TISAX Certification Requirements: What Does Your Business Need?
If a customer, manufacturer or automotive supply chain partner has asked your business about TISAX, one of the first questions is usually simple: What do we actually need to do?
The answer isn't quite as straightforward as completing a checklist and receiving a certificate.
TISAX is designed to provide assurance that organisations handling sensitive information within the automotive industry have appropriate information security measures in place. What your organisation needs will depend on the information you handle, the requirements of your customers and the assessment objectives that apply to you.
For businesses entering the process for the first time, understanding those requirements is an important place to start.
What Is TISAX?
TISAX stands forTrusted Information Security Assessment Exchange.
It is widely used throughout the automotive industry and its supply chain to assess and exchange information about an organisation's information security.
Unlike a general cyber security checklist, TISAX considers how information security is managed across the organisation. That means technology is important, but so are your policies, processes, responsibilities and the way information is handled by your people.
For automotive manufacturers and suppliers, this provides a common approach for demonstrating that sensitive information is being appropriately protected.
Does Every Automotive Business Need TISAX?
No. Being involved in the automotive industry does not automatically mean that your organisation needs to undergo a TISAX assessment.
The requirement is often driven by the organisations you work with and the type of information you access or process.
A manufacturer or supply chain partner may require a particular level of assurance before sharing sensitive information or awarding certain contracts.
This is why one of the most important things to establish at the beginning isn't simply "Do we need TISAX?"
It's: "What TISAX requirements are our customers expecting us to meet?"
Understanding that before beginning preparation can prevent your organisation from spending time and money working towards the wrong objective.
Understanding the Information Security Assessment
TISAX assessments are based on the VDA Information Security Assessment (ISA) catalogue.
The ISA provides the basis for assessing information security and incorporates requirements relating to areas such as information security management, access to information, physical security, identity and access management, IT operations, suppliers and organisational processes.
This is where businesses can sometimes underestimate the work involved. TISAX isn't simply an IT department exercise.
Your technology may be secure, but assessors also need to consider whether appropriate processes and controls exist around it.
For example, who is responsible for information security?
How are employees given access to systems?
What happens to that access when somebody leaves?
How are risks identified and managed?
How is sensitive information protected?
Are security responsibilities documented?
The answers need to exist beyond somebody saying, "That's just how we do it."
What Assessment Level Do You Need?
Another important part of TISAX is determining the appropriate assessment level.
Different assessment objectives can require different levels of verification. Broadly, the level determines how deeply the information provided by your organisation is assessed.
For businesses preparing for TISAX, this distinction matters because the amount of preparation and evidence required can vary considerably.
You shouldn't therefore choose an assessment level simply because it sounds appropriate.
The requirements should be established based on the assessment objectives relevant to your organisation and, importantly, what your customer or supply chain partner requires.
Policies and Governance Matter
One area businesses can overlook when preparing for TISAX is governance. You may already be doing many of the right things operationally, but can you demonstrate them consistently?
Good policies establish how the organisation expects information and technology to be managed.
They can cover areas including access control, acceptable use, remote working, password management, incident management and the processes followed when employees join, change roles or leave.
But policies shouldn't be documents created purely for an assessment and then forgotten.
They need to reflect what actually happens within the business.
Good governance creates consistency, establishes responsibility and gives employees clear guidance about what is expected of them.
Access to Information Needs to Be Controlled
Not everybody within an organisation needs access to everything.
One of the foundations of good information security is ensuring employees have access to the systems and information they genuinely need to perform their roles. That means considering how accounts are created, how permissions are granted, how privileged access is controlled and what happens when somebody changes role or leaves the organisation.
Multi-factor authentication can form part of this wider approach, but technology alone doesn't solve the problem. Businesses also need processes surrounding access.
If an employee leaves on Friday, for example, there should be a clear and consistent process ensuring their access is removed appropriately rather than somebody remembering several days later.
Your Technology Environment Needs to Support the Requirements
This is where your IT environment becomes particularly important. Your organisation needs technology that can support the security controls and processes you've established.
That can involve areas such as endpoint management, patching, account security, network security, backups, monitoring, encryption and secure configuration.
Legacy technology can sometimes create challenges here.
This is particularly relevant within manufacturing environments, where older systems may remain operational because they're connected to specialist equipment or production processes.
Replacing everything isn't always realistic.
Instead, organisations need to understand the risks associated with their environment and determine appropriate ways to manage them.
You Need to Understand Your Risks
TISAX preparation shouldn't start by buying more security products. It should start by understanding risk.
What information does your organisation hold?
Where is it stored?
Who can access it?
Which systems are critical?
Which suppliers have access to your information or environment?
What would happen if a particular system became unavailable?
Once those risks are understood, appropriate controls can be introduced. This is considerably more effective than implementing technology without understanding the problem it's supposed to solve.
Evidence Is Important
Having a security control in place and being able to demonstrate that it exists are two different things.
Assessment requires evidence.
That could mean demonstrating how particular processes operate, providing relevant documentation or showing that controls are implemented and maintained.
This is why preparing at the last minute can become difficult.
If information security has been embedded into normal business operations, evidence develops naturally as processes are followed.
If everything is being created immediately before an assessment, the process can become considerably more challenging.
TISAX and ISO 27001 Are Not the Same Thing
Businesses researching TISAX frequently encounter ISO 27001.
There is overlap between the two, particularly around structured information security management, but they shouldn't be treated as interchangeable.
ISO 27001 is an internationally recognised information security management standard used across many industries.
TISAX is specifically focused on information security assurance within the automotive industry and its supply chain.
Which one your organisation needs depends on your objectives and customer requirements. In some circumstances, organisations may work with both.
TISAX vs ISO 27001: What's the Difference?
How Long Does TISAX Preparation Take?
There isn't one answer that applies to every organisation.
A business with mature security processes, clearly defined responsibilities and good documentation will be starting from a very different position from an organisation that has never formally reviewed its information security.
The first step should therefore be understanding the gap between where you are today and where you need to be.
From there, the work can be prioritised.
Some organisations may need technical improvements. Others may discover that their biggest gaps are policies, documentation, governance or evidence.
Usually, it will be a combination.
Where Should Your Business Start?
Don't begin with the assessment itself.
Begin by establishing what you're trying to achieve.
Understand the assessment objectives your organisation requires, review your existing environment against those requirements and identify the gaps that need addressing.
Then build a realistic plan.
This allows technical changes, policies, governance and evidence to develop together rather than treating TISAX as a last-minute compliance exercise.
How Sunrise Technologies Can Help
Preparing for TISAX isn't simply about passing an assessment. It's an opportunity to build stronger foundations around the way your organisation protects information, manages technology and responds to risk.
Sunrise Technologies works with businesses to understand their existing IT environment, identify weaknesses and implement the technical and organisational foundations required to improve information security.
For automotive manufacturers and businesses throughout the automotive supply chain, this can include strengthening cyber security, reviewing technology and access controls, improving governance and policies, reducing operational risk and helping your organisation prepare for TISAX requirements.
The objective isn't to introduce controls purely because an assessment asks for them. It's to create a stronger, more resilient organisation that is better prepared for the expectations of customers and the wider automotive supply chain.
If TISAX has appeared on your organisation's radar, the best place to start is understanding what you already have, what's missing and what needs to happen next.