SOC 2 Compliance: A Cybersecurity Booster Shot

How can SOC 2 compliance be a cybersecurity booster shot for your business?

The good news? More than one million cybersecurity professionals are working to protect businesses like yours in the U.S.

The bad news? There are nearly 600,000 unfilled cybersecurity jobs in the U.S., and bad actors know it. The hopeful news? Being SOC 2 compliant can help make and keep your company more secure and protected against cyber threats, even if you can’t find or afford sufficient cybersecurity staff.

Cybersecurity: A Growing Challenge for Smaller Businesses

A March 30 Bloomberg News article lays out the sobering facts.

According to data from cybersecurity labor market watchers CyberSeek, there are nearly 600,000 unfilled cybersecurity jobs in the U.S. Some 560,000 of those are in the private sector. “In the last 12 months, job openings have increased 29%, more than double the growth rate between 2018 and 2019, according to Gartner TalentNeuron, which tracks labor market trends.”

The problem is even more acute for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) and emerging enterprises, according to Max Shuftan, director of mission programs and partnerships at the SANS Institute, a cybersecurity training provider. “Most civilian public agencies can’t pay what the public sector can. At the same time, small businesses – companies that aren’t in an industry that you’d normally worry about — are probably not going to have the staff, which makes them more vulnerable to attacks.”

The solutions are not immediate, but the threats are, so companies need to find ways to boost their cyber security efforts now!

SOC 2 and Your Cybersecurity

As defined by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), a famously risk-averse group, the SOC 2 framework is built upon five “Trust Service Criteria” — Security, Availability, Confidentiality, Processing Integrity, and Privacy. For many companies pursuing SOC 2 compliance, controls focused on security are the first and highest priority. It can take scores of controls to effectively address SOC 2 compliance requirements.

As daunting as this may be, it’s a logical starting point for two primary reasons. The first: if your security is inadequate, your ability to address the other four Trust Service Criteria is limited at best. The second: anything you can do to improve the policies, procedures, processes, and technologies that drive your company’s cybersecurity measures will improve protection for your business and your customers.

To be clear, SOC 2 compliance in and of itself won’t automatically make you more secure. But preparing for and passing a SOC 2 audit provides ample opportunity for assessing and improving your cybersecurity policies, procedures, processes, and technologies, which can only help you be more secure. Passing an audit also reassures your current and prospective customers and business partners that your company is serious about protecting them and their data.

Your SOC 2 compliance journey must focus on assessing and improving cybersecurity for your business and your customers. Initial and sustained success with SOC 2 compliance will reassure your current and prospective business partners and customers that your protection, mitigation, and recovery measures will be up to your cybersecurity challenges today and tomorrow.

How Trustero Can Help

SOC 2 compliance is a critical foundation for robust cybersecurity and consistent, agile, transparent processes that enable verifiable trust for your company. SOC 2 compliance requires clearly defined internal controls, policies, and procedures.

Trustero Compliance as a Service streamlines the audit process and helps businesses discover their source of truth. The Trustero solution includes pre-packaged intelligent controls mapped to SOC 2 Trust Services, access to a library of auditor-vetted policies, and customizable policy templates. As a result, Trustero saves you hundreds of hours automating hundreds of tasks, easing and speeding the path toward credible, sustainable compliance and trustworthiness. In addition, Trustero Compliance as a Service works with you and your trusted auditor to achieve and sustain SOC 2 compliance effectively, efficiently, and economically – and without expensive investments in hardware, software, or services.