ISO/IEC 27002

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ISO/IEC 27002 is an information security standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) as ISO/IEC 17799:2005 and subsequently renumbered ISO/IEC 27002:2005 in July 2007, bringing it into line with the other ISO/IEC 27000-series standards. It is entitled Information technology - Security techniques - Code of practice for information security management. The current standard is a revision of the version first published by ISO/IEC in 2000, which was a word-for-word copy of the British Standard (BS) 7799-1:1999.

ISO/IEC 27002 provides best practice recommendations on information security management for use by those who are responsible for initiating, implementing or maintaining Information Security Management Systems (ISMS). Information security is defined within the standard in the context of the C-I-A triad:

the preservation of confidentiality (ensuring that information is accessible only to those authorised to have access), integrity (safeguarding the accuracy and completeness of information and processing methods) and availability (ensuring that authorised users have access to information and associated assets when required).

After the introductory sections, the standard contains the following twelve main sections:

* 1: Risk assessment and treatment - analysis of the organization's information security risks
* 2: Security policy - management direction
* 3: Organization of information security - governance of information security
* 4: Asset management - inventory and classification of information assets
* 5: Human resources security - security aspects for employees joining, moving and leaving an organization
* 6: Physical and environmental security - protection of the computer facilities
* 7: Communications and operations management - management of technical security controls in systems and networks
* 8: Access control - restriction of access rights to networks, systems, applications, functions and data
* 9: Information systems acquisition, development and maintenance - building security into applications
* 10: Information security incident management - anticipating and responding appropriately to information security breaches
* 11: Business continuity management - protecting, maintaining and recovering business-critical processes and systems
* 12: Compliance - ensuring conformance with information security policies, standards, laws and regulations

Within each section, information security controls and their objectives are specified and outlined. The information security controls are generally regarded as best practice means of achieving those objectives. For each of the controls, implementation guidance is provided. Specific controls are not mandated since:

1. Each organization is expected to undertake a structured information security risk assessment process to determine its specific requirements before selecting controls that are appropriate to its particular circumstances. (The introduction section outlines a risk assessment process although there are more specific standards covering this area such as ISO Technical Report TR 13335 GMITS Part 3 - Guidelines for the management of IT security - Security Techniques, and BS 7799 Part 3.)
2. It is practically impossible to list all conceivable controls in a general purpose standard. (Industry-specific implementation guidance for ISO/IEC 27001 and 27002 are anticipated to give advice tailored to organizations in the telecomms, financial services, healthcare, lotteries and other industries).

ISO/IEC 27002 has directly equivalent national standards in countries such as Australia and New Zealand (AS/NZS ISO/IEC 17799:2006), the Netherlands (NEN-ISO/IEC 17799:2002 nl, 2005 version in translation), Denmark (DS484:2005), Sweden (SS 627799), Japan (JIS Q 27002), UNE 71501 (Spain), the United Kingdom (BS ISO/IEC 17799:2005) and Uruguay (UNIT/ISO 17799:2005). Translation and local publication often results in several months' delay after the main ISO/IEC standard is revised and released but the national standard bodies go to great lengths to ensure that the translated content accurately and completely reflects ISO/IEC 27002.