ISO 27001 For SaaS Businesses: A Complete Guide

No one wants their company to be in the news for being a victim of a cyberattack, which is why security frameworks and standards like ISO 27001 are quickly becoming must-haves. 

As a SaaS provider, you’ll likely have prospective clients question you about your current security practices and certifications. Some may even demand adherence to certain frameworks if they work with particularly sensitive data.

Meeting ISO 27001 requirements can help set you apart from other SaaS companies, build customer trust, and grow your market share. 

However, earning the certification is no easy task. You’ll dedicate significant time and resources to building your Information Security Management System (ISMS) and preparing for your audits. On top of that, SaaS companies have to address issues other companies won’t because of the way they operate. 

If you’re considering an ISO 27001 certification for your SaaS company, here’s what you should know about the process.

Do SaaS Companies Need ISO 27001 Certification?

ISO 27001 certification isn’t legally required for any SaaS company. However, it can provide a big competitive advantage for organizations that take the time to earn it. Breaches, ransomware, and other cybersecurity threats are only becoming more common. With your ISO 270001 certification, you’re communicating to potential customers that you understand the impact these incidents can have on their business, and you’re dedicated to preventing any harm.

Depending on the types of companies you want to serve, the absence of an ISO 27001 certification may lead to difficulty landing clients. Customers in heavily regulated industries likely can’t do business with SaaS providers that don’t have data protection systems in place, and enterprise organizations often require ISO 27001 or similar security frameworks just because keeping customers’ information safe is good business. Earning your certification may be the first step toward landing these types of clients.

Understanding ISO 27001 and the ISMS

ISO 27001 is an internationally recognized security framework designed to protect data confidentiality, integrity, and availability. It revolves around creating a system to guarantee these aspects through the implementation of security controls and measures. 

Here’s how ISO 27001 guides you through fortifying your systems to protect sensitive information.

The Information Security Management System (ISMS)

The Information Security Management System (ISMS) you create as part of your ISO 27001 process will contain the knowledge and tools your organization needs to keep data safe. The benefit of creating an ISMS is in the last word—system. 

Implementing piecemeal security measures will never be as effective as a well-planned and structured security apparatus. An ISMS includes policies, procedures, and controls to support your data security and governance efforts. It also calls for the involvement of leadership, whose support is a must when it comes to successful security efforts. 

The ISMS isn’t a concept that’s unique to ISO 27001, but this standard is the most widely known and respected implementation of the concept. 

ISO 27001 Structure: Ten Clauses and Annex A

The ISO 27001 standard has ten clauses that define what compliance looks like. Clauses zero through three introduce the concept and provide foundational knowledge like definitions and references. Clauses four through ten lay out what you’re required to document and implement to earn your ISO 27001 certification. They are:

4. Context of the organization, such as your operating environment and professional relationships.

5. Leadership involvement, and how authorities must support your efforts.

6. Planning, which covers risk assessment, risk treatment, control implementation, and your statement of applicability (SoA).

7. Support, as it applies to your team: resources, training, security policies, and documentation to guide them through proper security practices.

8. Operation, or the processes you create to ensure a security-first approach in your workplace.

9. Performance evaluation, which must be done on an ongoing basis to make sure your systems stay secure even as they grow and change.

10. Improvement, which is another ongoing process that operates in response to gaps or changes to your systems or needs.

Following these clauses is mandatory for ISO 27001 certification. However, the framework offers an additional list of security controls in Annex A. This document lists 93 security controls grouped into four themes:

• Organizational, or company-wide processes and policies
• People, which includes any controls relating to individuals’ interaction with your ISMS 
• Physical, a list of controls that apply to your work environment 
• Technical, which covers systems, software, and hardware controls

You don’t have to implement all of these controls, but you will need to understand each one and be able to determine whether it’s necessary for your organization’s security practices. You’ll be required to document which controls you exclude and lay out your reasons for doing so in your Statement of Applicability (SoA). 

Why ISO 27001 is a Good Match for SaaS

ISO wasn’t created to apply only to one type of system. While it may not be as flexible as other security frameworks (like SOC 2), it is scalable—something that matters to SaaS companies particularly. 

One of the first steps to earning ISO 27001 compliance is scoping out your ISMS based on the types of data you need to safeguard, how it flows through your systems, and where it’s stored. Then, you create processes and apply controls from Annex A to meet your specific needs. As your company grows, you can expand the scope of your ISMS, create new processes, and implement new controls when they become necessary. 

Clause ten—the continuous improvement clause—is a way of future-proofing your efforts. SaaS companies often pioneer new uses of technology, meaning existing security standards and frameworks may not provide adequate guidance given your roadmap. However, ISO 27001 encourages companies to continuously evaluate their practices and look for ways to make them better. In turn, this supports an agile approach to your security practices.

Defining Your ISMS Scope for SaaS

Before you can start building your ISMS, you need to define its scope. This is one of the more challenging parts of ISO 27001 compliance, especially for SaaS companies. It seems simple—your ISMS must cover all the information you want to protect and all the elements that interact with it. 

However, especially for SaaS providers, determining what those elements are may take some extra work.

What Your Scope Should Include

A solid ISMS always starts with an understanding of what data your company needs to protect. In SaaS, your scope will likely involve your company’s data (employee information, payroll, intellectual property, etc.) and that of your customers. Once you’ve nailed down the information that’s central to your ISMS, it’s time to build out your scope by examining every process that might touch or otherwise affect it.

In this step, it’s better to risk going too broad than to keep things too narrow, because failing to scope your ISMS properly will mean failing your ISO 27001 audit. So, look at each type of information you need to protect and write down:

• Systems that interact with (create, edit, store, or transmit) it
• Functions of your business that rely on it
• Teams who can access it
• Products that make use of it
• Regions that information may be stored or accessed from

For many smaller companies, it’s easiest to include your whole organization in the scope. If you realize there are only a few teams, systems, or processes that aren’t covered in these initial questions, it’s likely easier to roll them into your ISMS than it is to exclude them. 

Anything or anyone you leave out of scope needs authorization if it ever interacts with your ISMS, so exclusions can cost you time in the long run.

Cloud-Native Considerations

If your company, like most SaaS organizations, uses the cloud to power your offerings, you’ll need to scope any and all cloud connections into your ISMS. This likely means your AWS, GCP, or Azure environment. It also means any software you’ve deployed to your cloud infrastructure. 

However, your eventual scope may not be straightforward or intuitive. You can only scope an element into your ISMS if you oversee its controls. Therefore, something like the individual location of the servers you rent through AWS should not be part of your scope. 

Major cloud providers are ISO 27001 compliant, and you should easily be able to find their certificates and audit reports online. That documentation will tell you what services and locations are in scope for them, and you can use it to support your ISO 27001 certification. 

One thing to note: like you, cloud providers can only include the systems they have control over in their certification. Therefore, it’s up to you to ensure an ISO 27001-compliant setup of your cloud environment. Tools like Azure’s ISO 27001 Blueprint and GCP’s ISO 27001 Posture Template can help you bring your environment into compliance. 

Balancing Scope, Resource Management, and Customer Trust

The bigger your ISMS, the more resources it will take to maintain it, but a smaller ISMS may lead your customers to question whether you can provide the security they need. It’s also quicker to audit and certify a smaller ISMS—but only if your initial scope includes everything that could affect the security of your information environment. 

Mid-market and enterprise companies likely won’t want to scope their entire organization as their ISMS. However, when you think about exclusions, you’ll also need to think about interfaces to support them. Anything or anyone that is not part of your scope will also sit outside of the security practices you use to protect your sensitive data. For instance, if you don’t include employees’ private devices in your ISMS, you’ll either need to heavily secure VPN logins from non-company devices or disallow them entirely. 

Another factor to consider is how much of your customers’ trust you’ll sacrifice with a smaller ISO 27001 scope. If they learn only one department of your SaaS company is certified, they’re likely to wonder if their information is secure, or if you just care about your own sensitive data and IP. On the other hand, if none of your organization is certified because your scope means the process will take a year to complete, they may discard you entirely. 

There’s no right answer for SaaS companies when it comes to determining the best scope for your ISMS. Whether you go big or stay modest, do so with full awareness of the tradeoffs you’re making. 

SaaS-Specific Risks and Controls

Because certifying a SaaS company can be so complex, the processes other companies can use may not fully meet your needs. Below are a few specific considerations SaaS providers need to think about when pursuing ISO 27001 certification.

Cloud Misconfiguration

As we touched on before, your cloud environment must be correctly configured for ISO 27001. Services like AWS, Azure, and GCP are set up to give their customers flexibility. 

However, this means you have to pay close attention to each setting to ensure the data you’ve been entrusted with stays safe. Qualys found that on average, 50% of cloud environments are misconfigured in ways that make data breaches more likely. 

Multi-Tenant Data Separation

When you have multiple customers’ data, you have to make sure no one can access anyone else’s information—either accidentally or maliciously. You may choose to create separate databases, configure tenant-specific containers, and/or set up virtual networks to prevent an accidental crossing of streams. 

Of course, you’ll need strong authentication methods to ensure that no one can gain unauthorized access to someone else’s information.

CI/CD Risks

Continuous integration and continuous delivery/deployment allow you to offer quick improvements to your customer base. However, shorter development cycles mean bigger risks. 

You likely haven’t forgotten the massive outages caused by a botched CrowdStrike update. The company’s failsafes didn’t prevent the update from being pushed. Your validators and processes could potentially fail in the same way, allowing you to release an update that compromises your and your users’ security.

Vendor Dependencies

Most SaaS companies integrate services from other SaaS providers. While you can control your implementation of a piece of software, you also need to control vendors’ access to your systems. 

Using controls only goes so far; it’s also important to use security questionnaires and risk assessments to determine whether a vendor will compromise your systems’ security. Your vendor contracts should require partners to have ISO 27001 or similar security-focused certifications.

Mapping Risks to Annex A Controls

The security risks inherent to SaaS providers can be mapped to controls in Annex A, which gives you a structured way to address them. 

For instance, you might address multi-tenant data risks with controls including: 

• Control A.5.16, Identity management
• Control A.5.17, Authentication information 
• Control A.8.11, Data masking 
• Control A.8.12, Data leakage prevention 

Controls relating to cloud configuration vulnerabilities may include:

• Control A.5.23, Information security for use of cloud services 
• Control A.8.6, Capacity management 
• Control A.8.9, Configuration management
• Control A.8.22, Segregation of networks 
• Control A.8.24, Use of cryptography 

Your CI/CD risks map to controls like: 

• Control A.8.25, Secure development lifecycle
• Control A.8.26, Application security requirements
• Control A.8.28, Secure coding
• Control A.8.29, Security testing in development and acceptance
• Control A.8.31, Separation of development, test, and production environments 
• Control A.5.26, Response to information security incidents

And to manage vendor dependency risks, you’d turn to controls including: 

• Control A.5.11, Return of assets
• Control A.5.14, Information transfer
• Control A.5.19, Information security in supplier relationships 
• Control A.5.20, Addressing information security within supplier agreements 
• Control A.5.21, Managing information security in the ICT supply chain
• Control A.5.22, Monitoring and review and change management of supplier services 

These aren’t the only controls you’ll need to implement as a SaaS provider, but when you’re aware of risks, you can more easily understand which Annex A controls need to be part of your ISO 27001 efforts.

ISO 27001 Implementation Steps for SaaS Companies

Now that you know the special considerations for SaaS companies, you can start taking steps toward ISO 27001 certification. At a glance:

1. Get executive buy-in and define your ISO/ISMS team. Because ISO certification requires your organization to establish policies and procedures, it’s essential to have leadership on your side before you get started. Once they’ve established willingness to support you with the necessary resources, it’s time to bring together a team. You’ll need plenty of capable individuals from IT to support the technical side of things, plus other stakeholders who support security measures.
2. Perform a risk assessment and make a treatment plan. Cataloging your assets, systems, people, and processes and asking defining risks to information confidentiality, availability, and integrity is key to securing your ISMS. Perform your ISO 27001 risk assessment, then document the actions your team will take to avoid, transfer, or mitigate risks.
3. Select and implement controls. Along with the required controls from clauses four to ten of ISO 27001, use your risk assessment to determine which Annex A controls you need and which you can safely disregard. Then, IT will need to start implementing and testing those controls.
4. Document your policies and processes and gather evidence. Your ISO 27001 auditor will need proof of your organization’s efforts, so make sure everything is recorded and saved in a way that’s easy for them to access.
5. Undergo an internal audit and management review. Before you bring in an auditor to start your certification audit, you need to undergo an internal audit. This step will help you spot any missing documentation or gaps in your current ISO 27001 implementation. The management review brings in leadership across the company to make sure they understand the ISMS and are doing what’s necessary to support it.
6. Prepare for your Stage 1 and Stage 2 audits. ISO 27001 certification requires you to undergo two audits. The first evaluates your readiness by reviewing your documentation and noting any remaining gaps; the second uses evidence to validate your implementation. Make sure to address any outstanding items from your internal audit before you move on to your certification audits.
7. Maintain your certification with surveillance and recertification audits. After being ISO 27001 certified, you’ll need to undergo annual audits to maintain your certification. These audits are less extensive than Stage 2 audits, but test whether you have maintained your ISMS and addressed any corrective actions recommended in previous audits. Every third year, you’ll need to undergo a comprehensive recertification audit.  

Common ISO 27001 Pitfalls for SaaS Startups

Don’t let these common mistakes slow down your ISO 27001 certification:

Under-Scoping the ISMS

We discussed the tradeoffs between defining a narrow ISMS versus a broad one, but it’s better to be inclusive when it comes to your ISMS. You can always change your scope, but you may find yourself having to redo other steps of the process. And if your auditor identifies a too-small scope as a problem, you’ll have to fix that before certification, which will set you back significantly.

Ignoring Supply Chain and Vendor Risks

Dependencies are part of life at a SaaS company, and with each new connection, you add new risks. It’s not enough to say your vendors are responsible for their own security. It’s your job to make sure any connections are controlled, and vendors or suppliers are contractually obligated to maintain high security standards.

Treating ISO as One-and-Done

ISO 27001 is designed to grow and evolve as your company does. That’s why the certification only lasts 3 years, and why it requires annual surveillance audits. Once you’ve earned your certification, it’s important to task your ISO/ISMS team with continually evaluating your scope and controls alongside industry best practices to ensure the information you set out to protect stays as safe as possible.

Over-Relying on Tech Without Policies or Proof

Audits are notoriously comprehensive, which means you need documentation for every security claim you’re making. You won’t earn your certification unless you can show written policies to back up your plans, and evidence to show your implementation of those policies. Don’t handwave a lack of documentation or evidence as “something to worry about later,” because when later comes and you still don’t have it, you’ll fail your audit.

Kickstart Your ISO 27001 Certification with Drata

An ISO 27001 certificate shows compliance. Drata helps you turn it into evidence of trust—evidence your potential customers can see and act on.

With our Trust Management solution, your team gets a single system that keeps your ISMS current. Automated monitoring flags issues as they pop up, risk management tools map threats to Annex A controls, and dashboards show exactly where your compliance status stands. By the time your auditor arrives, the heavy lifting is already done.

And when certification is complete, Drata doesn’t let it collect dust. Our Trust Center makes it simple to share your security posture with prospects and customers, so you can give your sales team an edge.

ISO 27001 takes work, but with Drata, that work compounds into something bigger: continuous proof that your company is secure, reliable, and built for growth.

ISO 27001 for SaaS Frequently Asked Questions

Below we answer common queries related to ISO 27001 for SaaS.

How Long Does it Take to Get ISO 27001 Certified?

ISO 27001 certification can take between six months and one and a half years, depending on the size of your organization and your current security posture. While the audits take a few weeks to a few months, most of your time will be spent preparing for them.

Can We Use SOC 2 Work for ISO 27001?

SOC 2 and ISO 27001 have significant overlap, but just because you are SOC 2 compliant, it doesn’t mean you’ll pass an ISO 27001 audit. Drata can help map SOC 2 controls to your ISO 27001 process so the work you’ve already done will translate smoothly, though.

What’s the Difference Between ISO 27001 and ISO 27002?

ISO 27001 is a framework to help you build an ISMS, while ISO 27002 builds on Annex A to help you understand what each control is for and how to implement them. The two work hand-in-hand, but ISO 27002 is not a certification.