What Are The Requirements Of Soc 2?

By Author: Punyam
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A report that can be given to third parties to show a robust control environment, an audit carried out by a third-party auditor to produce said report, or the controls and "framework" of controls that enable an organization to obtain a SOC 2 report are all referred to by the acronym SOC 2. Stated differently, the AICPA defines SOC 2 as a "report on controls at a service organization relevant to security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, or privacy." A voluntary cybersecurity attestation, the SOC 2 framework is produced by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and is most commonly utilised by service organizations that primarily deal with customers, partners, and other stakeholders headquartered in the United States.

Depending on the type of SOC 2 report (there are two variants), an unqualified SOC 2 report has many advantages. These advantages include:
• Simplifying the process of completing security questionnaires and due diligence: A lot of partners, clients, and stakeholders would rather go at a SOC 2 report than have a custom response to a security questionnaire ...
... or due diligence.
• Boost confidence among stakeholders, partners, and consumers.
• Attestation of robust internal control architecture and/or efficacious operation.
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) created ISO 27001, a widely accepted international standard that shares many similarities with the SOC 2 criteria.

The Requirements of SOC2
The five Trust Services Criteria that comprise SOC 2 are Confidentiality, Processing Integrity, Availability, Security (Common Criteria), and Privacy. Since the Security Trust Services Criteria serve as the foundation for all SOC 2 reports, the Common Criteria will always be included in the Security category. Availability, Confidentiality, Processing Integrity, and/or Privacy are the remaining four Trust Services Criteria (TSCs) that any organization can choose to include based on its specific business needs, organizational objectives, and partner/customer demands. Every one of the five groups focuses on something particular:
• Security (Common Criteria): Data and systems are safeguarded against illegal access, disclosure of data, and system damage that might jeopardise the data or systems' availability, integrity, confidentiality, and privacy and hinder the organization's capacity to meet its goals. Every SOC 2 report will contain security as it is the basis for all reports. Organizations have the option to have a review limited to security controls conducted. Firewall and configuration management, vendor management, identity, access, and authentication management, and, if relevant, data security and data centre controls are some of the controls that would come under the purview of the Security TSC.
• Availability: The systems and information can be used to accomplish the goals of the organization. A deeper look into capacity planning, service-level agreements, and recovery controls is provided by examinations that incorporate the availability criterion.
• Processing Integrity: The system's processing satisfies the goals of the entity and is valid, accurate, timely, and complete. Data inputs and outputs, data quality, data processing timeliness, and reporting are the main topics of the Processing Integrity criterion.
• Confidentiality: Information marked as confidential is safeguarded to achieve the goals of the organization. TSC confidentiality pertains to how well a firm maintains and disposes of its sensitive information. A business may designate certain kinds of information as confidential, such as contracts, sensitive information, customer information, and intellectual property.
• Privacy: For the entity to accomplish its goals, personal information is gathered, used, kept, disclosed, and disposed of. Personal information, or data about to actual people and their identities, is the subject of privacy. HIPAA-protected data, personally identifiable information (PII), and other sensitive data about an individual are examples of personal information.

For SOC 2 Consultant Choose Punyam.com
Punyam.com, a leading provider of ISO and management system compliance, training, and certification services since 1996, has assisted over 1000 organizations in India and abroad in developing, implementing, and maintaining ISO systems, ensuring recognition, credibility, profitability, regulatory compliance, and certification against applicable standards. Punyam.com offers SOC 2 consultancy to service organizations to achieve and maintain SOC 2 Certification. SOC 2 is a voluntary cybersecurity compliance framework developed by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) for service organizations. It specifies how organizations should handle customer data and focuses on Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, and Privacy. SOC 2 helps organizations enhance their overall cybersecurity and provide assurance to stakeholders, customers, and prospective clients.

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