What is the NIS2 Directive?
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 implemented 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 legal directive that aims to make sectors such as energy, transport, banking, health care and drinking water supply less vulnerable to cyber attacks. In addition to these essential sectors, NIS2 also mentions important sectors such as food, postal services, waste management, chemical industry and digital infrastructure.
The directive imposes mandatory security measures on organizations in these sectors. If companies do nothing, they risk heavy fines. The NIS2 directive is therefore not optional or optional. As an essential or important sector, you are obliged to take measures. You must also be able to demonstrate these measures during an inspection.
What is ISO27001?
ISO27001 is an international information security standard 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 can be applied voluntarily to any type of organization, regardless of size, sector or strategic importance. The ISO27001 standard looks a bit wider than just cybersecurity. Companies and organizations use the ISO27001 certification to demonstrate that they meet strict standards for information security.
Find the differences
ISO27001 is a voluntary international standard that applies to all sectors, companies and organizations. The standard is about 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 related to data management in companies or organizations and to take control measures for them. Under ISO27001, there is no obligation to report information security incidents to an external agency. Systematically ignoring risks or failure to implement control measures will at most result in loss of certification. By the way, if there is a data breach, this must be reported to the Data Protection Authority. This is an obligation that is regulated by law in the General Data Protection Regulation (AVG). Furthermore, the ISO27001 is highly flexible and adaptable to business or organization-specific needs.
NIS2 is a mandatory EU directive and therefore has a much heavier legal status than the ISO27001 standard. NIS2 applies to specific sectors, namely essential and important companies. This classification (what exactly is essential and important) is described in the NIS2 Directive. NIS2 was developed to protect networks and critical infrastructure against cyber attacks. National authorities implement the NIS2 Directive, following the instructions issued by the EU. Companies and organizations that are subject to NIS2 can face heavy fines if they are not compliant. The specific requirements of NIS2 are laid down in legislation and there is no room for flexibility, as is the case with ISO27001.
Management of both standards
It is only possible that your company or organization must be NIS2 compliant. Of course, 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 also fall under the NIS2. This includes postal and courier services, waste management, chemical products, food, technical manufacturing and providers of digital services.
It is also possible that your company will both work with ISO27001 as with NIS2. Then the question arises how you are going to manage all those standards and guidelines.
If you are NIS2 compliant, you really won't get away with a quality system that links Excel sheets, Teams folders and Sharepoint locations together. And certainly not if you have the NIS2 directive at the same time, ISO27001- and for example ISO9001-wants to manage certifications.
What you also don't want is specialized software for every guideline or standard you want to follow or apply. That wouldn't be very practical.
Trust us, because we think about this matter every day: digital quality/risk management system that is able to manage all your guidelines and standards from one environment. This system must be able to meet all possible ISO standards and must be able to get along well with NIS2, but also with, for example, CSRD. It must be an integrated quality management system are, which itself meets the strictest standards in the field of information security. It would be ideal if you didn't have to worry about system functioning 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.
Fortunately for you, such a system exists and more than 800 companies are already working with it. It's called ISO2 HANDLE and if you want to know more about it, a simple message via our contact form. Once we're in touch, we'll see what we can best help you with at the moment. This can be a piece of digital information, but also a reference. And maybe you want a demo, a trial account or a pilot project. You can say it.
