Differences Between Cyber Essentials and ISO 27001: How to Prepare for Compliance?

Getting ISO 27001 certified can be a lengthy process—sometimes years—because it often requires substantial changes in how a company operates. If you go this route, it’s highly recommended to work with a consultant. They can help streamline the process, making it less daunting and more efficient.

CE is relatively straightforward—just a self-assessment questionnaire. But if you're looking at CE Plus, it involves some deeper requirements like a vulnerability scanning tool on a portion of your endpoints. In comparison, I find ISO easier after the initial setup; maintaining it becomes much simpler once you're past that first hurdle.

The key difference is that Cyber Essentials is usually much easier to achieve than ISO 27001. CE focuses mainly on the technical requirements and has some overlap with ISO 27001, so if you're familiar with CE, that might help. You can actually use automation platforms like Secureframe that map out controls for both frameworks, making it easier to handle compliance for both at once.

ISO 27001 is much more extensive and requires a lot of documentation. It’s not just about having the right technical measures in place, but also establishing policies and proving you follow them. There are guidelines available, but they tend to be pretty general, and implementing them can be tricky based on your specific data handling needs.