ISO 27001 Control 5.7: Threat Intelligence

What this means

Control 5.7 mandates that your organization establish a structured approach to gathering threat-related information from both internal and external sources. This intelligence must be analyzed to identify patterns, assess emerging risks, and directly inform your risk treatment decisions—whether that means implementing new controls, accepting risks, or modifying existing security strategies. The control recognizes that effective information security depends on understanding the threat landscape relevant to your business.

How to comply

1. 1.Identify sources of threat intelligence including industry reports, government advisories, vendor alerts, dark web monitoring, and internal security events
2. 2.Establish a process to collect threat data consistently from selected sources aligned with your organization's risk profile
3. 3.Document and categorize collected threats by industry sector, attack vector, threat actor type, and relevance to your systems
4. 4.Conduct regular analysis to identify patterns, emerging threats, and trends specific to your business environment
5. 5.Create threat intelligence reports that translate findings into actionable risk insights
6. 6.Link threat intelligence outcomes directly to risk assessments and risk treatment plan updates
7. 7.Distribute threat intelligence to relevant stakeholders (security team, management, system owners) with clear recommendations
8. 8.Review and update threat intelligence processes quarterly or when significant threats emerge

Evidence auditors look for

• Documented threat intelligence collection procedures identifying approved sources and update frequency
• Records of collected threat data from industry-specific sources, CVE databases, and security advisories
• Threat analysis reports showing identified threats, severity ratings, and organizational relevance assessment
• Risk treatment decisions referencing specific threat intelligence findings as justification
• Evidence of threat intelligence distribution to security team and system owners with action items
• Meeting minutes showing management review of threats and resulting security decisions
• Subscription confirmations or access logs for threat intelligence feeds and databases
• Incident reports linked back to prior threat intelligence that predicted the attack pattern

Frequently asked questions

GRCWatch automates threat intelligence collection from multiple sources, correlates findings with your risk assessments, and generates audit-ready reports linking threat data to your risk treatment decisions—eliminating manual analysis and ensuring consistent evidence trails.

See how GRCWatch handles this control automatically

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