ISO/IEC 27001:2005 is intended to be suitable for several different types of use, including the following:
use within organizations to formulate security requirements and objectives;
use within organizations as a way to ensure that security risks are cost effectively managed;
use within organizations to ensure compliance with laws and regulations;
use within an organization as a process framework for the implementation and management of controls to ensure that the specific security objectives of an organization are met;
definition of new information security management processes;
identification and clarification of existing information security management processes;
use by the management of organizations to determine the status of information security management activities;
use by the internal and external auditors of organizations to determine the degree of compliance with the policies, directives and standards adopted by an organization;
use by organizations to provide relevant information about information security policies, directives, standards and procedures to trading partners and other organizations with whom they interact for operational or commercial reasons;
implementation of business-enabling information security;
use by organizations to provide relevant information about information security to customers.