ISO 27001 clause 4 “Context of the organization” requires consideration of ‘external and internal issues’ (relevant factors from within the organization or outside it) plus interested parties and their requirements, and defining the ISMS scope.
This clause is important because it requires organizations to examine crucial inputs when defining and designing their ISMS.
Clause 4 has four sub-clauses:
- Clause 4.1 — Understanding the organization and its context — it requires the organization to determine all internal and external issues that may be relevant to its business purposes and to the achievement of the objectives of the ISMS itself.
- Clause 4.2 — Understanding the needs and expectations of interested parties — it requires the organization to assess who the interested parties are in terms of its ISMS, what their needs and expectations may be, which legal and regulatory requirements, as well as contractual obligations, are applicable, and consequently, if any of these should become compliance obligations.
- Clause 4.3 — Determining the scope of the Information Security Management System — it requires the scope and boundaries of the ISMS to be defined considering the internal and external issues, interested parties’ requirements, as well as the existing interfaces and dependencies between the organization’s activities and those performed by other organizations.
- Clause 4.4 — Information security management system — it requires that an ISMS must be established and operated and, by using interacting processes, be controlled and continuously improved.
