Walking the Walk: Germane Advisory's Journey to ISO 27001 Certification
How Germane Advisory achieved ISO 27001 certification and what it means for us and our clients
How Germane Advisory achieved ISO 27001 certification and what it means for us and our clients
When you advise organisations on cyber security, privacy, and data governance, there's an implicit question that hangs in the air: "What about your own house?" It's a fair challenge, and one we at Germane Advisory have taken seriously from day one.
This September, we achieved ISO 27001:2022 certification for our Information Security Management System (ISMS). While we recognise this as one milestone among many possible standards - each with their own strengths and rigour - it’s an important step for us and our clients.
ISO 27001 is the international standard for information security management systems. It provides a systematic approach to managing sensitive information, encompassing people, processes, and technology. For Germane Advisory, achieving certification represents formal validation of the security practices we've embedded into our operations.
But let's be clear about what ISO 27001 certification says about us. It confirms that we have:
What it doesn't guarantee is absolute security - no standard can. Cyber security is an ongoing discipline. Our ISO 27001 certification provides assurance that we have mature processes for managing risk, not that risk has been eliminated. There's always more work to be done, more improvements to make, and evolving threats to address - and our commitment to that sits alongside this certification.
As consultants focusing on cyber, privacy, and data challenges, we're brought in for a wide range of sensitive engagements - from strategic risk assessments to incident response and data security projects. This type of work often involves access to sensitive information, or the provision of time-sensitive advice.
Our clients deserve more than our word that we'll handle their data responsibly; they deserve some third-party validation. Our clients can verify - through an independent auditor's assessment - that we’ve got a system in place to implement and maintain appropriate controls for protecting their information.
Nobody likes digging through spreadsheets, chasing down evidence, and hoping everything maps together when the auditors arrive. Fortunately, the landscape has moved on in the last few years, and there’s a variety of tools now available in the compliance automation space that both make the process more robust and faster. We chose to use Vanta's compliance automation platform to turn what could have been a painful process into something more dynamic and sustainable.
Vanta provided three key capabilities that we valued:
Automated and real-time control monitoring: Through automated and deep integrations with our technology stack, Vanta continuously monitors our control implementation. This is helpful for the audit process, but it also helps us maintain and demonstrate compliance between assessments, catching drift before it becomes an issue. We've also implemented additional security measures that reflect the sensitivity of our work, including hardware security tokens for authentication where supported, providing defence against sophisticated phishing attempts.
Transparency for stakeholders: Our clients and partners can now access a real-time view of our security posture through our new Vanta-hosted trust portal. The ongoing transparency of our control state is designed to extend on the point-in-time audits and provide a more continuous view of our security practices.
Streamlined audit execution: By centralising evidence collection and providing auditors with direct access to control documentation and automated test evidence, we were set up for a smooth and efficient audit. In combination with technology-native auditors like Sensiba, it meant we had a straightforward and focused audit rather than spending the time on lengthy back and forths about evidence.
We’re thrilled to have achieved ISO 27001 certification and see it as an important step for us and a reflection of the commitment we have to our clients. We recognise there are also other standards we could pursue, and we continually evaluate what makes sense for our risk profile and client needs.
For our clients, this certification provides tangible assurance that when they trust us with sensitive challenges - whether related to cyber security, privacy, or data/AI governance - we're equipped technically, procedurally, and culturally to be responsible custodians of that trust.
Germane Advisory achieved ISO 27001:2022 certification in September 2025, covering our Information Security Management System for consulting services delivery. For more information about our security practices or to view our certification status, please visit our trust centre or contact us directly.
