Information Security Management System Standards: A Comparative Study of the Big Five

-It cannot be denied that nowadays information is a very important asset for any modern organization. Therefore protecting its security is very important and becoming a top priority for many organizations. Unfortunately there is no single formula that can guarantee 100% of information security. Therefore there is a need for a set of benchmarks or standards to ensure the best security practices are adopted and an adequate level of security is attained. In this paper, authors introduce various information security standards briefly and then provide a comparative study for major information security standards, namely ISO27001, BS 7799, PCIDSS, ITIL and COBIT. The study will provide a picture of the position and specialization of each standard, adoption by countries and their usability levels. Keywords– ISO27001, BS7799, PCIDSS, ITIL, COBIT, ISMS, Information Security, PDCA