ISO 27001 is the international standard for information security and protection. It’s roughly equivalent to similar infosec frameworks in the United States, like FedRAMP and CMMC, but the international development, maintenance, and scope of the ISO framework makes it much more commonly seen outside of US Government contracting. In the US, it’s clear that a security framework mandated by the government is required when working as a contractor for the government. What about ISO 27001?

If you’ve spent any length of time reading about the internationally accepted security framework laid out in ISO 27001, you’ve likely come across the term ISMS or Information Security Management System. You may wonder, though; what is the ISMS specifically, how do you set one up, and what does it do for your business? Let’s talk about it.

One of the biggest burdens on any government agency or contractor is dealing with controlled unclassified information, or CUI. This information requires oversight, security, access control, and record-keeping – all part of the general “control” of that information – and keeping track of it all can be a huge task. One way in which this task is made easier is through the process of decontrol.

We’ve talked a lot on this blog about protecting controlled unclassified information, and we’ve mentioned in places some other kinds of information, like classified and secret information, covered defense information, and other protected information. There’s one thing all of this information has in common: it’s generated by the United States government.