Coalfire Awarded First UKAS ISO 27701 Accreditation

Certification Body is World's First to Obtain Dual Accreditation for Privacy Information Management Systems

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Mar 19, 2021, 09:00 ET

WESTMINSTER, Colo., March 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Coalfire ISO, the conformity assessment body arm of Coalfire, announced today that it has extended its accreditation with the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) for the certification of Privacy Information Management Systems (PIMS) in accordance with the ISO/IEC 27701:2019 ("ISO 27701") standard. This extension of accreditation is the first to be granted by UKAS to any certification body.

After being awarded accreditation in March 2020 via the ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB), Coalfire is now the world's first management systems certification body that has fulfilled the registration requirements for both ANAB and UKAS – two of the most active and reputable accreditation bodies globally. Coalfire was part of ANAB's first group of recipients for ISO 27701 accreditation. As a result of following ISO 27701 while in development, Coalfire issued the first unaccredited ISO 27701 certificate globally in August 2019 to OneTrust, which was named America's #1 Fastest-Growing Company by the Inc. 500 last year. That same certification was transitioned to an accredited scheme in March 2020.

"ISO 27701 has been more quickly adopted than any other standard or framework since the turn of the millennium and addresses the minimum benchmark that organizations need to maintain for a governance program that extends to both information security and privacy-related risks," said Will Dunphy, senior manager, privacy assurance, Coalfire. "The landscape for privacy regulation is evolving with refreshed interpretations, court opinions, and regulations engulfing the news cycle on what feels like a weekly basis. The adoption of a management system like that prescribed by ISO 27701 provides organizations the structure to implement a suite of versatile processes and controls that are designed to improve as new requirements and laws become effective."

Coalfire ISO-certified customers will be automatically transitioned to dually accredited certificates via both ANAB and UKAS within 30 days.

"We have adopted the perspective that certification to ISO 27701 should be irrefutable, which is why we challenged our certification body to extend our accreditation to more than one accreditation body as a way to provide increased weight to certificate awards issued to our certified organizations," said David Forman, VP, privacy and international assurance. "Coalfire ISO is proud to play a role in the importance of accredited conformity assessment activities and discourages the practice of opinions as well as attestations against management system standards."

In February, the same committee that authored and published ISO 27701 in August 2019 released the technical specification reference ISO/IEC TS 27006-2:2021 ("ISO 27006-2") which describes guidance for the accreditation of certification bodies offering PIMS certification services.

Coalfire provides both ISO 27701 readiness assessment and certification auditing services through its certification body as well as a suite of other related privacy assurance offerings.

About Coalfire ISO

As the certification arm of Coalfire, Coalfire ISO provides audit and certification services to public and private sector organizations worldwide. Coalfire ISO is an accredited certification body of management systems registered with both the ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB) and the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS). CoalfireISO.com.