SOC 2 compliance plays an important role in demonstrating your company’s commitment to securing customers’ data by illustrating how your vendor management programs, regulatory oversight, internal governance, and risk management policies and practices meet the security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality and/or privacy controls criteria.
WHO MUST COMPLY WITH SOC 2?
SOC 2 applies to those service organizations that store customer data in the cloud. This means that most companies that provide SaaS are required to comply with SOC 2 since they invariably store their clients’ data in the cloud.
SOC 2 was developed primarily to prevent misuse, whether intentionally or inadvertently, of the data sent to service organizations. Therefore, companies use this compliance to assure their business partners and service organizations that proper security procedures are in place to safeguard their data.
SOC 2 TYPE 1 VS SOC 2 TYPE 2
SOC 2 Type 1 and SOC 2 Type 2 reports are similar as they both report on the non-financial reporting controls and processes at an organization as they relate to the TSC. But they have one key difference.
SOC 2 Type I report is a verification of the controls at an organization at a specific point in time, while a SOC 2 Type II report is a verification of controls at a service organization over a period of time (usually a year but can be as short as 3 months).
The Type 1 report demonstrates whether the description of the controls as provided by the management of the organization are appropriately designed and implemented. The Type 2 report, in addition to the attestations of the Type 1 report, also attests to the operating effectiveness of those controls.
In other words, SOC 2 type 1 describes your controls and attests their adequacy while the type 2 report attests that you are actually implementing the controls you say you have. That’s why, for the type 2 audit, you need extra evidence to prove that you’re actually enforcing your policies.
If you are engaging in a SOC 2 certification audit for the first time, you would ideally begin with a Type 1 audit, then move on to a Type 2 audit in the following period. This gives you a good foundation and sufficient time to focus on the descriptions of your systems.