A Detailed SOC 2 Compliance Checklist

Before we get into the SOC 2 compliance checklist, you must first know what is SOC 2 compliance.

SOC 2 compliance is a key factor in ensuring your organization’s risk management strategy is effective. A SOC 2 audit will provide you with an independent assessment of the controls you have in place and help identify areas where you can improve.

In this article, we will be providing you with a compliance checklist that will help you adhere to SOC compliance standards.

Why you need a SOC 2 audit

The SOC 2 compliance checklists are the standard by which most businesses measure their cybersecurity efforts. It’s easy to see why: they provide a clear and concise way to assess your security posture, identify vulnerabilities in your systems, and fix them before hackers can exploit them.

There are three main benefits of having an independent third party perform a SOC 2 assessment:

• You’ll be able to see how well you’re doing at protecting customer data from unauthorized access or disclosure;
• You’ll know where there are gaps in protections;
• A third party can help you prioritize what needs fixing first so that everything else gets done later (which means less time spent trying to figure out how best to update all those outdated software patches).

Benefits of SOC 2 compliance checklist 

Here is how a compliance checklist can benefit you and your company:

• The SOC 2 compliance checklist helps you to get a better understanding of your current security practices. It gives you an overview of the risks that your organization faces and how they can be mitigated.
• A well-executed SOC2 compliance check can help improve your security practices and reduce costs by identifying weak points regarding personnel training, management processes, or asset controls.

So now, its time to take a look at the SOC 2 compliance checklist template:

Determine Your Scope

As you are preparing to conduct your SOC 2 compliance audit, it’s important to determine what is the scope of your audit. What are you auditing? What is not being audited? Are there limitations on what can be audited and when? Who is involved in this process, and who has authority over their specific areas of responsibility? Having answers to the SOC 2 questionnaire will prepare you better for the audit.

Communicate Process Internally

When you’re communicating with your customers, employees, other stakeholders, and the internal team, it’s important to keep the communication process as simple as possible. You’ll want to make sure that everyone is on the same page when it comes to what they need to do.

The more detail-oriented your employees are in their job descriptions and responsibilities, the easier it will be for them to understand each other’s roles within your company. This can also help reduce misunderstandings between different departments or offices within an organization.

Perform a Gap Assessment

A gap assessment is a process that helps you identify any gaps in your compliance program. As the name implies, it involves performing an in-depth audit of your business processes and systems to determine whether they’re updated with SOPs, SOC 2 requirements, and other regulations.

The benefits include:

• Knowing what you need to improve upon before any major changes are made (e.g., adding new employees or outsourcing certain tasks).
• Being able to accurately measure the effectiveness of your current practices by tracking performance metrics over time.

Remediate Control Gaps

Once you have identified the gaps, it’s time to develop a remediation plan to address those gaps and ensure that your organization complies with SOC 2 requirements. Implement the remediation plan by adding new processes, procedures, and SOC 2 controls list to detect, prevent or mitigate potential SOC2 violations.

Once implemented, you should verify that any gaps have been rectified by running periodic audits against both internal (e.g., auditors) and external parties (e.g., regulators).

Update Your Customers and Prospects

Update your customers and prospects on the status of your SOC 2 audit. Keep them informed of any changes to your control framework. Provide them with a copy of the SOC 2 report, as well as any other documentation required by law or regulation that has been issued after completing this process.

Monitor and Maintain Controls

The controls you have in place must be monitored regularly to ensure they remain effective. You should also test your controls periodically to make sure they’re still working properly. If you find that control isn’t working as well as it should, then it may be time for an update or replacement.

Find an Auditor

Look for someone with SOC 2 accreditation and experience in the industry you plan to audit. Ask them what they charge per hour and whether they offer any discounts if you need more than one audit at once (e.g., three companies). They may also want payment upfront in order to start working on your project immediately, so make sure this is something you’re comfortable doing.

Provide Requested Evidence to Auditor

The auditor will be reviewing your evidence to determine if your controls, testing, and monitoring procedures are effective at reducing risk. This includes all of the following:

• Evidence of Controls – The ability to identify, measure and monitor risks effectively within the organization.
• Evidence of Testing – The use of procedures that confirm the effectiveness of controls in preventing fraud or errors in transactions through detection and prevention mechanisms (e.g., reviews). These reviews may include manual/automated assessments performed by employees as well as third parties such as internal auditors who perform independent audits on behalf of customers.
• Evidence of Remediation – A process used by organizations when they discover a deficiency within their processes so they can correct it before something goes wrong again (e.g., fixing reported problems that were found during periodic testing).

Conclusion

A SOC 2 compliance audit helps you get an accurate assessment of your business’s controls. With the right SOC 2 audit checklist, you will be better prepared for the audit. In the end, you will have a report in hand that accurately reflects the current state of your company’s processes.