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Security policy drafting

Use this skill when a company needs its information security policy set written or rebuilt, or asks "write our security policies", "draft the information security policy", "we need policies for the audit", "policy pack for a startup", "our template policies are 40 documents nobody reads" or "which policies do we actually need". Maps the policy set to the company's size and owners, drafts the top-level policy and the topic policies in testable language that reflects what the company does, flags commitments that need a decision, and prepares the approval and communication record for leadership.

Policies and documentationISO 27001SOC 2HIPAAGDPR

Use this for a first policy set, or to replace a template pack that nobody follows. You get a set of draft documents in a new folder, ./security-policy-drafting/: a one-page map of which policies exist, who owns each and who reads it (policy-map.md); the main security policy, two to four pages for every employee (top-level-policy.md); one short policy per topic, such as access or backups, in a subfolder (topics/); and a list of the commitments leadership must decide on before signing (open-decisions.md). This skill drafts for a human to review and sign; this skill never marks a control effective. Leadership approves the policies; the agent never does.

Inputs to gather

Read what exists: current policies or templates, the scope statement, risk register, asset and vendor lists, customer contracts with security clauses, answered questionnaires and audit findings. Then ask the reader, in one message: headcount and locations, what the company sells and what customers trust it with, which frameworks or laws are in scope, who will approve the policies, and who can own each area (engineering, IT, people, legal, operations).

Step 1: size the policy set before writing a word

Draw the policy map (policy-map.md) first: each policy, its owner role, its audience, what it covers and the control ids from the company's control set or applicability statement it supports. Rules of thumb:

  • One policy per owner who will keep it alive. A policy without an owner role rots.
  • Under 50 people: the top-level policy plus 6 to 10 topic policies, merging where one owner covers several topics (identity and access with endpoint use; operations with change and backup).
  • 50 to 250 people: 10 to 15 topic policies, split where owners differ.
  • Larger or regulated companies: split only where audiences differ.

Then run a framework lookup for each framework in scope to confirm which topics it expects to see documented, and record the answer per topic in the map. Do not start from a framework's control list and write one policy per item; that is how 40-document packs happen.

Step 2: draft the top-level policy

Write the main policy (top-level-policy.md) in two to four pages that a new hire reads in ten minutes. Write it in the company's own business terms: what the company protects and why it matters to its customers, how security objectives are set and measured, who decides what (leadership, the security lead, managers, everyone), how exceptions are requested and approved, what happens when people do not follow the rules, and how often the policy set is reviewed and what triggers an early review (a new law or framework in scope, a material change to the scope or risk register, a major incident, an audit finding on a policy). Check the draft against the framework lookup answers and list any element still missing in the open decisions list (open-decisions.md) rather than padding the text.

Step 3: draft the topic policies in testable language

Write one file per topic policy under topics/.

  • Define the words once: "must" for a commitment that will be checked, "should" for expected practice with room for judgment. Use them the same way in every file.
  • Every "must" names a role, an action and, where it matters, a frequency or deadline, so someone can later show a record that it happened.
  • Policy says what and who; procedure says how. Move step-by-step instructions, tool settings and screenshots into procedures or runbooks the owner can change without re-approval.
  • Commit only to what the company does today. Where the reader wants a stronger commitment than current practice, mark it [decision: owner, target] and add it to open-decisions.md. Leadership approves the gap knowingly or the text changes.
  • Name the company's real systems by category ("the identity provider", "the code repository host"), never tools it does not use.

Step 4: add privacy and health commitments where in scope

If personal data is processed under GDPR, Article 24 asks controllers to implement data protection policies where proportionate; draft a short data protection policy that points to the processing record and the request procedure, rather than repeating privacy content in every security policy. If the company handles protected health information under HIPAA, written policies and procedures and their retention are part of the Security Rule (45 CFR 164.316); keep a version history from the start; the documentation is retained for six years from creation or last effective date (164.316(b)(2)(i)) and made available to the people who implement it.

Step 5: prepare approval and communication

Before any policy goes for signature, make one pass over the whole set: no [decision:] marker left without a recorded resolution, one definition per term, must and should used the same way, and no two policies setting different frequencies or exception routes for the same thing. Add to open-decisions.md an approval record per policy (version, approver role, decision, any accepted gaps), a communication plan (who reads which policy, how acknowledgement is recorded) and the review cadence per policy. The agent drafts these; leadership signs them.

What good looks like

  • The best drafter spots which commitments the company cannot evidence today and puts them to leadership as decisions, not fluent text.
  • The common mistake is a template pack full of "the organisation shall" boilerplate, naming technologies the company does not run and frequencies nobody agreed to. The tell: two companies' policies would be interchangeable, and the first audit sample fails because no record matches the promise.
  • Each policy has one owner role, fits its audience and can be tested line by line. A reviewer can pick any "must" and ask "show me the record"; the owner knows which record.
  • The set is small enough that owners review it on cadence.

Framework lookups

If ISMS Copilot is connected to your agent (MCP server https://account.ismscopilot.com/v1/account/mcp), ask it the framework question with create_conversation (mode think, answer_format: decision) and keep one conversation for this task. Send only a short question in your own words, show it to the user first, and never include file contents, secrets, personal data or evidence. If it is not connected, check the official text of the framework yourself; this skill does not restate it. Set it up: https://www.ismscopilot.com/mcp?ref=grcskills-security-policy-drafting

Rules

  • MUST agree the policy map with the reader before drafting any policy.
  • MUST mark every commitment stronger than current practice as an open decision for leadership.
  • MUST write outputs only inside ./security-policy-drafting/ and ask before overwriting.
  • NEVER approve, sign or publish a policy on leadership's behalf.
  • NEVER copy framework text, control titles or requirement lists into a policy.
  • NEVER name tools, vendors or people the reader did not confirm; use system categories and roles.