“SOC” refers to System and Organization Controls. This is a valuable framework for assessing your organization’s data security. Being SOC 2 compliant shows that your business has a high standard for information security (and you have a certification to prove it!) This rigorous audit is performed by a third-party and covers many different aspects of data security, from access controls to disaster recovery plans — important measures, considering 97% of data breaches are preventable with basic tools!
Any businesses working with sensitive data should consider pursuing SOC 2 compliance. Startups or other high-growth businesses can especially benefit from it, but more on that later. For now, let’s take a closer look at SOC 2 and what it can do for you.
What Is SOC 2 Compliance and Certification?
SOC 2 compliance ensures you’re protecting your organization’s and clients’ interests by taking steps to prevent data corruption, leaks, and other types of unauthorized access.
SOC 2 covers five trust service principles:
Security: The security principle covers the measures you’ve put in place to keep data from unauthorized access. These measures include network and application firewalls, intrusion detection, access controls, and two-factor authentication.
Availability: In the availability principle, auditors assess how securely you provide your service to your clients. They look at processes like performance monitoring, disaster recovery, and how you handle security incidents.
Processing integrity: Processing integrity refers to how well a system does what it’s meant to do and verifies the data is complete and correct. Auditors will be looking to see how you are monitoring data processing and conducting quality assurance.
Confidentiality: We’ve already mentioned a few ways of keeping your data confidential, like access controls and network or application firewalls. Encryption is another important component to keeping your organization’s data confidential and ensuring only authorized users have access.
Privacy: Privacy refers to how a company handles personally identifiable information (PII), such as names and Social Security numbers. When working with this information, you’ll need to implement steps like access controls, encryption, two-factor authentication, and policies for data collection, use, and disclosure.
Let the above trust principles serve as your SOC 2 compliance guidelines, helping you establish more secure and effective procedures that can ultimately save you time and money.
Why Do Startups Need to Consider SOC 2?
Startups and high-growth businesses need to ensure they have their security bases covered. SOC 2 compliance is a requirement for many businesses, especially those offering Software as a Service (SaaS).
Many customers might feel hesitant to work with a new business because they question their ability to provide a reliable and secure service, but SOC 2 for startups can provide peace of mind to partners and customers alike. A SOC2 certification tells your customers that your business follows industry-standard procedures and policies to keep their data safe.
Kinetix SOC 2 Services
Since the process of achieving SOC 2 compliance is so individualized to each organization, even with the trust principles outlined above, knowing exactly how to go about it isn’t always straightforward.
Here at Kinetix, we offer readiness consulting for SOC 2 compliance and can refer you to a trusted partner when the time comes for the final audit. We’ll work closely with your startup to ensure you’re prepared to meet the security needs of all your future clients.
Browse our website to learn more about our services, or reach out today to speak to a member of the team!
