SOC-System and Organization Control

SOC 2 is the international standard for assurance over IT Controls and supports in gaining confidence over business processes.

SOC 2 Overview

SOC 2 focuses on a business’s non-financial reporting controls as they relate to Security, Availability, Processing integrity, Confidentiality, and Privacy. These principles are outlined in the Trust Services Criteria.

System and Organization Controls Each of the criteria has defined requirements (Points of Focus) that must be met to implement within the organization to demonstrate adherence to the criteria. For organizations evaluating SaaS or cloud services providers, compliance with SOC 2 is a minimum requirement. This is because it confirms to the customer that you have a certain level of maturity around security best practices.

System and Organization Control (SOC) is a set of standards created by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) to measure the controls and procedures of organizations that store, process, or transmit data on behalf of their clients. SOC reports are used by organizations to demonstrate that they have effective controls in place to protect the data they handle, and by their clients to ensure that their data is being handled securely.

There are three types of SOC reports:

  1. SOC 1: This report is used to evaluate the internal controls over financial reporting of an organization. SOC 1 reports are typically requested by clients’ auditors for regulatory compliance purposes.

  2. SOC 2: This report is used to evaluate the controls related to security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy of an organization’s systems. SOC 2 reports are used by clients to evaluate the security of their data.

  3. SOC 3: This report is a public-facing summary of the SOC 2 report. It is designed to be used by anyone who needs assurance that the organization has effective controls in place to protect their data.

SOC reports are typically issued by a certified public accountant (CPA) after conducting an audit of an organization’s controls and procedures. They are widely recognized and accepted by organizations as a way to demonstrate their commitment to security and compliance.

SOC 2 –Recommended Options

These are some of the recommendations for popular SOC 2 Compliances.