Standards and certifications offer a reliable benchmark for security and compliance that you can use when evaluating third-party vendors that handle your data. Created by the AICPA, the Service Organization Control (SOC) is a compliance standard with two types of certification.

SOC 2 is commonly associated with cloud providers. However, it is designed for any service provider that handles sensitive data, including SaaS providers, IT service providers and businesses dealing with business intelligence or analytics. Any organization that stores, processes or transmits customer data should become SOC 2 certified.

What Is SOC 2 Certification?

SOC 2 certification requires service providers to meet minimum technical and procedural standards for responsibly managing customer data. These standards are assessed and verified by an independent, outside auditor. The audit is based on the AICPA’s Trust Services Criteria, which encompass five core principles:

  • What tools and processes are the provider using to prevent theft, loss, misuse and unauthorized modification of data? An auditor will look for access control systems, firewalls, multifactor authentication, intrusion detection and other security mechanisms.
  • Are data, applications and services accessible as stipulated by the service-level agreement? Performance and availability monitoring, failover capabilities, and security incident response are scrutinized to determine availability.
  • Processing Integrity. Is complete, accurate and validated data processing making it possible for a system to achieve its intended purpose? Quality assurance and monitoring of data processing are evaluated to ensure the effective delivery of data and services.
  • How is the provider restricting access to data to specific parties? An auditor looks for protections such as encryption, application firewalls and access control systems.
  • Privacy is different from confidentiality in that privacy refers to a provider’s ability to manage the appropriate use, retention, disclosure and destruction of personal information. This is based on both the AIPCPA’s generally accepted privacy principles and the provider’s privacy policy.

What Are the types of SOC 2 Audits?

There are two types of SOC 2 audits. A SOC 2 Type 1 audit assesses the design of an organization’s security controls at a specific point in time. A SOC 2 Type 2 audit is more rigorous, assessing an organization’s security controls over a three- to 12-month period.

A service provider that meets standards in all five SOC 2 categories will have robust security systems in place. They’ll be able to detect suspicious activity, system configuration changes and user access. When a security incident occurs, the provider will be able to quickly alert you to the incident and take the appropriate action to mitigate its impact. They’ll be able to provide you with an audit trail with detailed context so you can make an informed decision about how to respond.

SOC 2 certification is critical to the evaluation of service providers because it verifies their sales and marketing claims. It offers a level of transparency into the provider’s security and compliance capabilities. SOC 2 certification also helps to overcome much of the fear and uncertainty about entrusting your sensitive data with a third-party provider.

Technologent Is SOC 2 Type 2 Certified

Technologent went through the rigorous process of obtaining SOC 2 certification because it verifies not only our capabilities but also our commitment to protecting our customers’ data. We hold ourselves to the highest standards when it comes to data management, and SOC 2 shows that our standards are aligned with strict technical and process requirements for security and compliance. You can partner with us with the confidence that we’ll keep your critical assets safe.