ISO 27001 ISMS

[Robert McAdam]

Hi there, 

I'm looking for some help to direct me to folks that have created an ISMS using confluence, or something that is 'pre canned' that we can customise. 

Any assistance is appreciated.

cheers

Rob

[Sofia Kargioti _QC Analytics_]

Hello @Robert McAdam 

I hope everything is well!

Maybe you already found the solution that you were looking for, but if not maybe you would be interested in our ready-to-use ISO 27001 Templates for Confluence Cloud.

Last year we got certified with ISO 27001 by using this exact template (with some customizations according to our needs of course) and we decided to help other companies ensure their compliance with the standard's requirements as well.

You can also have a look at this article I wrote in the community regarding our ready-to-use space templates, or contact us for any additional help you may need.

I hope this helps you or any other readers that stumble upon your question 🙂

Kind regards,

Sofia

[Iz P]

That might be a stupid question but I am thinking about versioning documents in Confluence. ISO requires version control. Sometimes, however, typos or other minor changes are corrected in the document which do not affect the substantive content. Confluence makes a new version of document after every little change. When changing the version, you must authorize the change and notify stakeholders. How did you handle it? 

I wonder if we should introduce manual version control (manual mark) so that I only change version when there is a significant document change. 

[Shannon Meehan _K15t_]

Hi @Iz P , 

Our Scroll Documents app can help you here if you're looking for manual version control. (Just to be open, I work for the vendor of this app).

With Scroll Documents, you can save versions / snapshots of a page (or even multiple pages) whenever your team needs to. This feature isn't tied to Confluence's page versioning, so you can still make those minor changes between versions and they won't affect the major versions that you control. 

If you have any questions, we'd be happy to help or show you a demo of the app. Just get in touch with us: hello@k15t.com.

Cheers, 

Shannon (K15t)

[Maurice Pasman]

The version controls system in Confluence suffices for ISO.

Yes, if you correct a typo a new version number will be assigned, but you can show the differences between the versions to the auditor, as proof that it did not have to be re-approved.

So while external version control or workflow apps may prove additional value to an organization, they are not required for ISO compliance.

(Source: I am an ISO auditor myself, and Instant 27001 has been certified hundreds of times so far without issues :-)

[Iz P]

@Maurice Pasman Thank you! So, I'll manually mark the revision on the document and use a Confluence version control only to proof compliance (show that change didn't have to be reapproved). 

[Robert McAdam]

Thanks Kat, I have looked in depth at instant27001.com and seeing if there were any others that were available. So far, they look like the only ones. 

[Mike Bowen]

Hi Robert, 

My company bought an ISO 27001 package, which consisted of roughly 100+ Word and Excel templates, some tens of pages long, while others a few paragraphs long.

Last year along with a colleague we were responsible for editing everything, changing the file owners, tags and labels, sharing them with people within the organisation over email and ensuring processes were place. It was an extremely tiring, a messy process, with a lot of files in various folders, multiple versions of documents, a lot of hard work. I wouldn't recommend it on anyone. 

This year I moved everything into Confluence, which was relatively easy to do with the Import Word document function and copy and paste, which sometimes is a lot easier because Word has a lot of unnecessary formatting. The big job really is:

• getting the document wording in line with your companies security policies, 
• getting pages that are related to each other linked up, or anchored for easy clicking, 
• getting the documents standardised and formatted, 
• allowing the auditors to see who has done what when?  
• allowing the auditors to see versioning, owners and auditors of the pages and reports,
• applying the security standards to your employees, teams and organisation etc. 

If you are going to do it yourself consider this 'must have' plugin, which will make your life a lot easier with all of the above. Sadly I only discovered this plugin in the last month, thus wasted a lot of time updating audit report pages manually. 

• QC Documents for Confluence Cloud

• SubSpace Navigation for Confluence

I am happy to share a few tips and tricks on how to do the pages, how to build the reports, etc.

In fact I did a post not so long ago titled How to automate a page (report) that summaries changes on other pages? on this very topic and one can see where I have used the QC plugin to maximise the potential of automation.

Here is example ISO Audit report page I created that is entirely automated, linked to every ISO page and it pulls in information as pages are updated. 

The other plugin I mentioned is 'SubSpace Navigation for Confluence', this is a menu system, which I am using to show important documentation. I've found folk remember stuff a lot more if they:

• know where to find it (hence a quick pull down menu). 
• Likewise our managers  are only interested in their pages (again a quick pull down menu, with content only they can see is very useful). 

Here is an example of the menu in action for ISO 27001.

 

- Mike

[Thor]

Hi @Robert McAdam, a partner of ours just released a plugin to help getting ISO 27001 certified.

Probably you already found your solution but maybe others may find this to be a useful alternative.

Here is the link to ISMS for Confluence on the Atlassian Marketplace: https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1223742/isms-for-confluence?hosting=server&tab=overview

Feel free to contact them if you have further questions.

[Deleted user]

@Mike Bowen appreciate its been a while, I noted the work you done on the ISO docs was something I was looking at - only just thinking of building something.  But wanted to touch base if your open to it for any guidance ?

[Maurice Pasman]

@[deleted] May I suggest you also take a look at my ready-to-run Confluence solution?

https://instant27001.com/

Thanks!

[Deleted user]

@Maurice Pasman Thanks is there a demo, as summarised looking to get the basics and ideas at this stage, functionality, accessibility etc.

[Maurice Pasman]

@[deleted] I believe this will already give you a good impression: https://instant27001.com/walkthrough/ ?

[Mike Bowen]

Hi @[deleted] 

I am always willing to help or offer advice. If you wish to get in touch, you can reach me at mruntappd@gmail.com (that is not my direct email address, but I monitor the mailbox).

I don't want to step on anyone toes here, but getting the ISO 27001 platform to where it is today, having passed three ISO 27001 certifications, did take me quite a lot of work (as I kept thinking of ways to improve it), so if there is an easier way out there, by all means, explore it.

As Jira Administrator at my company, I had all the permissions available to me to explore all the options and to take my time doing the system. My only wish is that I also had control over the budget because there are some great plugins out there that would have helped me a great deal. 

Kind regards,

Mike 

[Timothy Baynes]

Mike, thanks for your posts here. Other than the two plugins you mention above, are there any others you would have liked, with more budget?

[Maurice Pasman]

I am already in contact with @Robert McAdam but for all other people that stumble upon this question: I am the owner of Instant 27001 :-).

My solution is designed and sold as ready-to-run, as it contains not only the templates, but also all canned examples, written with small business in mind. So no need to sift through hundreds of lengthy Word and Excel files.

No plugins required, plain vanilla Confluence will do!

[Pushpendra Paliwal]

We are interested in implementation . Requested a demo 

[Bas Brey]

@Maurice Pasman does it also have an operational planning? So that you can generate (recurring) tasks? 

[Maurice Pasman]

It comes with an operational planning, but that is still a static page.

The most pragmatic approach is to take that planning an automate using recurring appointments in your team calendar.

Or, look at the Instant 27001 Jira Companion if you want to automate things from within the Atlassian stack :-).

[Kat Warner]

Have you had any luck @Robert McAdam? My online search lead me to your post and the website https://instant27001.com/.