
SOC 2 Audits by CPAs
SOC 2 examinations are designed to evaluate and validate the effectiveness of your organization’s controls related to security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. SOC 2 reports provide valuable assurance to clients and stakeholders regarding the security and integrity of your systems and processes.


Understanding
SOC 2 Examinations
While other GRC frameworks, such as ISO 27001, can be quite prescriptive—mandating specific controls like setting up firewalls or securing physical access to data centers—SOC 2 offers a high degree of flexibility. This flexibility is especially beneficial for startups that might not have a conventional office environment or that operate across various cloud platforms. SOC 2 allows you to tailor security policies to your unique business model and operational needs, rather than adhering to rigid, one-size-fits-all requirements. SOC 2's are also highly trusted since they're issued by independent CPAs in accordance with AICPA standards.
Why Pursue a SOC 2?
Identify and Mitigate Risk
SOC 2 controls serve as a security roadmap. The SOC 2 process helps organizations mitigate risks such as data breaches, unauthorized access, insider threats, and service disruptions, through highlighting and prescribing ways to address control deficiencies.
Stakeholder Confidence
SOC 2 reports assure your stakeholders that your organization has implemented meaningful controls to secure your systems, processes, and confidential information. This demonstrates that your organization can be trusted with sensitive information.
Tailored Security Policies
SOC 2 attestations are highly customizable and allow you to design a security framework that fits your unique business model and industry needs. Whether you’re using a cloud-only infrastructure or handling data in innovative ways, SOC 2 adjusts to your setup.
Competitive Advantage
A good SOC 2 report showcases your organization's commitment to data security and integrity, providing a competitive advantage and building trust with clients, partners, and regulators. Increasingly SOC 2 is becoming "table stakes," particularly for SaaS companies.
Ready to Learn More?
Our experts can answer any questions you may have about how your organization can achieve a great SOC 2 report that will help your organization earn trust and business.

Why ConstellationGRC?
Trusted Third-Party
As impartial third-party examiners, the CPAs in our network conduct SOC 2 examinations objectively, ensuring compliance with AICPA standards and regulatory requirements without bias.
Expert Support
Our team of American professionals provides expert guidance on the controls relevant to your organization, helping you implement the necessary measures and gather the evidence you need.
Seamless Experience
Our US-based team is here to support you through every step of the process and works around your schedule. We fully utilize evidence in automated compliance platforms to minimize back-and-forth.
Globally Respected
With each report issued by a US-based AICPA accredited CPA firm, you and your stakeholders can trust in the accuracy of the examination findings, and be confident in the security of your systems and processes.
Frequently Answered SOC 2 Questions
Type II examinations are much more respected than Type I, because they provide assurance that an organization's controls have actually operated effectively over a period of time. Thus, it's rare for organizations to only get a Type I report. Instead, Type I's serve as a stop-gap since they can be issued within weeks, rather than months. They also serve as an opportunity to ensure all controls are in place and well designed before initiating a several months long Type II observation period.
While SOC 2 Type II reports carry a bit more weight with longer observation periods, most organizations initially pursue a 3-month observation window so that they can have a SOC 2 report ready as soon as possible. After the first report, organizations can opt to continue pursuing 3-month observation windows each year, or to strengthen their reports by pursuing longer observation periods.
The key is to focus on what assurance your clients are looking for in your SOC 2 report (see below for descriptions of each TSC and the sorts of organizations they typically apply to). If clients simply ask for a SOC 2 and you don't expect that they're concerned with any criteria apart from the default, Security, a common strategy is to simply pursue the Security TSC for the first year. Then if any client requests to see additional TSC's, you can offer your previous SOC 2 report as a stop-gap and assure them that you'll add the additional TSC's to the next report.
The Availability criterion ensures that systems are operational and accessible as outlined in service-level agreements (SLAs). This is particularly critical for cloud service providers, SaaS companies, and other organizations offering uptime-dependent services. Relevant controls include system performance monitoring, capacity planning, disaster recovery and business continuity plans, backup procedures, and incident management to minimize downtime.
The Processing Integrity criterion emphasizes accurate, complete, valid, and authorized data processing. It is ideal for organizations handling high-volume transactional data, such as financial institutions and payment processors. Controls in this area include input validation, automated processing controls, audit trails for data changes, and regular testing to ensure data accuracy and integrity.
The Confidentiality criterion is aimed at protecting sensitive information, such as trade secrets or personal data, from unauthorized disclosure. It is particularly relevant for industries such as legal, healthcare, and other sectors that manage proprietary or confidential client information. Key controls include data classification, encryption, secure file transfer mechanisms, restricted access to sensitive information, and employee training on data handling.
The Privacy criterion ensures that personal information is collected, used, retained, and disposed of in compliance with privacy regulations such as GDPR or CCPA. This criterion is vital for organizations handling personal data, including e-commerce platforms, healthcare providers, and social media companies. Controls include mechanisms for obtaining consent, managing data subject rights (e.g., access, correction, and deletion requests), secure storage and disposal of personal information, and conducting privacy impact assessments.
Because SOC 2's are flexible in which controls you select and how you satisfy them, there's little "going out of your way just to check the box." Generally your organization should implement these controls even if you weren't getting a SOC 2 report, for the sake of securing your information and systems.
Your audit team is not your adversary but, rather, a partner that actually wants you to end up with an accurate, but impressive, SOC 2 report that will help you win business with your clients. With Type I reports, we can simply guide you on how to implement effective controls and with Type II reports we work to identify potential issues before auditors begin the observation period. We can also recommend alternative controls or forms of evidence.

Your Affordable and Seamless SOC 2 Audit
Ready to earn trust and showcase your organization's commitment to data security and integrity?