Clause 5: Leadership
Leadership commitment, the information security policy, and defining roles, responsibilities, and authorities within your ISMS.
Overview
Clause 5 establishes the critical role that top management plays in the success of the ISMS. An information security management system cannot succeed as a purely IT-driven initiative — it requires visible leadership commitment, clear policy direction, and well-defined roles and authorities across the organisation.
5.1 Leadership and Commitment
Top management must demonstrate leadership and commitment to the ISMS by:
- Ensuring the information security policy and objectives are established and compatible with the strategic direction of the organisation.
- Ensuring the ISMS requirements are integrated into the organisation's business processes.
- Ensuring the resources needed for the ISMS are available.
- Communicating the importance of effective information security management and conforming to ISMS requirements.
- Directing and supporting people to contribute to the effectiveness of the ISMS.
- Promoting continual improvement.
5.2 Information Security Policy
Top management must establish an information security policy that:
- Is appropriate to the purpose of the organisation.
- Includes information security objectives or provides the framework for setting them.
- Includes a commitment to satisfy applicable requirements related to information security.
- Includes a commitment to continual improvement of the ISMS.
The policy must be available as documented information, communicated within the organisation, and available to interested parties as appropriate.
5.3 Organisational Roles, Responsibilities, and Authorities
Top management must ensure that the responsibilities and authorities for roles relevant to information security are assigned and communicated. This includes ensuring that the ISMS conforms to the requirements of ISO 27001 and that the performance of the ISMS is reported to top management.
Common roles include the ISMS Manager (or Information Security Officer), risk owners, asset owners, and document owners. Each role should have clearly documented responsibilities so there is no ambiguity about who is accountable for what.
How Standardise Helps
Standardise directly supports Clause 5 through several features:
- Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) — five roles (Owner, Admin, Manager, Editor, Viewer) with over 50 granular permissions ensure that responsibilities and authorities are clearly defined and enforced within the platform.
- Information Security Policy template — a production-quality ISP template with approval workflows, version control, and review scheduling.
- Policy document management — 14 singleton policy templates (ISP, AUP, Access Control, BCP, and more) with built-in status workflows (Draft, In Review, Approved, Published) and owner assignment.
- Audit trail — every action is logged with the responsible user, timestamp, and IP address, providing evidence of management oversight and accountability.