In today’s COVID-19 situation, we have moved into a New Normal, working from remote/home locations. In this situation we are regularly seeing the number of successful data breaches continues to increase. There are many who seems to have an upper hand, as many organizations fail to effectively detect and quickly respond to these threats and security issues.
In these situations, how do we give assurance to our customers, business partners and get a similar confirmation from our business associates, vendors, and service providers? The answer to this is, System and Organization Controls (SOC), which is an extensively studied and well-established group of controls and reports especially for Service Organizations.
SOC is a globally recognized framework that places your organization in such a position which gives a complete assurance to your customers that their data, business critical information, healthcare, financial and other sensitive information is well protected. Hence, the SOC audit becomes a necessity for service providers including cloud service providers and cloud computing hosts and software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers.
SOC for Service Organization
SOC for Cybersecurity
SOC for Supply Chain
SOC for Service Organization is an internal control report that assess and addresses the risks associated with an outsourced service. This has three (3) categories with two (2) types for each category, Type 1 and Type 2:
- SOC 1 is for Internal Controls over Financial Reporting (ICFR)
- SOC 2 focuses reporting on Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality and Privacy
- SOC 3 is about Trust Services Criteria for General Use Report
To explain in simple terms, who needs to follow this, let us understand if your organization is a service providing entity, who handles customer data? If the answer of this is Yes, then you should have a SOC 2 report. And if you have outsourced your work, your contractors, and sub-contractors should be SOC 2 compliant, as well.
SOC 2 is the most sort after report that defines criteria for managing customer data, based on five “trust service principles” Security, Availability, Processing integrity, Confidentiality and Privacy. It is a reporting framework which is flexible. Using this framework requirements as a guide, we, at Frigg Business Solutions, shall work with your organization in writing the correct and applicable internal controls that fits your unique situation and needs.
SOC 2 reports can play an important role in identifying and preparing necessary mitigation for:
- Oversight of the organization
- Vendor management programs
- Internal corporate governance and risk management processes
- Regulatory oversight
Now that we know that SOC certification with assessment reports is something that will give your customers necessary and expected assurance and will also help your business to have an upper hand than most of your competitors, you must not wait further to start working towards the same. You must start as soon as possible to avoid information, data, and privacy breaches.
We at Frigg Business Solution will get you going on this path. We shall ensure the complete end-to-end exercise, including:
- Readiness Assessment
- Evidence Collection
- Reuse of other evidence for SOC audits, and most important
- Globally certified CPA Attestation
| SOC | SOC Short Explanation | SOC TYPE 1 | SOC TYPE 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SOC 1 | Report on Controls at a Service Organization Relevant to User Entities’ Internal Control over Financial Reporting (ICFR) | Report on the fairness of the presentation of management’s description of the service organization’s system and the suitability of the design of the controls to achieve the related control objectives included in the description as of a specified date. | Report on the fairness of the presentation of management’s description of the service organization’s system and the suitability of the design and operating effectiveness of the controls to achieve the related control objectives included in the description throughout a specified period. |
| SOC 2 | These reports are intended to meet the needs of a broad range of users that need detailed information and assurance about the controls at a service organization relevant to Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality and Privacy of the information processed by these systems. | Report on management’s description of a service organization’s system and the suitability of the design of controls. Use of these reports are restricted. | Report on management’s description of a service organization’s system and the suitability of the design and operating effectiveness of controls. Use of these reports are restricted. |
| SOC 3 | Trust Services Report for Service Organizations, which are general use reports and can be freely distributed. | NA | NA |
