From cyber risk to business value: the growing importance of ISO 27001

At the same time, regulatory pressure continues to intensify—particularly within the European Union. New frameworks such as NIS2 and the Cyber Resilience Act are raising the bar for organizations operating in or supplying to the EU market. This regulatory push does not stop at individual companies, but cascades throughout entire supply chains, creating a “comply or explain” dynamic across ecosystems.

In this complex environment, organizations must balance three critical challenges: managing cyber risks, meeting regulatory expectations, and remaining competitive in their markets. This raises an important question: how can organizations bring structure, control and confidence into this increasingly demanding landscape?

ISO 27001 offers a proven and internationally recognized framework to address exactly these challenges.

What ISO 27001 actually does?

ISO 27001 is not a simple fix or a one‑time solution. However, when implemented effectively, it provides a structured way for organizations to identify, manage and reduce cyber security risks in a consistent and sustainable manner.

At its core, ISO 27001 is an internationally recognized standard for establishing an Information Security Management System (ISMS). This system defines how an organization systematically manages information security, taking into account its context, stakeholders, and applicable laws and regulations.

An ISMS helps organizations move from a reactive approach to a proactive and controlled way of working—ensuring that risks are continuously assessed, addressed and monitored.

How the ISMS cycle strengthens resilience (Plan–Do–Check–Act)?

A management system in this context refers to a structured approach that enables continuous control and improvement of information security through an ongoing cycle:

• Plan: identify cyber security risks in relation to the organization’s context, stakeholders and regulatory environment
• Do: implement appropriate measures to mitigate the identified risks
• Check: monitor the effectiveness of these measures and detect anomalies or weaknesses
• Act: address identified issues, perform root cause analysis and strengthen controls for the future

This continuous improvement cycle forms the backbone of the ISMS. By repeating this cycle, organizations not only maintain control but continuously enhance their resilience. New insights and incidents feed back into the risk assessment, allowing the organization to adapt to an ever-changing threat landscape.

The 3 C’s explained
Here they are in short for easy reference:

1. Cyber security threats & breaches are a continues source of worriedness for organizations;
2. Laws and regulations are increasingly putting pressure on organizations from a compliance perspective;
3. Customers demand compliance in the supply chain, if you want to do business nowadays.

Mapping the ISO 27001 certification on these three main topics, leads to the following:

1. Organizational confidence in cyber resilience – with an ISMS according to ISO 27001 implemented in the right way, it will lead to the necessary measures covering the cyber security risks identified, monitoring them for effectiveness and detecting and correcting issues that arise, while learning from these issues to ensure future resilience against these threats. When certified by an independent and accredited auditor against the ISO 27001 standard, it will bring the board of directors and the organization as a whole a level of comfort in that they are well equipped to face the challenges ahead in the cyber security area.
2. A solid foundation for regulatory requirements – with laws and regulations like the NIS2 directive and Cyber Resilience Act organizations are facing increasing compliance pressure from regulators as the EU. US based organizations that produce or deliver goods and services in the EU are also impacted by these laws and regulations. Having an effectively working and independently certified ISMS in place can certainly help proofing compliancy with several laws and regulations or it offers a good basis on which full compliancy can be achieved. The NIS2 directive is a good example of this, many organizations have already implemented and certified their ISMS against the ISO 27001 standard to ensure that they have the necessary building blocks in place for this directive. There is also the NIS2 Supply Chain certification, which can be achieved on the basis of an ISO 27001 certification.
3. A license to operate in the supply chain – the pressure of compliancy is pushed through the whole supply chain to ensure compliancy with laws and regulations. In practice, this means more and more that organizations need certain ‘licenses to operate’ within a supply chain environment if they want to do business with other parties. An ISO 27001 certification can deliver that license and therefore help achieve commercial goals.

As a result, an ISO 27001 certification is a valuable way to not only improve your organizations cyber security resilience but also to ensure compliancy and achieve the necessary commercial success within the supply chain. 

How Forvis Mazars supports your ISO 27001 journey?

At Forvis Mazars we have intensive knowledge of the ISO 27001 standard as well as of laws and regulations related to cyber security. Combined we can help your organization with the implementation of an ISMS tailored to your organization and its environment.

If you already have an implemented ISMS and are looking to get certified to proof compliancy to your stakeholder or the supply chain you’re part of, Forvis Mazars Certification Hub can deliver an ISO 27001 certification audit under accreditation of the Dutch Accreditation body (Raad voor Accreditatie). Forvis Mazars Certification Hub is also an accredited NIS2 Supply Chain auditor for NIS2-SC30 HIGH certification.

Our experienced ISO 27001 implementers and auditors have both extensive knowledge of organizational aspects as in depth technical expertise to ensure that compliancy is not only achieved on paper, but also in the IT systems where it matters. Please contact the partner responsible for our ISO services for further information.