What is SOC 2 Compliance and Its Importance?

What is SOC 2 Compliance and Its Importance?

The full name of SOC 2 is Service Organization Control 2. SOC 2 is an auditing standard The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) created SOC 2, an auditing standard and readiness evaluation. It is intended to guarantee that third-party vendors and service providers safeguard private data and prevent illegal access.

A description of the system used by the service organization is included in SOC 2 audit reports, which also assess the operational efficacy and design of important internal controls over a certain period. Any organization should prioritize defence-in-depth and information security. The increasing trend of outsourcing critical business functions (SaaS businesses, their goods, and other data centre providers) has increased in third- and fourth-party data breaches and leaks.

What Do you mean By SOC 2 Compliance? And The Trust Service Criteria

SOC 2 compliance is how organizations managed and store consumer data according to AICPA’s five Trust Services Criteria (TSC).

  • Security: The protection of system resources from unauthorized access. This consists of inference, network security and other security tools which protect from vulnerabilities, and ransomware like WannaCry. These criteria decrease the cyber threats and prevent data breaches and cyber-attacks.
  • Availability: The degree of accessibility of the system, goods, or services as specified by a service level agreement (SLA), a contract, or both. It focuses on security-related factors that may impact availability rather than system operation and usability.
  • Processing Integrity: It is the examination of whether a system fulfils its intended purpose in a full, legitimate, accurate, timely, and allowed manner.
  • Confidentiality: Addresses sensitive data is limited to industries. Encryption, SOC2 training, SSL certificates, DNSSEC domain hacking and email spoofing are fundamental to protecting confidentiality.
  • Privacy: It covers how personally identifiable information (PII) is gathered, used, retained, disclosed, and disposed of, as well as how it complies with the organization's privacy notice and the standards outlined in the AICPA's generally accepted privacy principles (GAPP). Any PII needs to be shielded from disclosure, whether intentional or unintentional. PII data examples include social security numbers, phone numbers, and names.

SOC reports are specific to each firm, in contrast to more stringent security regulations like PCI DSS. It is therefore possible to create organization controls that adhere to one or more of the trust services principles while yet being compliant with certain business practices. These internal reports offer crucial details about how your service providers handle sensitive data to authorities, suppliers, business partners, and your company.

The Importance of SOC 2 Compliance

There has never been more danger associated with outsourcing and, consequently, third and fourth parties. A portion of any organization's operations are outsourced, frequently to several different providers. Afterwards, a portion of their business is outsourced by those suppliers to other vendors. For this reason, strict security procedures in general, as well as Third-Party Risk Management frameworks, Vendor Risk Management programs, and SOC 2 are crucial. Carefully managing vendor risk requires the use of security ratings, industry benchmarking, and vendor surveys. To discover more, see our buyer’s guide on Third-Party Risk Management.

Consumers value processing methods and data security more than improper handling of their data. Consider including SOC 2 compliance in your information security policy and cyber security risk assessment procedure to guarantee data protection. One way to find out if vendors are following secure protocols is to invest in a technology that can automatically monitor security performance and automate security questionnaires—especially if the tool is CVE compliant. Furthermore, take into account shared assessments that offer thorough reports on service provider controls, guaranteeing correctness and confidence in the data presented.

For SOC 2 Consultant Choose Punyam.com

Punyam.com is a leading India-based ISO and Management System Certification Consultant, providing services for documentation, training, system implementation, and certification for various ISO and other national/international management system standards, including ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 22000, ISO 27001, ISO 50001, BRC food, NABL accreditation, NABH consultancy. Punyam.com provides the SOC 2 certification consultancy services to help the businesses get the SOC 2 certification. Their SOC 2 Consultancy service helps companies handle customer data, technology service providers, SaaS companies, partners, vendors, and support organizations achieve and maintain SOC 2 compliance, ensuring system integrity and control.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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