How to get SOC 2 Type 2 Certification

Getting a SOC 2 type 2 certification is critical to building trust and demonstrating to your customers that you take data security and protection seriously. While there isn’t any legal obligation to comply with SOC 2, getting your organization SOC 2 attested has many advantages. 

For one, it helps you stand out and removes friction points in your deal cycles. It cultivates an organization-wide security culture and sets you up for smoother progression toward other frameworks.

But which SOC 2 report should you go for? Type 1 or Type 2? In this article, we talk extensively about your journey toward getting a SOC 2 Type 2 certification. Read on to know how much to budget for your certification – regarding time and financial resources and the steps involved in getting your SOC 2 Type 2 certification.

But before we talk about getting your SOC 2 Type 2 certification, let’s take a quick detour to understand what SOC 2 Type 2 attestation is and how it differs from the Type 1 attestation.

What is a SOC 2 Type 2 certification?

SOC 2 Type 2 certification is a popular compliance framework that helps secure client data storage and processing by third-party service providers. This SOC certification is granted by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) to companies that follow stringent security standards.

The process involved here may seem simple but is often not the case in reality since the SOC certification involves a third-party audit known as the SOC 2 Type 2 examination. This examination is quite rigorous and assesses the company’s information security practices and procedures over a period of time that extends from 6 to 12 months.

 The examination includes testing four key areas: Infrastructure, Processes, Data security, and Data handling.

At the end of the audit, you will get the SOC 2 Type 2 attestation to showcase your clients who demand it or to portray your strong security measures to the world.

Benefits of SOC 2 Type 2 Compliance Certification

The benefits of SOC 2 Type 2 certification range wide for both your security and company’s revenue increase. This is because the Type 2 assessment provides all the evidence necessary for your company to implement proper security controls.

Here are the benefits of SOC 2 Type 2 certification:

1. Improves brand presence

Of Course, this is one of the important benefits apart from keeping your system secure. SOC certification will be the main evidence that your company has taken all the necessary measures to safeguard from any malicious data breach.

This in turn, will help you build a good reputation in the market.

2. Provides security assurance

Again, you already know that SOC 2 type 2 is a deep dive process that offers unmatched insights into your security controls. If you compare this to SOC 1 or SOC 3, they weigh very less.

The duration required for a complete SOC 2 Type 2 audit varies based on factors like your company’s size, complexity, client base, and risk factors. Typically, a SOC 2 Type 1 Report takes around two months to create, while a SOC  2 type 2 attestation extends over a year. This year-long testing period ensures robust evidence of your security processes against trust service criteria.

3. Acts as a marketing differentiator

In the current crowded market scenario, many companies claim to be secure. However, only a few can substantiate their claims without successfully passing a SOC 2 Audit and obtaining SOC 2 Certification against trust service criteria.

Hence, having a SOC 2 report can set your company apart from competitors by miles who lack this certification and haven’t invested the time and resources into one.

With SOC 2 Type 2 certification, you can proudly market your commitment to stringent standards that others in the industry may still need to achieve. 

Companies that Sprinto has helped to achieve SOC 2 Type 2 certification

If you are in doubt about how Sprinto can actually help you achieve SOC 2 Type 2 compliance certification in no time, here are some case studies where our clients achieved compliance in no time.

Let’s dive in…

Happay

Happay, one of the proud customers of Sprinto, achieved compliance efficiency on SOC 2 with our help. Before they engaged with Sprinto, they faced the challenge of meeting SOC 2 requirements for enterprise customers and turned to Sprinto for automation.

Happay started by enabling Sprinto’s SOC 2 Type 2 audit readiness program and integrated its cloud stack with the platform. This, of course, simplified the control implementation and monitoring.

Happay achieved SOC 2 Type 2 audit readiness in five weeks and became GDPR compliant within the same period. This success led to an increase in sales and customer confidence.

 Read the full case study here…

Dassana

Dassana is a company which specializes in security observability. They turned to Sprinto to establish a SOC 2 compliance program with a strong focus on visibility.

Dassana decided to go ahead with Sprinto due to its user-friendly design, affordability, and workflow automation. Another feature that played a huge part was Sprinto’s continuous monitoring feature, which provided them with the ongoing assurance they needed. Sprinto’s system’s push-based nature ensured compliance tasks were completed without constant intervention.

 And the results were impressive, as Dassana got the SOC 2 audit ready in just 2 weeks. Their audit process was smooth with Sprinto’s partner network auditor, who verified evidence within the platform.

Read the full case study here…

Ripl

Ripl, an online design and social media management tool, faced the challenge of rigorous annual audits from platforms like Facebook due to its work with sensitive data. 

Seeking SOC 2 compliance, Ripl explored two options: manual auditing with consultants or using a compliance automation tool. Choosing technology over consultants, Ripl adopted Sprinto to simplify and automate its compliance process.

Sprinto’s real-time dashboard and compliance experts guided Ripl through a structured risk assessment and control mapping. The platform’s automation streamlined tasks, making compliance clear and predictable. 

With Sprinto, Ripl achieved SOC 2 readiness in just 25 days, a third of the expected time. The subsequent Type 2 audit was completed in 14 days.

Read the full case study here…

How to get SOC 2 Type 2 Certification

To get your SOC 2 Type 2 certification, you must plan at least six months if you plan to go about your compliance yourself. SOC 2 Type 2 certification requires you to run your SOC 2 controls for at least three months before you can begin your audit. Add to this the time you will take to build and operationalize the security controls.

When you work with Sprinto’s compliance automation, the time taken to get your type certification is much less. But more about that later.

Here are the 8 steps for a successful SOC 2 Type 2 certification:

1. Plan your scope of audit as per your customers’ needs

SOC 2, an acronym for Service Organization Control, defines how organizations must secure their data using five trust principles known as the Trust Services Criteria (TSC) or trust principles. These are security, availability, confidentiality, privacy, and processing integrity.

These TSCs also double up as your scope of SOC 2 audit. Each criterion has a set of individual focus points and requirements that you must meet through internal controls such as policies, procedures and security protocols.

Security is the only mandatory SOC 2 criteria and is often called the ‘common criteria.’ Elements such as two-factor authentication (2FA), firewalls, and encryption, among other measures, are used here to protect personal and business data. The remaining four categories can be used as add-ons to your assessment depending on specific customer needs.

In our experience, more often than not, organizations opt for security, availability, and confidentiality as the scope of their SOC 2 type II audit. If you need help determining which ones best suit your requirements, like cyber security or social security, we can help you.

Here’s how Sprinto can assist you:

Sprinto is a compliance automation platform that automates 90% of your compliance tasks. This means you’ll have more time to focus on your primary business objectives instead of spending time and resources to get compliant. Here’s how our platform helps your cloud services against trust services principles:

• You can easily set up controls for all your cloud apps through Sprinto, thanks to our support for over 100 integrations.
• Our user-friendly dashboard provides a clear view of the status of your controls and actual security, ensuring they are operating correctly with proper security management.
• If any irregularities occur, like an employee missing a security training, Sprinto will promptly alert the admin so they can take action.
• Sprinto enables continuous monitoring and measurement of all your controls, with over a million checks conducted every month in the background, 24/7.

2. Conduct an Internal Risk Assessment

You must now undertake the behemoth SOC 2 risk assessment exercise. It requires you to list all your assets (digital including) and identify the many business risks you encounter. These include your growth, location, information security risks, and many more.

Assign each identified risk’s likelihood of occurrence and impact and implement SOC 2 type II controls to mitigate them.

You must also undertake vendor risk assessment at this point. Like how your customers ask for details about your security program, you must ask your vendors about theirs too. You must do this to ensure that any weakness in the security health of your key vendors doesn’t compromise your customers’ data.

These exercises can get cumbersome with multiple spreadsheets and back-and-forth reviews. But endure you must for risk assessment forms the basis for a robust security posture.

Sprinto has an in-built integrated risk assessment feature that helps you identify the risks, pick the proper mitigation controls, and give you an overview of how the controls reduce your risk of unauthorized access.

3. Conduct Gap Analysis & Remediation

You now need to check for control gaps in your cybersecurity program and remediate them. For instance, if your implemented measures don’t meet the SOC 2 requirements (based on your chosen TSCs), you must form a remediation plan (policies, procedures, and processes) to plug the gaps and bring it up to an acceptable performance level.

While you go about these, you must ensure that every piece of information is documented thoroughly.

Documentation must also include an inventory of your digital assets, including individual endpoints, users, devices, and more. Since the SOC 2 report evaluates the effectiveness of your internal controls across systems in your organization, it’s advisable to keep updated documentation.

Sprinto helps you conduct your gap analysis meticulously with minimal human effort on an ongoing basis. With the help of Sprinto’s intuitive dashboard, you can see which administrative controls are working or not.

Also, Sprinto will send automatic notifications to the admin to address the issues promptly. Talk to our experts to know if it works.

4. Demonstrate Mapping & Coverage of internal controls

When undertaking a DIY approach to SOC 2, you must maintain a spreadsheet showing the linkages between your internal control policies and SOC 2 requirements.

Yes, it’s an exhaustive exercise, especially considering the number of controls involved (for instance, Security TSC has 33 individual criteria), but you must do this well.

Based on this, your auditor will review your controls framework, logical access, and oversights, reflecting on your SOC 2 readiness.

Sprinto automatically maps the SOC 2 controls to your internal controls and presents it in a way the auditors consume it, no matter your scope.

It also allows you to leave specific criteria out of scope with a suitable justification, making it easier for the auditors to review your SOC 2 readiness and give a qualified opinion letter based on trust services categories.

5. Implement Continuous Monitoring

SOC 2 isn’t a ‘one and done’ exercise. You must comply all the time, especially during the monitoring period. Any exceptions noted during the monitoring period will be in your SOC 2 report; you don’t want that. So, while you go about your certification journey, establish a continuous practice such that you are always SOC 2-ready.

But it’s best to opt for compliance automation if you don’t have the resources to allocate for this, both in terms of people and budget. Sprinto, for instance, sets you up with robust and proactive continuous monitoring.

It helps with evidence collection and alerts you when something isn’t done or is done incorrectly. This allows you to remediate quickly and increases your chances of getting an unqualified SOC 2 Type 2 report (the one you want).

6. Select an Auditor

Your SOC 2 report is only as good as your auditor’s opinion on how your organization’s security controls fit the SOC 2 requirements for an external audit. And that’s precisely why your auditor’s reputation is critical to your successful SOC 2 type II certification.

You must select a SOC 2 auditor (CPA) who understands your business and tech stack, has audited organizations similar to yours, is AICPA-approved, and fits your requirements of budget and brand.

And if you have chosen a compliance automation platform route to SOC 2 certification, you must ensure that your auditor knows how to work with it. Sprinto offers an auditor-friendly dashboard and trains the auditors to use it so our customers can spend their time on other business-critical requirements.

7. Undergo SOC 2 Type 2 Certification Audit

After a successful SOC 2 readiness assessment, you enter the observation period for your SOC 2 Type 2 certification. During this period, the auditor will ask for proof of your compliance with SOC 2.

You must securely share the evidence (in the form of screenshots, emails, and more) with your auditor (for instance, via Google Drive and Sharepoint, to name a few). Expect several rounds of to and fro during this phase of external audit.

Sprinto has eased up this step considerably for you. Your SOC 2 type II certification with Sprinto is nearly zero-touch as they present evidence on the shared auditor’s dashboard. Even so, Sprinto customers have a dedicated Sprinto resource that works with them through the audit-prep phase and the audit to ensure successful certification.

8. Receive your SOC 2 Type 2 Report

The SOC 2 Type 2 certification report is comprehensive and can run hundreds of pages. It enables your customers and customers to assess and address the risks arising from their relationship with your organization.

Your SOC 2 Type 2 report will include the following section:

Section 1: Management Assertion

Section 2: Independent Service Auditor’s Report

Section 3: System Description

Section 4: Applicable Trust Services Criteria and Related Controls, Tests of Controls, and Results of Tests

Section 5: Other information provided by the Management

While Section 2 only gives the overall status of the assessment, the details of your assessment will be reported in Section 4.

How long will it take to get SOC 2 Type 2 certified?

 SOC 2 type II certification requires a minimum of three months of the monitoring period not accounting for the time you take to get your SOC 2 audit ducks in a row. Your auditor will need this time to monitor your internal controls’ design and operating effectiveness to evaluate your security posture.

How long would it take to get audit-ready? The answer to this question depends on how soon you can get there and your business continuity plans. SOC 2, as you may have understood by now, is complex and requires much work in policy creation, documentation, risk assessments, controls mapping, and evidence collection. So, expect a 6- to 12-month timeline if you choose a DIY approach.

When you use compliance automation, the time taken is less. With Sprinto, for instance, depending on the complexity of your organization and the TSCs chosen, getting SOC 2 type 2 certified takes only a few weeks to get you an assurance audit report.

Validity of SOC 2 Type 2 certificate?

Your SOC 2 attestation is only valid for a year. This means you must maintain your audit readiness during the preparatory period before you renew your SOC 2 next year. Sprinto’s continuous monitoring feature helps precisely that and will not interfere with your business plans.

In the interim period between the lapse of your earlier SOC 2 certification and its renewal, you can issue a SOC 2 bridge letter to your prospects/customers, be it in any business.

How much does SOC 2 type 2 compliance certification cost?

The SOC 2 Type 2 certification costs will start anywhere from $20000 to over $80000 depending on multiple factors that apply to your company. However, in the image below, we have given an overview of how the costs vary for cloud computing vendors with chosen paths.

Please take a look at the table below:

Find out how Sprinto can help you become SOC 2 Type 2 certified

Instead of spending your engineering team’s precious time getting your organization SOC 2 certified, you can choose an easy, effortless and error-free route to your SOC 2 certification using Sprinto’s compliance automation platform.

Sprinto makes the audit process easy and error-free. It automates repetitive tasks, reducing the workload for your staff. Here’s how Sprinto helps cloud vendors cut down on SOC 2 Type II compliance costs:

• Sprinto’s built-in continuous monitoring system ensures your compliance is always up to date and alerts you to any issues.
• MDM, Security Awareness Training, and Incident Tracking Software (usually costing over $1000) are included in the platform.
• You can access partners for penetration tests and vulnerability assessments at reduced rates.
• Sprinto supports free/open-source vulnerability scanners.
• Sprinto offers certified auditors for SOC 2 audits at a reduced cost, starting at $4999, depending on your organization’s size.
• You can check your audit readiness anytime on the Sprinto dashboard.
• Sprinto provides in-house compliance experts to guide you through the audit preparation process.
• Sprinto offers pre-approved policies, saving you on legal costs.
• Sprinto doesn’t disrupt your employees’ work, saving on productivity costs.
• Sprinto helps you become audit-ready in just weeks, saving you hundreds of hours.

The result? A hassle-free SOC 2 report and substantial time and cost savings.

Book a demo today to discover how Sprinto can simplify your SOC 2 compliance journey.

FAQs

Who can certify SOC 2?

A recognized CPA firm or an independent auditor can only certify SOC 2 type II. Their audit gauges how your systems deliver and fulfill the trust service criteria of SOC 2.

How long does it take to get SOC 2 Type 2 certification?

Getting SOC 2 Type 2 certification takes anywhere from 6 months to 1 year for most companies, depending on several factors. Note that SOC 2 Type II report can be attained from an independent auditor within 3-6 months while SOC 2 Type One takes 6-12 months or longer.

Does SOC 2 expire?

No, SOC 2 Type II does not expire. However, your clients or potential customers who require you to be SOC 2 to be certified will not accept your proposal after the expiration date. Hence, it is better to renew the attestation every year.

Is SOC 2 a pass or fail?

SOC 2 audits don’t have a pass-or-fail outcome. During a SOC 2 type II audit attestation report, auditors don’t aim to assign your business a pass or fail status. Instead, their goal is to provide you with their professional opinion and assessment of your risk management procedures or privacy policy in place.