GDPR and ISO 27001 are two significant compliance standards with much in common. Both aim to strengthen data security and mitigate the risk of data breaches, and both require organizations to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of sensitive data. ISO 27001 is one of the most detailed best–practice standards, and in fact, Article 24 of the GDPR specifies that adherence to codes of conduct and approved certifications, like ISO 27001, can be used as an element of demonstrating compliance.
However, the GPDR has a broader scope and more fundamental understanding of data security and privacy. Data confidentiality, availability, and integrity Article 5 of the GPDR specifies general principles for data processing, such as protection against unauthorized or unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction or damage. More detailed guidelines are given in Article 32, which specifies that organizations are required to implement, operate and maintain appropriate technical and organizational measures to ensure data security, such as encryption, the resilience of processing systems and services, the ability to restore the availability of personal data promptly, and more. Similarly, multiple controls in ISO 27001 are aimed at helping organizations ensure data confidentiality, availability and integrity.
Starting from Clause 4, ISO 27001 requires organizations to identify internal and external issues that might impact their security programs. Clause 6 requires them to determine their IT security objectives and create a program to help them achieve them. Clause 8 sets standards for the continued maintenance of the security program and requires organizations to document their security program to demonstrate regulatory compliance. Risk assessment Both ISO 27001 and the GDPR require a risk-based approach to data security. Article 35 of the GDPR requires companies to perform data protection impact assessments to assess and identify risks to individuals` data. This GDPR risk assessment is mandatory before undertaking high-risk processing, such as systematically monitoring susceptible data. ISO 27001 also advises organizations to conduct a thorough risk assessment to identify threats and vulnerabilities that might affect their assets (Clause 6.1.2) and to select appropriate information security measures based on the risk assessment results (Clause 6.1.3). Vendor management Clause 8 of ISO 27001 requires organizations to identify which processing actions are outsourced and ensure they can control those actions. Clause A.15 provides specific guidance on supplier relationships and requires organizations to monitor and review supplier service delivery. Similar 
issues are covered in Article 28 of the GDPR, which requires data controllers to secure contractual terms and assurances from processors, creating a data processing agreement. Breach notification: According to Articles 33–34 of the GDPR, companies have to notify authorities within 72 hours after the discovery of a breach of personal data. Data subjects must also be notified without undue delay, but only if the data poses a high risk to data subjects` rights and freedom. Clause A.16 of ISO 27001, which addresses information security incident management controls, does not specify an exact timeframe for data breach notification, but it does say that organizations have to report security incidents promptly and communicate these events in a manner that enables timely corrective action to be taken. Data protection by design and by default Article 25 of the GDPR says that companies need to implement technical and organizational measures during the design stage of all projects so they can ensure data privacy right from the start (“data protection by design”). Moreover, organizations should protect data privacy by default and ensure that only information necessary for each specific purpose of the processing is used (“data protection by default”). In ISO 27001, similar requirements are outlined in Clauses 4 and 6. Clause 4 requires organizations to understand the scope and context of data that they collect and process, while Clause 6 recommends they perform regular security risk assessments to ensure the effectiveness of their security management program. Record keeping Article 30 of the GDPR requires organizations to maintain records of their processing activities, including the categories of data, the purpose of processing, and a general description of the relevant technical and organizational security measures. Similarly, ISO 27001 says that organizations must document their security processes and the results of their security risk assessments and treatment (Clause 8). According to Control A.8, information assets must be inventoried and classified, asset owners must be assigned, and procedures for acceptable data use must be defined. Does compliance with ISO 27001 guarantee GDPR compliance? As you can see, certification with ISO 27001 can simplify achieving GDPR compliance. However, there are several differences between these standards. Unlike GDPR, ISO 27001 does not directly address data privacy issues like agreements. The data controller must prove that the data subject has consented to processing their data (Articles 7 and 8). Consent requests must be provided in an easily accessible format for data processing. The data subject also has the right to withdraw consent at any time. data portability. Individuals have the right to receive and reuse personal data for their purposes in the various services and transmit this data to other controllers without compromising usefulness (Article 20).
- Right to be forgotten: Individuals have the right to have their personal data erased or stop further dissemination without delay (Article 17).
- Right to restriction of processing: Individuals can limit how an organization uses their data if the data has been unlawfully processed or the individual contests its accuracy (Article 18).
- Right to object: Data subjects have the right to object to data processing for direct marketing, performance of legal tasks, research purposes, and statistics (Article 21).
- International transfers of personal data: Organizations must ensure that rules approved by the European Commission carry out international data transfers (Article 46).