breach is potentially of high privacy risk, then affected individuals should also be advised of the data breach. This is a significant change to the current Data Protection regime in the UK.
The definition of personal data has been extended and includes anything that could be used to identify an individual. This includes, for example, genetic data and even IP addresses. The GDPR will be more robust in its protection of data than anything we have previously seen and businesses will be more accountable.
More detailed information can be found on the Information Commissioners Office website
You can download a free copy of the IASME Governance Standard here.
