It’s not as straightforward as a connect-the-dots exercise. If you think about how quickly enterprises are moving towards and expanding their operations in the cloud and you consider the increasing number of security threats based on the cloud it can get quite a bit confusing. We’re here to help you understand the complexity of compliance standards for you, starting by introducing SOC 2.

SOC 2 is one of the most common compliance objectives for tech companies. What exactly does SOC 2 compliance mean, and how do you get it? In this article, we go over the top four things you must know.

What is SOC 2 Compliance?

SOC 2 is specifically designed to help service providers store customer information within the cloud. This means that SOC 2 applies to nearly all SaaS businesses in addition to any business that relies on the cloud to store customers’ data. In 2014, cloud service providers only had to satisfy SOC 1 compliance requirements. Nowadays, any company that stores customer information in the cloud must comply with SOC 2 requirements to reduce risk and exposure to this data.

So, what exactly does SOC 2 require? It’s regarded as an audit on technical aspects, but it goes further than that. SOC 2 requires that companies adopt and adhere to strict policies and procedures that cover the security and availability, as well as the processing confidentiality and integrity of personal data. SOC 2 guarantees that the company’s security procedures are by the specific requirements of the current cloud-based requirements. As more companies rely on cloud storage to store customer information, SOC 2 compliance is becoming an essential requirement for many businesses.

To implement this Here are the four security areas that are crucial to meet SOC 2 compliance.

1- Monitoring the Known (and the Unknown)

Being in SOC 2 conformity means that you have developed a system and practice that meets the requirements of oversight throughout your organization. Particularly, you have an oversight system to identify suspicious system activity, authorized as well as unauthorized modifications to system configurations, as well as access levels for users.

As fast as the world moves within the cloud environment, you must have the capability to keep an eye on not only known criminal activity but, the unidentified as well. This is possible by defining what normal activity appears to be within your cloud environment, so you can identify the source of any abnormal activity.

Customers should be aware that no matter what happens next, whether it’s Wannacry, NotPetya, CloudBleed, and Spectre Next Generation security threat is discovered the information they have stored will be secure within your control. By setting up an ongoing security monitoring system that can detect the possibility of threats coming from both internal and external sources, you can be sure that you won’t be in the dark regarding what’s happening in the cloud environment.

2- Anomaly Alerts

If a security breach occurs (and it likely will due to the realities of the threat landscape today it is imperative to prove that you have adequate alerting procedures in place so that in the event of unauthorized access to data of customers is discovered, you will have the capability to react and correct the situation promptly.

The most common issue with alarms is that you are left with lots of false positives. To avoid this it is necessary to have a system that sounds the alarm only when there is a deviation from the norms set for your particular setting.

Particularly, SOC 2 requires companies to create alerts for all activities that could result in illegal:

• Disclosure or modification of control, data, or even configurations
• Transfer of files
• Account, filesystem access, or login access

In essence, you have to identify the warning signs of threat in your particular cloud and your risk-based profile to ensure that you’re alerted when something goes wrong and you’ll be able to quickly take action to avoid loss of data or the possibility of compromise.

3- Detailed Audit Trails

There is nothing more crucial than knowing the reason behind an attack before responding. Without this understanding of the context, what will you know to do to fix the issue, especially if you’re dealing with an active attack? Audit trails provide the most effective method of gaining the knowledge needed to execute security processes. They give you the cloud-based context, revealing the who is, what’s when where, how, and why of a security breach so that you can take swift and educated decisions on the best way to react.

Audit trails can provide profound insights into:

• Modification, expansion, or removal of important system components
• Unauthorized modification of information and configurations
• The extent of the impact and the point of origin

4- Actionable Forensics

Your customers require assurance that you’re not just checking to identify suspicious activities and issuing real-time notifications, but also can take corrective actions on the alerts before a system-wide security breach exposes or compromises crucial customer information occurs. Alongside being obsessed with reducing the MTTD (Mean Time to detect) security firms must be equally obsessed with cutting down the MTTR (Mean Time to Remediate).

Because your decisions will only be only as good as the data that you use to make them You require actionable information to make informed choices. This is as monitoring hosted by the host, which is where the real source is. When you get towards the origin, you will have the ability to see:

• Where did the attack originate?
• Where it went to
• Which parts of the system were that it affected?
• Nature of the impact
• What is its next move? be?

By using these forensic analysis tools, you can identify dangers, minimize the effect, and then take corrective measures to avoid similar incidents from occurring shortly.

Wrapping Up . . .

SOC 2 is about putting in an established set of guidelines practices, procedures, and policies rather than just checking all compliance checkboxes by using single-solution solutions. It is a way to build confidence with your customers and users regarding the security and functioning that your cloud system provides. In contrast to other compliance regulations (such as SOC 1) simply require that you pass the audit test SOC 2 is a different kind of compliance. SOC 2 demands ongoing, long-term, internal procedures that ensure the security of information about customers and, consequently will ensure the long-term viability of your company. Read more