One common question that comes up when enquiring about ISO 27001 is: Is it necessary to include security penetration testing in the Information Security Management System (ISMS) program to comply with the ISO 27001 standard to meet auditor anticipations? The answer is both yes and no, as it completely depends on how your organization refers to it. Although companies are not legally bound to align with ISO 27001 standards, most organizations want to pursue ISO 27001 compliance certification to showcase their alignment with data security practices.

This is also because, out of all the security standards, ISO 27001 remains the most popular one. Moreover, as it contains 11 clauses and 114 controls, this standard has led many organizations to improvise their data security policies and procedures.

Additionally, compliance with industry standards like SOC 2, PCI-DSS, ISO 27001, and other security standards can assure overall security by preventing vulnerabilities.

This blog will cover ISO 27001 penetration testing and other compliance regulations to understand the relationship between compliance and penetration testing.

ISO 27001 Penetration Testing

ISO 27001 penetration testing is a type of security assessment that simulates cyberattacks. The primary objective is to find weak points and potential vulnerabilities of non-compliance with ISO 27001 regulatory compliance requirements to exploit associated vulnerabilities while also gauging the resulting impact. This practice of penetration testing is applied to assets that need to adhere to ISO 27001 compliance.

Organizations also use ISO 27001 penetration testing services to evaluate the security of their networks, computer systems, websites, and other applications.

Source: https://qualysec.com/iso-27001-penetration-testing-a-comprehensive-guide-2023/