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Answers To Anticipated Questions At Information Security Management System (ISMS) Interview

The digitization of businesses has its setbacks that have made information security a major concern. Cybercriminals are technically advanced to spot even the faintest gap in an organization’s data-accessing controls. They have enough potential to let businesses go bankrupt overnight or eventually. The only solution to this rising issue is the recruitment of an ISO 27001 Lead Implementer in an enterprise. Certification programs are now available to individuals aspiring for a career in this domain. Individuals learn about maintaining the integrity and confidentiality of data without comprising its access to users that need it.

Businesses are likely to profit more, the less they expose the data shared with them by stakeholders, clients, and consumers. Individuals attaining ISO 27001 Lead Implementer Certification are considered most suitable for establishing and maintaining information security infrastructures within organizations. Recruiters not only choose the most eligible by their expertise but also their intellect. The latter gets reflected in the kind of answers a candidate provides to the questions asked. So, here is a bundle of them for an interviewee to get the picture right. An improper presentation might kill the chances of being hired despite the immense potential one possesses.

Annex A is the main section which has gone through a lot of changes in the latest version of the standard. ISO has reduced the number of Control specified in Annex A from 114 to 93, with the inclusion of 11 new controls. Additionally, minor changes can be seen in the Clauses 4 to 10 of the ISO 27001 Standard.

The need for implementing ISMS is to make an organization’s employees and technology comply with the information security best practices. ISO 27001 Certification acts as a yardstick for maintaining the information security management system in organizations.

Exposure, vulnerability, risk, and threat, are some of the basic terms that an IT security professional must be familiar with. Thus, individuals desiring to gather full-fledged knowledge of these terms for professional development must attend ISO 27001 Lead Implementer Certification.

Botnet building involves heartbeat obscuring, the usage of an update-providing mechanism, DNS rotation, and encryption. Common protocols are used in building it for its efficient functioning.

Information security individuals who aren’t knowledgeable in changing DNS settings are considered amateurs in this field. DNS is regarded as one of the world’s most well-known operating systems.

Staying in tune with a security community helps a professional in obtaining news of the most recent IT security issues worldwide. One needs to access the community and get active in its discussions on Twitter, Reddit, Team Cymru, etc. It is better to learn from others’ mistakes and prevent the same in one’s organization.

It is more of a social responsibility than merely a job role. The increasing rate of cybercrime is detrimental to the entire economy in this era of digitization. Businesses are thriving on information and hence, the need for data security. This has enables professionals to pursue ISO 27001 Lead Implementer Certification and have command of ISMS.

The 11 new controls added in ISO 27001 Standard include threat intelligence, information security for the use of cloud services, ICT readiness for business continuity, physical security monitoring, configuration management, information deletion, data masking, data leakage prevention, monitoring activities, web filtering and secure coding?

The new title of ISO 27001 Standard is ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Information Security, Cybersecurity and Privacy Protection. Previously, the standard had clauses and requirements mentioned in accordance with ISMS. Currently, the standard also specified its coverage in the Information Security field along with ISMS.

Vulnerability is a defect that causes computer hardware or software to function abnormally. Cyber hackers utilize this flaw in their interest by easily accessing the information or data they shouldn’t. Exploit refers to the chunk of instructions or data or software program that is used to leverage that vulnerability.

SSL is a tool for identity verification and thus, not suitable for high-end data encryption. Its function is to determine the one with whom the conversation is going on. This tool is widely used which makes it excessively visible and an easy target for hackers. It calls for the preparation of additional protection.

XSS can run every page present at the server’s end while Javascript’s function is restricted to just a client’s system. The former allows making alterations in variables on the client webpage itself which is a disturbance for programmers.

While implementing ISMS, Lead Implementers should worry about false negative which is the result of firewall detection to be worried about. It signifies the intrusion of harmful traffic within the network. The false positive result isn’t good either but handling it is relatively easy than in the former case.

A hacker constructs reflected XSS which appears as a request from him/her that attacks the victim’s browser. It runs within the browser when the attacked user replies to the request message unknowingly. A stored XSS becomes visible to a user when extracted from the database.

Cross-Site Scripting is a process by which a hacker can make an authorized user run malicious content in Javascript. ISO 27001 Lead Implementers should know that the victim isn’t the least aware that the browser has already become affected.

HTML is the language used to tag text files. Its role is similar to that of a physical marker. HTTP is an application/networking protocol. The latter facilitates the communication between servers and web clients thereby, acting as a bridge.

Encoding refers to the protection of data integrity during data transition from one system/network to another. It can also be reversed by anyone and keeps the information in its usual form even after its transfer. So, it doesn’t function to provide information security whereas encryption does. Appropriate keys must be available to one who desires to reverse encrypted data. Therefore, it is effective in maintaining data confidentiality. The output of hashing is quite smaller than its input. This operation is one-way non-reversible.

No project is 100% secure. So, it is quite illogical to analyze a project’s safety simply by its type. Besides, projects of both camps have reported several instances of highly insecure applications that are vulnerable to data security.

Cross-site forgery is a situation in which a website application responds to unauthorized commands from the hacker. The victim unknowingly performs actions as per the command thereby, making the website’s security vulnerable.

Validation of user input and sources is the primary step to preventing XSS attacks. ISO 27001 Lead Implementers should ensure that output also needs to be encoded. HTML escaping is also a way to defend the website against such DOM-based attacks.

  • Scope
  • Normative References
  • Terms and Definitions
  • Context of the Organisation
  • Leadership
  • Planning
  • Support
  • Operation
  • Performance evaluation
  • Improvement

Surveillance audit is conducted to ensure that the organization adheres to the standards. It guarantees that the organization's ISMS is still functioning effectively and addressing the risks and vulnerabilities pertaining to its information assets.

The recertification audit will need to take place every 3 years from the date of issue. It is carried out to examine whether the organization still complies with ISO 27001 regulations and has made the necessary modifications or changes.

  • Information security policies
  • Organisation of information security
  • Human resource security
  • Asset management
  • Access control
  • Cryptography
  • Physical and environmental security
  • Operations security
  • Communications security
  • System acquisition, development and maintenance
  • Supplier relationships
  • Information security incident management
  • Information security aspects of business continuity management
  • Compliance

There the three different types of risks involved in an ISO 27001 Audit:
  • Control Risks
  • Detection Risk
  • Inherent Risk

The following are the Annex A control:
  • Information security policies
  • Organization of information security
  • Human resource security
  • Asset management
  • Access control
  • Cryptography
  • Physical and environmental security
  • Operations security
  • Communication security
  • System acquisition development and maintenance
  • Supplier relationships
  • Information security incident management
  • Information security aspects of business continuity management
  • Compliance

The steps involved in prepare for the ISO 27001 Surveillance audit are:
  • Set an agenda
  • Conduct internal audit
  • Confirm the location
  • Create a day-wise plan
  • Inform the employees
  • Update records
  • Check changes and processes
  • Answer adequately
  • Keep preparing

Any non-conformities or areas that need improvement, any strengths and best practices, will be mentioned in the ISO 27001 surveillance audit report. It will also include a specified amount of time that the organization needs to remedy any non-conformities before the subsequent surveillance audit.

ISO 27001 certification costs include expenses of implementing the information security management system (ISMS), auditing costs, and the certification body used to conduct the audit. Additionally, the total cost will vary depending on various factors, such as the size of the organization, the maturity level of the ISMS, the processes implemented, and the cost of internal and external resources (such as the lead auditor) used.

Time it takes to get the ISO 27001 surveillance audit report can vary based on the procedures used by the certification body, the difficulty of the audit, and the size of the organization's ISMS. However, it typically takes a few weeks to a couple of months after the completion of the audit.

  • Form an implementation team
  • Develop ISO 27001 implementation plan
  • Define the ISMS scope
  • Create an information security policy
  • Choose the risk assessment methodology
  • Conduct risk assessment and complete risk documentation
  • Implement the ISMS policy and controls
  • Initiate employee awareness programs
  • Conduct internal audit and management review
  • Take corrective actions
  • Complete certification audit

ISMS scope covers context of the organization, the organization’s business objectives, physical location, structure, digital footprint, and devices that affect the organization’s network security (computers, mobile devices, servers), and the requirements of interested parties.

Yes, the ISO 27001 Lead Implementer should maintain a long-term strategy, continue to perform regular internal audits and management reviews and practice continual improvement to remain ISO 27001 compliant.

Individuals with an active interest in information security and its management within a company are considered primary stakeholders. It includes “C” or Executive Board-level representation and sponsor, Senior Information Risk Officer, Chief Information Security Officer, Information Security Manager, and Lead Implementer.

Primary Stakeholders, Secondary Stakeholders, Lead implementers, Internal Auditors, Top Management, and Information Security and Governance Staff are some roles required for implementing ISO 27001 Information Security Management System.

  • Data Protection Policy
  • Data Retention policy
  • Information Security Policy
  • Access Control Policy
  • Asset Management Policy
  • Risk Management Policy

The steps to implement the risk management process are as follows:
  • Establish a Risk management framework
  • Risk Identification
  • Risk Assessment
  • Risk Evaluation
  • Risk Mitigation
  • Risk Monitor and review

The three components of the CIA triangle are:
  • Confidentiality
  • Integrity
  • Availability

The amount of time it will take an organization to complete the certification process will be greatly influenced by its commitment to certification and the resources allocated to attain certification. Organizations, however, may need up to a year to become ISO 27001 certified.

The clause 0-3 provide general information about the ISO 27001 standard:
  • Introduction
  • Scope
  • Normative references
  • Terms and definitions