What is SOC 2?
SOC 2 is a voluntary compliance standard developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) that specifies how organizations should manage their customer data.
Compliance with SOC 2 indicates that your business maintains high information security and trustworthiness. It’s commonly sought by tech companies to demonstrate a commitment to customers.
SOC 2 involves assessing and reporting on whether a system complies with five core trust principles called the Trust Services Criteria. These criteria are the foundation of evaluating the effectiveness of security measures and include:
Security: The security principle evaluates how well you protect data from unauthorized access, disclosure, and misuse. It includes access controls, data encryption, incident response, vulnerability management, and security awareness training.
Availability: This principle examines your ability to make agreed-upon services available to customers. It includes measures to prevent and mitigate service disruptions, such as redundant infrastructure, disaster recovery planning, and monitoring for performance and availability.
Processing integrity: This principle evaluates data processing for accuracy, completeness, and timeliness. It involves controls to ensure accurate data processing and the prompt detection, correction, and prevention of any errors or discrepancies.
Confidentiality: The confidentiality principle protects sensitive data from unauthorized access or disclosure. It involves controls such as data classification, access controls, data encryption, and confidentiality agreements with employees and third-party providers.
Privacy: This principle evaluates your business’s practices for collecting, using, retaining, disclosing, and disposing of personal information according to relevant privacy laws and regulations. It includes privacy policies, consent mechanisms, and data breach notifications.
To achieve SO2 2 compliance, a business submits to a comprehensive assessment of the Trust Services Criteria by an independent auditor. A successful auditor’s report can be presented to customers and stakeholders as proof that you’ve implemented the appropriate controls to safeguard data. This report provides a competitive advantage, especially for service providers that handle sensitive data, as it demonstrates alignment with industry best practices and regulations.
Sendbird and other leading in-app communications platforms employ a Trust and Safety team whose job is to understand and address the evolving security landscape and ensure compliance in an increasingly data-driven world.
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