The ABCs of SOC 2 Compliance: What is Means for Your Business

What is SOC 2 compliance, and what does it mean for your company? Find out with our handy guide to SOC 2 compliance for overviews, requirements, and more.

The SaaS industry has become the largest and fastest-growing market since 2019. Combined, all the SaaS organizations earned about $104.7 billion in 2020 and these days businesses are spending 50% more on SaaS tech and continue to rely on them more and more every day.

So you're a business owner, or just starting up in the SaaS industry. You're looking for the best, current software to protect you and your clients but either you're not sure what to look for or what you're currently using has proven to be unreliable.

Using the wrong form of cyber security can lead to a slippery slope that none of us wants to go down. Thankfully, there's SOC 2 compliance. What exactly is SOC 2 compliance? Keep reading because it is definitely a lifesaver.

What Is SOC 2 Compliance

SOC 2 compliance is part of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) Service Organization Control reporting platform. It's not a list of controls, tools, or processes, instead, it simply reports the required security information to make sure it's up to standards when your business is being audited.

SOC 2 Compliance Checklist

If your business is SOC 2 compliant it means that the 5 Trust Service Principles are efficiently effective. The 5 Trust Service Principles are Privacy, Security, Availability, Confidentiality, and Processing Integrity. This is also known as the SOC 2 compliance checklist.

Privacy

The privacy section notes that your systems collection, use, and disposal of private, personal information follows not only your business's privacy notice but also the criteria outlined in the AICPA privacy principles.

Personal information is anything that can identify a specific individual, like an address or social security number. Information like race, sexuality, and religion are also considered sensitive and need to be properly protected.

Security

Security refers to the protection of your business from sources that do not have permission to enter. For example, hackers. You can ensure the right security measures are in place through firewalls, two-factor authentication, and several other forms of IT security. SOC 2 compliance makes sure all these are in place.

Availability

Availability makes sure that all your business's system functions, products, and services are accessible at all times. Usually, these terms are agreed on by both parties.

Availability doesn't focus on functionality and usability. It focuses on security-related criteria that could affect availability. Making sure your network is always online, and handling security incidents are key to ensuring top-rated availability.

Confidentiality

Confidential data is information that only specific people within a company are allowed to see. This seems similar to 'privacy' but while privacy protects the personal information of everyone, confidentiality ensures that, for example, students can't get into a professor's class syllabus and find answers.

Encryption is an important control for protecting confidentiality. Network and application firewalls, with in-depth access controls, are vital to ensuring confidential information remains in the hands it's meant for.

Processing Integrity

The processing integrity principle notes if whether or not your system achieves its purpose. For example, your business does and provides everything it says it will.

This means that all the other security principles fall under this as well. Having processing integrity up to standards ensures your business checks off all the other boxes. Monitoring of data processors and consistent quality control procedures can help maintain PI.

Security Comes First

Now you're aware of what SOC 2 requirements are and how using SOC 2 compliance benefits your business. To continue to be trusted by your clients and to gain more clients for the future your security must always be reliable and get good grades when audit time comes.

At Securily, we know that each business is different, and SOC 2 compliance adapts to all types. Here is an example of the ways we can help.

For more important information on cyber security and SOC 2 and how it can specifically help your business or start-up, visit our website and schedule a call.