IT security company

SOC2 Preparedness

We help organizations prepare for their SOC2 type 1 assessment

Our experts will work with your IT team to align all processes, technologies and practices in your organization with the requirements of SOC2

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What makes our SOC2 preparedness service different?

Hear about our SOC2 preparedness service from Alex:

Our SOC2 Preparedness service is a great place to start and will highlight many vulnerabilities in your IT infrastructure that could leave you at risk of a dangerous cyber attack.

Our SOC2 preparedness service examines your IT administration practices and current setup against AICPA’s SOC2 type 1 requirements. We will prioritize any urgent recommendations to implement against the risks to your business. This means you can rest assured your business is safe allowing you to focus on other parts of the business.

For your SOC2 Preparedness, we will help you with:

  • Security & Privacy Governance
  • Asset Management
  • Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery
  • Capacity & Performance Planning
  • Change Management
  • Compliance
  • Configuration Management
  • Continuous Monitoring
  • Cryptographic Protections
  • Data Classification & Handling
  • Endpoint Security
  • Human Resources Security
  • Identification & Authentication
  • Incident Response
  • Information Assurance
  • Mobile Device Management
  • Network Security
  • Physical & Environmental Security
  • Privacy
  • Project & Resource Management
  • Risk Management
  • Secure Engineering & Architecture
  • Security Operations
  • Security Awareness & Training
  • Technology Development & Acquisition
  • Third-Party Management
  • Threat Management
  • Vulnerability & Patch Management

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Our mission: Provide SMBs with a Clear visibility of their exposure to cyber attacks

A SOC2 Preparedness assessment checks how resilient is the core of your IT infrastructure and your applications to an attack or human error. Its scope depends on the size of your company and your objectives. The assessment might mean a comprehensive security review of all your IT assets.

We audit the controls in place (or their absence). These controls might be administrative, or in other words, the practices employed by your administrators. They could also be technical or even physical.

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Our SOC2 Preparedness Process

Planning for the project

Before starting your preparedness process, we always have a series of preparation meetings with company executives and IT administrative personnel. 

These meetings help establish the reasons behind the SOC2 certification process and your strategic security objectives. Is your desire to become SOC2 compliant driven by your clients? Were you a victim of a security breach? Or do you want to have full visibility into how prepared you are for a hacking attack?

Here is our SOC2 Readiness Process:

  • A strategic meeting with management
  • Meeting with the IT team
  • Review of the clients’ business – departments, management team, critically important production facilities, IT infrastructure. 
  • Policy and procedure review. 
  • Documentation review.
  • Scheduling meetings with will all employees participating in the IT security audit. 
  • Final scope agreement.

Preparing to work with our team for your SOC2 Preparedness

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening my ax.”
― Abraham Lincoln

Besides the mandatory pre-audit meetings with management, the client usually has to undergo internal preparation for the IT Security assessment service.

On the client’s side, the following items need to be taken care of:

  • a dedicated meeting room
  • a secure internet connection which is disconnected from the main corporate network
  • scheduling each meeting between the security auditor and the respective team member

There might be technical details such as what is the auditor allowed to access and what information can they ask for as proof, as well as how this information will be stored and analyzed safely.

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Communication during the AD Security Assessment and After

Communication is key in every business process.

Active Directory security audits are no exception, and we need to add a few extra requirements and dependencies.

Do you suspect a security breach happened prior to initiating the assessment? Can the attackers listen in on any internal email communication? In that case, most audit-related communications need to happen outside your corporate network. In other words, they have to happen over the phone or via secure instant messaging, avoiding your corporate email service.

There are several key stages during which communication is key:

  • prior to starting the assessment, to clarify all expectations on both sides and set the tone;
  • during the Active Directory security assessment, to ensure all questions asked are understood and all evidence given is clear and not fabricated or modified in any way;
  • after the audit when the report is received and discussed. Use this stage as another option to obtain ideas and advice on implementing the suggested improvements.

The report you receive sometimes has the tendency to heat up political discussions and start the process of blaming each other for the faults discovered. This is not productive.

What we encourage our customers to do is see the report as an excellent opportunity to get better at everything you do and beat your competition at it. Rest assured, if we went to your competitors, we might find similar or even worse findings. So be happy you were the first to discover your faults and get ready to be the first to fix them!

Understanding the Step-by-step AD security improvement plan

Your AD Security Audit Report will contain an executive section for senior management and a technical section for IT and security personnel.

The Executive Section of the report usually focuses on the business impact of the findings and on prioritization advice. This way management can request specific actions to be expedited and will know about their own responsibility to fund these efforts. Sometimes this also means hiring extra pairs of hands.

The technical section of the report will also be split in High Criticality, Medium Criticality, and Low criticality findings.

Each finding will be paired with its respective advice on fixing the finding – focus on the fix rather than finding who to blame for the finding, it is the only productive way to read and act upon your IT security audit report.

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Yes, depending on your IT team’s availability and on the speed with which your organization can adopt changes. SOC2 preparedness is achievable in as little time as you can implement a few hundred changes in your processes, practices and technology. 

The cost of your SOC2 preparedness depends on the time it takes and the involvement needed from our side. We can guide or help you implement the required changes, which affects the price. 

Experience what it's like to be stress-free

Let us take care of cybersecurity for you!
Schedule A Free Consultation Now

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