Your clients trust you to keep their data safe. As you invest in systems and controls to manage cybersecurity, you also need a way to demonstrate client trust with hard data. One way to do that is with a SOC 2 Type II Audit.
Additionally, having a SOC 2 Type II certification plays a pivotal role in ensuring the trust, security, and operational integrity of organizations. By assessing and validating their adherence to data protection and privacy standards, it demonstrates that you store and process client data securely.
What Does a SOC 2 Type II Audit Involve?
Developed by the American Institution of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), SOC 2 audits provide assurance about an organization’s cybersecurity measures. An outside auditor will conduct an assessment to determine how well your security systems and processes aligns with five trust principles:
Security
This control addresses an organization’s ability to safeguard sensitive data and information systems. It examines logical and physical access, operation of the system, change management, and risk mitigation. The auditor will evaluate how well security measures in these areas protect data from unauthorized access, breaches, and cyber threats. In addition, they will assess whether proper measures are in place to respond to threats and maintain the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data.
Availability
Correspondingly, the availability control considers whether an organization can provide reliable and continuous access to its systems, applications, and data. Compliance requires the ability to benchmark current usage and identify environmental threats. It also assesses the ability to minimize downtime and disruptions and ensures that adequate measures are taken to protect the availability of critical resources.
Processing Integrity
This control examines the accuracy, completeness, and timeliness of processing transactions and data. It focuses on preventing errors, inaccuracies, and unauthorized alterations in processing, and ensures that information is processed accurately and reliably. Compliance requirements include making and keeping records of system inputs and defining processing operations.
Confidentiality
The confidentiality control seeks to protect sensitive information from unauthorized disclosure. It evaluates an organization’s efforts to restrict access to confidential data and to prevent data leaks or breaches that could compromise privacy. Organizations must identify sensitive information as it is received, determine how long it should be kept, and erase sensitive data when it is no longer needed.
Privacy
Finally, the privacy control assesses an organization’s compliance with privacy laws, regulations, and policies related to personal information. It ensures that organizations use clear and visible language in privacy notices, obtain proper consent for data collection, collect information from reliable sources, and respect the individual right to privacy.
Overall, these trust controls verify that an organization’s systems, processes, and practices meet stringent security standards. They are used to conduct two different types of SOC 2 audits:
- Type I – This audit assesses whether the security controls used by a service provider were designed to align with the trust principles.
- Type II – This audit considers whether security controls function as they are intended to.
Why Get SOC 2 Type II Certified?
SOC 2 builds client confidence by demonstrating that you store and process all data securely. By ensuring compliance with the security trust controls, and SOC 2 Type II audit can:
Help You Avoid a Data Breach
Security measures must be able to protect from both internal and external threats. Compliance with SOC 2 guidelines is an excellent way to evaluate your security measures and mitigate risk.
Ensure Peace of Mind for Clients
Clients need to know that every precaution is taken care of to protect sensitive data. Obtaining SOC 2 Type II certification communicates your commitment to data privacy and integrity.
Provide Valuable Insights
Lastly, a SOC 2 Type II audit can help you identify security weaknesses and adhere to industry standards. As a benchmarking tool, it shows you where your company aligns with expectations in the industry and how you can more effectively mitigate risk.
At CyberFOX, we place the highest priority on compliance and security. That’s why we are proudly SOC 2 Type I compliant and SOC 2 Type II compliant. We also follow GDPR guidelines and we are committed to following industry best practices to ensure that our clients have the best security solutions on the market.
Ready to update your security stack? We can help! Start a free trial and get effective and efficient password management and privileged access management solutions with CyberFOX.
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