ISO 27001 Clause 9.2: Internal Audit (2013)

An internal audit is a fantastic tool to evaluate the organisation's ISMS processes and functions. When performing internal audits the organisation must ensure that, (I) audits are conducted at planned intervals, and (ii) the auditor must be objective and impartial.

According to this clause, the internal audits must occur at planned intervals to conform that the ISMS is fulfilling its own system requirements and the requirements of this international standard. The organisation must ensure the effective implementation of these audits.

The organisation shall plan, establish, implement and maintain audit programmes that are performed at planned intervals considering the importance of the processes and the previous audit reports. The criteria and the scope for the audit must be determined before each audit and the auditor selected by the organisation to conduct such audits impartially in order to ensure the objectivity of the auditing process.

The results of such an audit should be reported to relevant management and must be kept in a documented form.