ISO 27001 Security Awareness Training
ISO/IEC 27001 makes workforce awareness an explicit, auditable requirement twice over: Clause 7.3 requires everyone working under your ISMS to be aware of the security policy and their role in it, and Annex A control 6.3 requires appropriate awareness, education and training — with regular updates — for all personnel. Certification and surveillance audits routinely sample both.
What auditors actually ask for is specific: who was trained, on what, when, and how you know it worked. A slide deck from onboarding two years ago fails all four questions. A measured programme — simulations testing behaviour, training tied to results, records for every cycle — passes them.
Knowspams produces exactly that trail: geo-localised phishing simulations measure real behaviour, industry- and role-specific modules deliver the education, and every assignment and completion is logged into reports you can drop into your ISMS evidence pack. Fully managed operation is available if you would rather our team run the programme.
ISO 27001 requirements — and how the platform maps to them
The standard expects awareness to be planned, delivered, evaluated and evidenced — the same lifecycle the platform automates.
Clause 7.3 — Awareness
Persons doing work under the organisation’s control must be aware of the information security policy, their contribution to the ISMS, and the implications of nonconformity.
How Knowspams maps
Baseline awareness modules mapped to your policy themes, assigned to every user and tracked to completion — with records tied to individuals.
Annex A 6.3 — Awareness, education and training
Personnel must receive appropriate security awareness education and training, and regular updates, relevant to their job function.
How Knowspams maps
Industry-specific and role/function-specific training paths with a recurring calendar — “regular updates” happen by design, not by reminder.
Effectiveness evaluation — Clause 9.1
The ISMS must evaluate whether controls are effective; for awareness, that means measuring behaviour, not attendance.
How Knowspams maps
Phishing simulations provide the effectiveness metric auditors like best: click rate, report rate and risk score, trending across cycles.
Documented information — Clause 7.5
Evidence of competence and awareness activities must be retained as documented information.
How Knowspams maps
Every campaign, assignment, completion and score is logged automatically; export audit-ready reports per cycle for your evidence pack.
Continual improvement — Clause 10
Nonconformities and weak results should feed corrective action.
How Knowspams maps
Employees who fall for a simulation receive just-in-time training automatically, closing the loop the standard expects — with the correction documented.
Frequently asked questions
Is security awareness training mandatory for ISO 27001 certification?
Yes. Clause 7.3 (awareness) is a mandatory ISMS requirement, and Annex A control 6.3 (awareness, education and training) applies to virtually every organisation’s Statement of Applicability. Auditors sample training records and increasingly ask how effectiveness is measured.
What evidence satisfies an ISO 27001 auditor?
Records showing planned cadence, per-person assignment and completion, content relevant to roles, and an effectiveness measure. Knowspams reports include all four, plus before/after phish-prone rates that demonstrate the control working.
Does phishing simulation count as awareness training?
Simulation is the evaluation half: it measures behaviour and triggers just-in-time education for those who need it. Combined with the assigned training modules, it covers both the delivery and the effectiveness-measurement expectations of the standard.
We need evidence before a surveillance audit in six weeks. Options?
The 30-day One-Time Run produces a complete evidence cycle — simulations, training completions and an audit-ready close-out report — inside a month, no subscription. The fully managed annual programme then keeps every future audit covered.