In the world of information security, there’s a high premium placed on the concept of trust. It’s what gives users the assurance to store their most sensitive data with you, and it’s how enterprise customers know which vendors to work with. Essentially, trust is both a mark of quality, and a powerful driver of business.
SOC 2 (System and Organization Controls 2) is a security compliance framework that helps organizations effectively manage customer data by adhering to established security protocols. It’s a standard that puts special emphasis on trust and data protection, helping vendors figure out how to build a secure environment, and giving customers a benchmark to evaluate vendors on their security posture.
SOC 2 is defined by a set of 5 Trust Service Criteria that need to be fulfilled by the vendor in order to achieve an acceptable level of security.
This is the most important aspect of your information security program, covering everything from how your organization does testing and scanning your network for malicious activity, how data is stored, transmitted, modified and deleted, and other security controls designed to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive user data.
This criterion focuses on the stability and uptime of your systems and services. If your network performance is slow, outages are common, or you don’t have a proper disaster recovery protocol for extreme circumstances, these would reflect poorly on your SOC 2 audit.
To meet this objective, the data stored with your organization would need to be processed accurately, in a timely fashion, and without losing any information in the process. This includes aspects like quality assurance, and is critical if, for example, your company is handling financial transactions or medical data.
A core component of information security is ensuring that no user is able to access data or system resources without proper authorization. Intellectual property, financial data, and business-sensitive information are all prime targets for attackers, and must be protected with strong access control mechanisms, authentication, and authorization.
In a similar vein, personal identifiable information (PII) is just as important to protect from data breaches and exposure. Everything from payment information, names, addresses, and medical data fall into this category, and must be secured using robust access control and cryptographic methods.
SOC 2 allows organizations to choose the specific TSCs that apply to their business. Typically, Security is mandatory, and you can choose the others (Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, Privacy) based on your services and customer requirements. Defining the scope involves:
It helps to inform stakeholders and upper management at your organization, so it will be easier to get support and resources to pursue the certification. The SOC 2 certification process can take several months, especially if you are pursuing a Type II audit.
Before engaging in a SOC 2 audit, your organization needs to establish policies, procedures, and controls aligned with SOC 2 requirements. Key preparation steps include:
There are two types of SOC 2 reports:
Decide which type of audit suits your needs. If you’re just starting out, a Type I audit is a good first step to take, and then you can pursue a Type II later.
This is where you really begin understanding the various security risks that could affect your network and systems. This involves answering some key questions about your tech stack:
Once you identify the risks and threats, prioritize them based on their impact to your organization, and the likelihood that they’ll occur. When it comes time to address these issues, you should start fixing them based on this ranking.
Threat modeling can be a great way to understand the risks to your organization. Learn how to build a comprehensive threat model of your environment and prepare for threats with AppSecEngineer.
Before the official audit, it’s important to perform a gap analysis to identify areas where you may not be meeting SOC 2 requirements. A gap analysis helps in:
You can do this internally or hire a consulting firm with SOC 2 expertise to perform the gap analysis. By understanding where your current security program is lacking, you’ll be better prepared when overhauling security protocols, access control, and tooling.
Based on the gap analysis and risk assessment, you should go about fixing or overhauling your security policies, processes, and systems. This is crucial step, and is where most organizations run into issues. This can involve:
Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to improving your organization’s security posture. But more than anything, your team needs the right skills in order to build secure software and process data safely. Skills that can only be acquired through hands-on training.
AppSecEngineer offers courses that can bring your entire product team up to speed, including:
...and much more. Get your team hands-on security skills, and achieve compliance in less than 6 months!
Only an AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants) certified firm can conduct a SOC 2 audit. The firm will:
Choose a CPA firm that has experience with SOC 2 audits in your industry.
During the audit, the CPA firm will:
For Type II audits, the firm will test your controls over the designated period (e.g., 6 or 12 months), requiring evidence of continuous compliance.
If the audit uncovers issues or exceptions, you’ll need to take corrective action immediately. This could involve:
Once these are addressed, you’d have to undergo additional audit steps to confirm that all issues have been resolved. if all goes well, you’ll receive your SOC 2 certification.
SOC 2 compliance is not a one-time event. You need to continuously monitor and improve your security controls. This includes:
Now that you’re SOC 2 compliant, inform your customers and partners about it, include it in your marketing initiatives, and build a reputation for trust and quality with your services.
Want to train your team in preparation for SOC 2 compliance? Check out AppSecEngineer’s suite of hands-on courses, assessments, and enterprise-grade learning management tools!
Aneesh Bhargav is the Head of Content Strategy at AppSecEngineer. He has experience in creating long-form written content, copywriting, producing Youtube videos and promotional content. Aneesh has experience working in Application Security industry both as a writer and a marketer, and has hosted booths at globally recognized conferences like Black Hat. He has also assisted the lead trainer at a sold-out DevSecOps training at Black Hat. An avid reader and learner, Aneesh spends much of his time learning not just about the security industry, but the global economy, which directly informs his content strategy at AppSecEngineer. When he's not creating AppSec-related content, he's probably playing video games.
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