Information Security Officer (ISO)
Information Security Officers (ISO) support the development and implementation of an Information Security Management System (ISMS) and are later responsible for its management. ISO can be named internally or employed as external consultants. The benefit of an external consultant is the ISO experience from other comparable projects.
An ISO is responsible for all aspects of information security within the business.
Some of the responsibilities of an ISO include:
- Steering and coordinating the security process
- Assisting the company's leadership by creating security policies
- Coordinating the development of the security concept, sub-concepts, and guidelines
- Creating implementation plans for security measures and initiating and verifying their implementation
- Reporting to the company's leadership and other security stakeholders on the development of information security
- Coordinating security-related projects
- Investigating security incidents
- Initiating and coordinating awareness campaigns and training programs on information security for employees
An ISO should possess experience and knowledge in both information security and IT. Additionally, they should be familiar with the business processes of the organization.
To ensure the ISO's independence, they should be directly assigned to the top management level. Integration into the IT department can lead to conflicts of interest as the ISO may face challenges in fulfilling their obligation to control security measures without undue influence. Combining the role of an ISO with a Data Protection Officer is also critical. In such cases, clear intersections between the two roles must be defined to avoid conflicts of interest.
If you plan to begin the implementation of an ISMS promptly, an independent information security officer can be employed more quickly.
In addition to our well-known consulting service for implementation an ISMS, ePrivacy now offers the role of an external ISO.
Please feel free to reach out to us if you are thinking about outsourcing these tasks.
