1. Copying templates indiscriminately
It seems efficient: you adopt a template exactly so that your documentation is in order. But this creates exactly the problem that ISO 27001 wants to avoid. You end up with an excess of documentation that does not match your working method at all. For auditors it then becomes a paper tiger, and you are judged on that during an "information security audit" or "ISO 27001 audit."
ISO is not asking for a folder full of documents, but for policies that you actually implement. Say what you do and do what you say. And do it in the context of your organization. Nothing more.
2. Looking too much to the norm, not enough thinking for yourself
ISO 27001 is not a shrouded law. The standard deliberately leaves room to set up a system in a way that suits your organization. Yet we often see teams getting "stuck" because they take the standard too literally. But information security (ISO 27001) is all about making choices: what works for your processes, people and risks?
For example: a team wants to neatly comply with ISO 27001 and reads the standard as if it were a rigid manual. They see that security incidents must be recorded and build a huge, tightly defined Excel process that makes perfect sense in theory. In practice, no one reports anything anymore because it takes too much time.
Once they get back to the core - getting quick and easy visibility into incidents - a simple report form in the existing ticketing system turns out to be enough. Right within the space provided by the standard, and much more effective for their own processes and risks.
Hiring a Security Officer (or an Information Security Advisor) can help strike that balance between freedom and structure.
3. Thinking that ISO 27001 prescribes what measures you must take
The standard does not mandate that you use specific tools, badges, controls or systems. You determine that yourself, based on risks. But if you do write down that you use badges, then you must actually use them. It's about reliability, not a checklist.
But suppose: you work in an office where hardly any sensitive data goes around. You just have a clear key plan and everyone can work from home effortlessly. Then a badge system is not a logical step, no matter how often teams think "I'm sure ISO wants that." The standard doesn't require you to use badges at all; it only asks that you design physical security based on your own situation. In an organization with a thousand employees, the context is different. Then you want to know exactly who has been in and when, and an electronic access system fits your risks and scale better.
4. Treating ISO as an afterthought
Putting the ISO 27001 implementation "down for a moment" to someone with some spare time is a recipe for delay. Information security requires priority - within all parts of your organization, not just IT. Otherwise, it will lag, there will be too little support and the awareness among employees will never get off the ground. And when the audit approaches, suddenly everyone starts running. This results in stress, but above all: low management commitment. During an audit, this is immediately visible.
5. Wanting to do everything perfectly
Many organizations think that their ISMS has to be perfect at once before an auditor comes along. That really isn't necessary. ISO 27001 works with continuous improvement: you can start with a six and build on that every year. Even better: an auditor who never sees opportunities for improvement is not doing his job properly. An organization is constantly changing, so your information security must change with it. Areas for improvement are normal, not a crime.
6. Letting the ISMS gather dust after certification
Achieving certification feels like a finish line, but it's just the starting point. Without maintenance, learning and improvement cycles and regular internal audits, the effectiveness of your system quickly sinks in. That's why periodic maintenance is important, whether you have your own Security Officer or temporarily deploy an Information Security Advisor to keep the system current.
7. Thinking that ISO 27001 is only IT
Information security affects the entire organization. HR, procurement, legal, privacy, leadership, physical security and facility management all play a role. If employees think it's "nonsense," awareness is lacking and the risk of human error increases. And that's exactly where most security incidents start.
Parking the ISO 27001 issue one-on-one with IT simply goes awry. You need someone who takes charge of all parts of information security. A Security Officer, in other words, who does not do everything on his own, but communicates with management and other responsible parties. That this person comes from the IT corner is not at all surprising, but the work goes far beyond technology.
8. Underestimating the risk assessment
The risk assessment is the heart of ISO 27001. Yet this step is often rushed off too quickly. Teams go straight to work on control measures and work through them one by one. But that's not how it works. An effective "ISO 27001 risk analysis" determines which measures are relevant to your organization. Only then can you make deliberate choices and properly explain during an NIS2 audit, ISO audit or internal audit why you do what you do.
9. No plan for burden of proof
ISO is all about demonstrability. That means you have to think in advance about how you're going to collect information. Thinking up evidence afterwards almost always leads to gaps in your system. So with measures, objectives and measurement and monitoring activities, you must immediately determine: how do we demonstrate this?
Ideally, you should build on what is already running. So look critically at your existing processes and gather the evidence and controls you need there, if you don't already. That will keep the system useful to your own organization and prevent you from inventing additional controls "for the ISO," just to get a checkmark somewhere.
10. An ill-defined scope
An unclear scope creates confusion. Which processes exactly are covered? Which systems? Which locations? Without clear delineation, it becomes difficult to set up a consistent system and you can run into some tricky surprises in the audit.
No checklist
Implementing ISO 27001 is neither a checklist nor an IT party. It is an organization-wide process that starts with a good information security plan, a thorough risk analysis and consistent maintenance. With the right guidance, you can avoid the pitfalls that keep many organizations sidelined.
A checklist can help, however, because the standard makes a few fixed items mandatory, such as the management review and internal audit. Our checklist simply ensures that you don't overlook those mandatory items. You can download that checklist here.
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