SOC2
SOC 2 serves as a platform to assist software providers and other businesses in showcasing the security measures they take to safeguard client data stored in the cloud. Security, reliability, processing integrity, secrecy, and confidentiality are among the measures together known as the Trust Services Principles.
The basic criterion for enterprises assessing SaaS or cloud service providers is compliance with SOC 2. This is because it demonstrates to the client that you possess a particular level of maturity about best security practices.
The Significance of SOC 2
SOC 2 compliance proves that your business has proper control over the environment’s data security. Since SOC 2 is an independent review carried out by an outside accounting company, it is more credible than simply saying you are compliant.
External auditors are the ones who grant SOC 2 certification. Depending on the systems and procedures in place, they evaluate how closely a provider adheres to any or all of the five trust principles.
What Advantages Come With SOC 2 Compliance?
- Make yourself stand out from the competition.
- Determine the controls that are applicable to your clients and test them to confirm the controls’ functionality and design.
- Create more regulated and reliable procedures
Without a SOC 2, you may in some circumstances be unable to enter a certain market. For instance, if you are marketing to financial firms, a Type II SOC 2 report should most likely be required.
The following is a breakdown of trust principles
- Safety
The security concept deals with preventing unwanted access to system resources. Access controls to aid in preventing possible network exploitation, data breaches or illegal withdrawal, program abuse, and incorrect information manipulation or disclosure. Information security tools including networking and web apps firewalls, two-step authentication, and vulnerability scanning are useful in avoiding security breaches that might result in unauthorized access to systems and information.
- Easily accessible
According to a contractual or service level agreement, the availability concept entails the system, goods, or services being accessible. As a result, both parties agree on the standard minimum level of performance for system availability.
This concept includes availability-related requirements but does not cover system operation and usability. In this environment, it is crucial to monitor network availability and performance as well as handle security issue response and site backup.
- Processing reliability
The processing integrity principle examines if a system succeeds in its objectives. Data processing must therefore be comprehensive, legitimate, reliable, timely, and regulated.
Processing fidelity, however, does not always imply data integrity. In most cases, it is not the computing entity’s function to identify flaws in data that exist before being fed into the system. Processing integrity can be ensured with the use of tracking data processing and quality assurance techniques.
- Confidentiality
Data is regarded as confidential if access to and disclosure of the information is limited to a particular group of people or organizations. Data designed just for firm personnel, business strategies, proprietary information, internal pricing information, and other sorts of sensitive financial records are a few examples.
Encryption is vital protection for preserving transmission secrecy. Information that is handled or kept on software applications can be protected by networks and application firewalls as well as strong access controls.
- Privacy
The privacy principle focuses on how the system collects, uses, retains, discloses, and discards personal data in accordance with the organization’s privacy statement and standards outlined.
Details that can identify an individual are referred to as personally identifiable information (PII). A higher level of security is typically required for sensitive personal information, which includes information concerning one’s health, ethnicity, gender identity, and religion. All PII must be shielded from unwanted access through controls.
Who Is Insured by SOC 2?
In order to enable service providers to explain the security controls they employ to secure client data, SOC 2 was created specifically for them. As a result, it is applicable to almost all SaaS providers, cloud service providers, and businesses that keep client data in the cloud.
