What Is Soc 2 Compliance

Regardless of whether organizations outsource business functions (e.g., SaaS, cloud-computing providers) or not, information security should be a concern. It is an audit process used to ensure your service providers manage your data securely so that you and your client’s data are protected. The SOC 2 compliance checklist is a minimum requirement when evaluating SaaS providers.

SOC 2 Compliance: What is it?

American Institute of CPA’s reporting platform for service organization control includes SOC 2 compliance. Your customers’ data will be safe and private with this tool. In terms of safeguarding customer data, it describes five key trust service principles consisting of security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.

Controls, tools, and processes are not prescriptive in SOC 2. Rather, it details the criteria needed to maintain robust information security, allowing companies to adopt processes and practices relevant to their operations and objectives. 

SOC reports can be classified into two categories:

● A vendor’s Type I systems are described and whether their design meets relevant trust principles.

● Type II describes how effective the systems are in terms of achieving their goals.

The need for SOC 2 compliance

Cloud computing and SaaS vendors aren’t required to be SOC 2 compliant, but its importance when it comes to securing your data cannot be overstated.

Imperva maintains SOC 2-compliance by conducting regular audits to ensure we maintain compliance with all five trust principles. In addition to web application security, DDoS protection, load balancing, and attack analytics, we also provide content delivery through our CDN.

The Four Steps of the SOC 2 compliance checklist

A broad standard common to all five Trust Service Criteria is security, which is the basis for SOC 2 compliance.

A SOC 2 security assessment focuses on preventing the unauthorized use of an organization’s assets and data. A SOC 2 compliance checklist that covers safety standards is presented below:

1. Unauthorized personnel cannot access assets through access controls.
2. It is a method for preventing unauthorized changes to IT systems, as well as a controlled process for managing changes.
3. The monitoring and resolution of deviations from organizational procedures involve system operations.
4. Identifying and mitigating risks in an organization is accomplished by both responding to them and addressing any subsequent issues.

Here are more ways to conform to SOC 2 principles in addition to the basic security principles:

●     Security. Keeping information and systems safe from unauthorized access. Data can be protected from unauthorized access through the use of IT security infrastructures such as firewalls and two-factor authentication.

●     Availability. Controls exist for operating, monitoring, and maintaining the infrastructure, software, or information. The criteria also measure whether your company maintains a minimum level of network efficiency, assesses and mitigates potential external threats. 

●     The integrity of the process. Assures that systems perform as intended and are free from errors, delays, omissions, and unauthorized manipulations. The system functions as it should, is authorized, complete, and accurate, and complies with the law. 

●     Privacy. Information security criteria determine a company’s ability to protect user information from unauthorized access. Names, social security numbers, or addresses, as well as other identifiers such as race, ethnicity, or health information, are the most common forms of personal information.