What is the NIS2 guideline?
NIS2 is the revised version of the original Network and Information Security Directive (NIS) directive, which was adopted by the European Union in 2016. The NIS2 directive came into force in January 2023 and was transposed into national law by all EU member states around October 2024. The NIS2 Directive is designed to increase the cyber resilience of key and important sectors in the EU.
NIS2 is a directive secured in law that aims to make sectors such as energy, transportation, banking, healthcare and drinking water supply less vulnerable to cyber attacks. In addition to these essential sectors, NIS2 also identifies key sectors such as food, postal services, waste management, chemical industry and digital infrastructure.
It imposes mandatory security measures on organizations in these sectors. If companies do nothing, they risk heavy fines. Thus, the NIS2 directive is not optional or non-binding. As an essential or important sector, you are required to take measures. You must also be able to demonstrate those measures during an inspection.
What is ISO27001?
ISO27001 is an international standard for information security developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). This standard provides a somewhat broader and more general framework for implementing and managing an Information Security Management System (ISMS).
Unlike NIS2, ISO27001 is voluntarily applicable to any type of organization, regardless of size, sector or strategic importance. The ISO27001 standard looks a bit broader than just cybersecurity. Companies and organizations use ISO27001 certification to demonstrate compliance with rigorous information security standards.
Find the differences
ISO27001 is a voluntary international standard applicable to all industries, businesses and organizations. The standard deals with information security throughout the organization, with an emphasis on data management and processing. The ISO27001 standard is certified by accredited bodies. The purpose of ISO27001 is to identify risks around data management in companies or organizations and create management measures for them. There is no obligation under ISO27001 to report information security incidents to an external body. Systematically ignoring risks or failing to implement management measures will at best result in loss of certification. Incidentally, if there is a data breach, it must be reported to the Personal Data Authority. This is an obligation laid down by law in the General Data Protection Regulation (AVG). Furthermore, ISO27001 is very flexible and adaptable to business or organization-specific needs.
NIS2 is a mandatory EU directive and thus has a much heavier legal status than the ISO27001 standard. NIS2 applies to specific sectors, namely essential and important companies. That classification (what exactly is essential and important) is defined in the NIS2 directive. NIS2 was developed to protect networks and critical infrastructure from cyber attacks. National authorities are implementing the NIS2 directive, following the directions set from the EU. Companies and organizations, to which NIS2 applies, can face heavy fines if they are not compliant. The specific requirements of NIS2 are set in legislation and there is no room for flexibility as there is with ISO27001.
Management of both standards
Your company or organization may just have to be NIS2 compliant. Obviously, this applies to all central and regional government organizations and critical infrastructures such as energy, water and digital nodes and networks. But less critical companies are also covered by NIS2. These include postal and courier services, waste management, chemicals, food, technical manufacturing industries and digital service providers.
It could also be that your company is going to work with ISO27001 as well as NIS2. Then the question arises, how will you manage all these standards and guidelines?
If you're NIS2-compliant, you really can't get away with a wood-rope quality system that hangs together from Excel sheets, Teams folders and Sharepoint locations. And certainly not if you want to manage the NIS2 directive, ISO27001 and, say, ISO9001 certifications at the same time.
What you also don't want is specialized software for every guideline or standard you want to follow or use. That wouldn't be very practical.
Trust us, because we think about this matter every day: you are best served with a digital quality/risk management system that is able to manage all your guidelines and standards from one environment. That system must be able to handle every conceivable ISO standard, must be able to deal well with NIS2, but also with CSRD, for example. It should be an integrated quality management system, which itself meets the most stringent standards in information security. It would be ideal if you didn't have to worry about system operation and system maintenance. Of course, it would be absolutely fantastic if such a system would automatically develop into an even better and more complete system.
Lucky for you, such a system exists and more than 800 companies are already working with it. It's called ISO2HANDLE and if you want to know more about it, a simple message through our contact form will suffice. When we get in touch, we'll see what we can best help you with at this time. That can be a piece of digital information, but also a reference. And maybe you'd like a demo, a trial account or a pilot project. It's up to you.
