An information security policy (ISP) is a throughline for your organisation’s entire data security structure. They exist not only to safeguard the sensitive data flowing through your company and, in some cases, even specific departments but also to protect the business from the reputational and financial consequences that come hand-in-hand with data breaches.
You are defining what is permittable on the data level in your business. Therein lies a daunting task, which is why we are here to break down the basics of what is integral to information security so you have what you need to create your ISP.
What Is an Information Security Policy?
Think of an information security policy as a comprehensive set of data-related guidelines that all within the business must follow. You will use this policy to outline the rules for handling and storing data, all to ensure that data is available to the right people while you maintain confidentiality and data integrity.
Your ISP is your strategy for protecting the data you gather from security threats in a climate where 2.39 million cases of cybercrimes affect UK businesses annually. Through your ISP, you protect not only the data gathered, but your networks, applications, and the very infrastructure through which that data flows.
Some ISPs can be high-level overviews of an organisation’s security principles. Others can also be more granular, serving as ISPs for specific departments or even categories of data within your business. Your organisation can have multiple ISPs to address various data security concerns, perhaps under the umbrella of a company-wide ISP to which every department adheres.
Why Are Information Security Policies Necessary?
Your information security policy (or policies) is vital because it guides the establishment of proper cybersecurity and data handling controls within your business. That much is apparent from the description of an ISP. The policy also promotes transparency and accountability in your business, which benefits your company in an operational sense and in terms of its interaction with clients and partners.
The necessity of an information security policy becomes apparent when you consider the following as also being key reasons to have an ISP.
Industry Compliance: Beyond any information security policy you create, your business may have to account for compliance concerns relative to your industry. Healthcare offers an excellent information security policy example. Several pieces of legislation dictate how you handle patients and their data, ranging from the Care Act 2014 to the Mental Health Act 1983. You can use an ISP to outline your organisation’s compliance burdens relevant to legislation and the specific requirements of your industry.
Maintaining Organisational Reputation: Your ISP serves to improve operational efficiency within your company. Those improvements – particularly when demonstrable to your clients and partners – increase confidence in your company’s capacity and structures for handling risk. Kahootz and its ability to centralise multiple tools into a single location via a single secure workspace offers an excellent example. Through our software, you can manage data via tools including surveys, forums, document management and much more to boost collaboration within a secure environment.
Minimise Security Risks: Your ISP demonstrates your company’s security culture and awareness of the risks of handling sensitive data. As security breaches become ever more common due to increasing digitisation, merely having a comprehensive information security policy can provide you with a competitive advantage over organisations that do not have one. You showcase a commitment to safeguarding stakeholder data through an ISP that minimises security risks.
What Are the Key Elements of an Efficient Information Security Policy?
Acknowledging the proviso that an ISP relevant to one company can vary widely from one that is relevant to another, there are some key elements common to all. These elements are the building blocks of an information security policy – the foundation for building your guidelines.
Element 1: Confidentiality
Through your ISP, you specify who within your organisation can access specific data and information assets. It is a series of authentication controls designed to protect data confidentiality. The key here is that only those authorised to view or otherwise manage certain data types can do so—those outside that category cannot access the data.
Element 2: Integrity
Our second element relates to the quality – otherwise referred to as the integrity – of the data itself. Consider “intact,” “complete,” and “accurate” as the three cornerstones of maintaining data integrity. Your ISP defines how you ensure the data you maintain aligns with those cornerstones. You may also outline your IT systems, including network protocols and specific hardware used for healthcare backup storage, that you will keep operational to maintain data integrity.
Element 3: Availability
While access controls must apply to and be defined by an information security policy inside your organisation, freedom to access their data must be provided to your external users. Think of your clients or partners for whom you store data, and you get the idea. Access controls and procedures defined through your ISP provide the means through which these users can maintain the data with which they trust you.
Information Security Policy Examples in Action
Each company faces different levels of informational risk that, in turn, determine the level of information security it must maintain – often to the point where companies in the same industry face varying degrees of risk. Therefore, it is frequently challenging to take a broad approach to ISPs. Still, we can consider some information security policy examples regarding the types of companies that are likely to invest in an ISP.
Kahootz’s client list includes several examples of various organisations using its software. The Society of Radiographers, for instance, leverages Kahootz for an extranet system integrated into the internal communications processes it creates for its stakeholders and members. Therein lies the need for an ISP, as the data communicated is often sensitive enough to require guidelines. The NHS Health Research Authority also uses Kahootz as a project management and team collaboration tool. Again, managing projects frequently requires transmitting sensitive data – an ISP becomes necessary in those projects.
Must Haves of Information Security Policies
Digging into more generalised information security policy examples, there are several baseline policies that we recommend most organisations have in place. The specific nature of these policies varies depending on your internal degrees of data protection severity, and you may also have other policies beyond these. However, the following four are excellent examples of ISPs companies like yours often create.
Network Security Policy
A network security policy can have a broad scope. It is designed to provide guidelines related to the security framework of an entire network infrastructure. On the physical level, you use this ISP to define your network’s architectural and design principles, building redundancy, segmentation, and whatever else may be vital to maintaining data.
Beyond that, firewall configurations, cyber threat detection and prevention mechanisms, and the protocols you have in place for handling wireless device access—especially personal devices connecting to your network—must also be in place.
Document Management Policy
Through a policy related to proper document management, you establish standards for how your employees access, use, and transfer the documents they handle. Control combines with efficiency here, with this particular ISP ensuring compliance in document management and outlining access controls.
You build this type of ISP with the consistent defence of the interests of both your organisation and its stakeholders in mind. Many companies get so granular here that they even define how documents can be managed in the event of key staff absences or emergencies that may impact the flow of documents through the organisation.
Access Control Policy
We touched on how many information security policies define access controls for data and key information, with an example from the abovementioned document management. An access control policy can thus be crystallised as a wider ISP created to dictate how your organisation grants access to data, monitors its usage and manages how and why people receive access.
This policy will encompass basic user authentication methods – passwords, biometrics, and the like – and may assign roles through which access is controlled. In many organisations, these principles also extend beyond digital assets, with a business access control system helping manage and monitor access to offices, facilities, and other physical spaces based on user roles and permissions. You will also outline password management guidelines – including creating complexity requirements – and may define how you log and monitor user activities within your data sphere via your access control policy.
Remote Access Policy
When you enter the remote sphere arena, you must consider network protection in the context of allowing users to connect from various locations using various devices. Remote access has become increasingly common with the advent of cloud computing, and it opens up the possibility of data inceptions, mainly through the use of unsecured devices or connections via public networks.
Your remote access policy accounts for these complications. You use it to define any authentication and encryption requirements you wish to have in place to permit remote connections, in addition to approving the specific remote access technologies – such as desktop applications and virtual private networks – you permit. You may also create prohibitions with this ISP. For instance, if you identify remote access from public networks as a potential problem, banning such access with this policy could be your solution.
Use an Information Security Policy (or Several) to Protect Your Data
ISPs are essential in creating a robust cybersecurity policy through which you demonstrate to key stakeholders and clients a defined commitment to protecting the sensitive data your organisation is entrusted with. The examples we have shared – and the generalised elements of an ISP – are implementable inside your business and necessary to safeguard both the organisation and its clients. Appropriate tools and platforms – such as the Kahootz ecosystem – can help you enhance your security posture and should be implemented both within your ISP and as part of the posture you create.
