The majority of organisations will generally now have a number of information security controls in place. However, without a formal Information Security Management System (ISMS), these controls tend to be somewhat disorganized, haphazard and disjointed.
The reason for this is that the controls have often been implemented partly as specific solutions for specific situations, or simply introduced as a matter of convention. Unfortunately, the security controls in operation today typically only address certain aspects of IT or data security, leaving non-IT information assets like paperwork and proprietary knowledge less protected and vulnerable. Sometimes business continuity planning and physical security might be managed independently of IT or information security, whilst Human Resources practices may not recognise the need to define and assign information security roles and responsibilities throughout the organization. The ISO 27001 standard was introduced to address these issues.
