ISO 27001 Management Review
As the term suggests, the ISO 27001 management review is aimed to ensure that the objectives of the Information Security Management System (ISMS) of an organization continue to remain appropriate and operative effectively given the purpose, issues, and potential risks to an organization’s information assets.
The senior management of an organization is held responsible for the success of the Information Security Management System. For the senior management to overlook the operations of the ISMS and ensure that it is operating effectively and meeting the required objectives, they need to hold timely management reviews. These management reviews serve the essential purpose of setting the organization’s tone and defining the expectations regarding implementing and maintaining information security practices.
To ensure that the ISMS is operating effectively and meeting the business’s objectives, the management reviews need to be pre-planned and conducted at regular intervals. It is stated in the ISO 27001 standard that management reviews should occur at planned intervals, for instance, once every year and during the same time frame as the external audit period. That said, given the increasingly changing information security threat and legal and regulatory landscape, it is suggested that the ISMS governing body should conduct meetings more frequently. Organizing management reviews every quarter will help the governing body establish that the ISMS is operating effectively. It will ensure that the senior management remains informed and that any adjustments to assess risks or shortcomings can be effectively implemented.