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WHAT IS SOC 2 COMPLIANCE
Everything you need to know about getting your SOC 2 Written by Om Hazela Accorian has aided 100s of companies in attaining SOC 2 compliance through its end-to-end implementation services. Subsequently, our audit arm – Accorian Assurance, has enabled independently conducted audits and attestations to provide clients with their SOC 2 reports. In the last few years, SOC 2 reports , have become the de facto way for service providers, especially SaaS companies, to showcase security assurance to their clients. Hence, it’s essential for companies that transmit, process, or, store client data. All SOC 2 reports contain a 3rd party auditors (CPA) opinion on the end company’s security posture against the requirements of the reporting standard (auditing procedure) along with scope information, exceptions, and deviations. Such a report will aid in taking the cybersecurity question off the table by showcasing a level of security assurance to your clients and simplifying vendor evaluations & security due-diligence checks. Thus, allowing you to focus on the growth of your organization. IS SOC 2 AN AUDITING PROCEDURE SOC 2 is a reporting framework and auditing procedure, and not a set of hard rules. It’s a set of best practices across various security attributes and domains with strong signals, that an organization needs to prioritize, encasing the criteria of Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, and Privacy. These went on to formulate the TSCs (Trust Service Criteria) for SOC 2. We would like to reiterate that a SOC 2 report does not prove that an organization is 100% secure, but, it’s a great baseline & starting point in your journey to instill security assurance and trust in your customers. HOW DOES SOC 2 AID MODERN ORGANIZATIONS Today’s modern organizations, especially service providers, need to showcase security assurance through attestations/certifications across various global, regional, and industry-focused security frameworks like ISO 27001, HIPAA, HITRUST, GDPR, CCPA, NIST CSF, etc. Breaking down AICPA’s suite of SOC Reports Soc stands for ‘System and Organization Controls.’” These were formerly called Service Organization Control reports. SOC is a suite of reports from the AICPA that CPA firms can issue in connection with system-level controls at a service organization. SOC 1 – Report of your internal controls related to financial data & statements SOC 2 – Report of your internal controls related to the 5 TSCs SOC 3 – Report on the results of SOC 2 for public consumption What is a SOC 2 Report? A SOC 2 (System and Organization Control 2) report is an objective third-party review of an organization’s commitment to service, security, and trustworthiness via a System and Organization Controls (SOC) examination A SOC 2 report is a confidential document with the auditor’s attestation. It is shared with end clients by organizations, especially service providers, to showcase assurance through internal controls for security and exceptions (if any). Thus, ensuring client data is secure. Since there are no exhaustive set of requirements, SOC 2 is different from several other information security standards and frameworks End organizations are required to engage a SOC 2 auditor (CPA firm with AICPA membership) to review agreed-upon procedures relating to the organization’s internal controls and issue a report thereof. TSC Examination (Trust Service Criteria) SOC 2’s TSCs cover five key criteria across security. They are as follows - Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, and Privacy. The baseline TSC is Security, and is mandatory for all SOC 2 assessments. Often organizations choose the other TSCs based on the nature of their business and the assurance required to be showcased to clients. However, we would recommend your company be audited across all 5 TSCs to ensure that...
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