Another major factor affecting the investment in the ISMS is to what extent it meets the needs and expectations of stakeholders, given their power to tell you what to do, and their interest in evidence of it being done.
What are the expectations of stakeholders?
We have created a table which highlights examples of stakeholders. If you would like to download and use it, click here. The common thread is about growing trust through exhibiting confidence and control, where that increases the more visible, insightful and well evidenced the ISMS becomes. If you are unsure about a stakeholder’s expectations from the ISMS, ask them.
Ensure that your ISMS is fit for the purpose now, as well as able to adapt and grow as this information security and privacy-oriented world changes (because it is changing fast!)
In summary, if the organisation has few powerful stakeholders and a leadership lacking appetite for investment, the ISMS may seek to just cover the fundamentals of privacy to meet regulatory requirements. Basic investments in preventing cybercrime threats such as following Cyber Essentials are useful too.
Depending on those stakeholder expectations and the value at risk, greater returns outweigh the increased investments from putting in place more holistic approaches. This includes following recognised standards such as ISO 27001 or NIST Cyber Security. The outcomes you want from your ISMS along with the powerful stakeholder expectations will determine the inputs and outputs you need to invest in and the scope of your solution overall.
An ISMS delivers a positive return on investment. The goal of our whitepaper is to show you why, what, and how you can get RoI from an ISMS that fits the business needs.
What are the key considerations when building the business case for an ISMS?
- Context
- A growing challenge
- Three reasons why nothing happens
- The return on investment from information security management
- A point on people
- In considering the technology
- What is an ISMS?
- What are the components of an ISMS?
- Why do organisations need an ISMS?
- Is your organisation leadership ready to support an ISMS?
- Developing the business case for an ISMS
- Benefits to realise – Achieving returns from the threats and opportunities
- Evaluating the threats
- Identifying the opportunities
- Stakeholder expectations for the ISMS given their relative power and interest
- Scoping the ISMS to satisfy stakeholder interests
- GDPR focused work
- Doing other work for broader security confidence and assurance with higher RoI
- Work to get done for ISO 27001:2013/17
- Build or buy – Considering the best way to achieve ISMS success
- The people involved in the ISMS
- The characteristics of a good technology solution for your ISMS
- Whether to build or buy the technology part of the ISMS
- The core competences of the organisation, costs and opportunity costs
- In conclusion