A Detailed Comparison: ISO 27001 versus ISO 9001
Thinking about ISO 27001 compliance? Learn how much common ground there is between the ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 standards.
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Why Should ISO 27001 Be On Your 2026 Radar?
The cybersecurity industry evolves constantly. Changing standards, changing threats, and new data breach incidents keep the industry talking all the time.
ISO 27001 remains consistent. In 2025, it has quietly become the anchor standard organizations use to steady themselves amid the churn, especially those navigating CMMC, SOC 2, state privacy laws, and the general tightening of global cybersecurity expectations.
If you are responsible for safeguarding sensitive information or proving to someone else you can be trusted with theirs, ISO 27001 is no longer optional.
Why ISO 27001 Has Become the “Common Language” of Security
Businesses today are working inside an increasingly fragmented compliance landscape. Different regulators want different evidence. Different customers want different assurances. Different jurisdictions have different thresholds for “adequate” security.
This fragmentation results in organizations wasting time re-explaining, re-documenting, and re-proving the same security work in different formats.
ISO 27001 helps organizations solve this problem because it gives organizations a structured, internationally recognized way to demonstrate something very simple but very valuable:
“We know what our risks are, we know how to manage them, and we can prove it.”
That universality is why ISO 27001 remains the convergence point even as newer, more urgent requirements like CMMC (Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification) gain momentum. If CMMC is the U.S. defense ecosystem’s security rulebook, ISO 27001 is the global one.
The Mistake Organizations Still Make
Despite how mature ISO 27001 has become, one misconception remains, and that misconception is that IT owns ISO 27001 compliance.
ISO 27001, like many other ISO standards, requires buy-in, support, and delegation from the C-suite through all teams and employees. In reality:
- Leadership owns the risk appetite.
- HR owns onboarding, training, and disciplinary procedures.
- Legal owns contracts and supplier governance.
- Facilities owns physical security.
- IT owns technical controls (and only those).
- Internal audit (or a comparable function) owns oversight.
ISO 27001 is not an IT standard. It is an organizational maturity standard.
The sooner companies internalize that, the sooner their compliance burden decreases across the board.
Why Organizations Pair ISO 27001 With Other Frameworks
In 2025, more organizations intentionally use ISO 27001 as the “spine” of their broader compliance programs because it offers something few frameworks do: scalability.
ISO documentation, governance, and risk methodology can be repurposed for:
- CMMC
- SOC 2
- HIPAA
- HITRUST
- State privacy laws
- GDPR
- Vendor due-diligence questionnaires
What To Do Moving Into 2026
If your organization has not built or refreshed its information security program in the last 12–18 months, start with three steps:
1. Reassess your risks using the 2022/2024 control structure.Threats have shifted. Attackers have become more industrialized. Your risk register from two years ago is outdated.
2. Confirm that ownership of the ISO program is distributed, not centralized.
If one person “runs ISO,” you are likely vulnerable.
3. Replace informal processes with documented, repeatable ones.
Most ISO findings reveal missing documentation, not missing controls.
Organizations that take these steps now will be well-positioned for any emerging requirement, whether it’s a tightened state privacy rule or the next evolution of CMMC.
What Questions Do You Have About ISO 27001?
Smithers is an accredited ISO 27001 certification body and an authorized C3PAO (CMMC Third-Party Assessor Organization). We are happy to discuss your organization’s cybersecurity assessment requirements, how ISO 27001 and CMMC complement each other, and more. Contact us today to start the conversation.
About Smithers
Founded in 1925 and headquartered in Akron, Ohio, Smithers is a multinational provider of testing, consulting, information, and compliance services. With laboratories and operations in North America, Europe, and Asia, Smithers supports customers in the transportation, life science, packaging, materials, components, consumer, cannabis, dry commodities, and energy industries. Smithers delivers accurate data, on time, with high touch, by integrating science, technology, and business expertise, so customers can innovate with confidence. Smithers is an authorized C3PAO and can be found on the CyberAB Marketplace.