You’re in a cold sweat. A customer or prospect needed you to be SOC 2 compliant yesterday. But it’s today, and you’re still not SOC 2 compliant. So, you Google SOC 2 to understand what you’re getting yourself into.
And you don’t like what Google’s telling you. It looks complicated. And time consuming.
You’ve got revenue on the line and you need SOC 2 as soon as possible. You don’t have the luxury of time.
Now your heart is pounding in your chest. Your mouth is dry. You feel helpless. Hopeless, even.
But then Google serves you an ad from a vendor promising SOC 2 in 14 days!
The ad sounds too good to be true, but you click it anyway. What choice do you have?
Sorry to be that person, but it is too good to be true. In this article, we’ll tell you exactly why.
If It Takes 14 Days, It’s Not Tailored to Your Business
SOC-in-a-box vendors provide a one-size-fits-all approach to SOC 2. Of course, if you know anything about SOC 2, you know this isn’t how it works.
Your SOC 2 journey should be completely different from another business’. I’m not going to get into why that is here, but if you want to learn more, we’ve written at length about it.
Companies that provide you with fixed policy templates and controls aren’t making life easier on you. They’re making life easier on themselves. Controls need to be adapted to your business. One-size-fits-all controls might fail to mitigate risks that are specific to your organization. In other words, they could cost you an audit.
So be cautious about any company that endorses a top-down approach to SOC 2. It might sound like the quickest path to SOC 2, but it could cost you. It might not the first time around but remember, you need to pass your SOC 2 audit every year. Better to do it right the first time, and save yourself potential headaches further down the road.
The AICPA, which administers SOC 2, regularly checks that audits are being conducted correctly, and it may be a point of focus for them moving forward.
Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
If It Takes 14 Days, You’re Not Getting an InfoSec Program
You shouldn’t get SOC 2 with a vendor that doesn’t also help you build a credible InfoSec program. While it’s possible to game the system and get SOC 2 without having an InfoSec program in place, it’s not a good idea.
To explain why, I’m going to use an analogy. Bear with me.
Let’s say you want to build a house. You get in touch with a handful of contractors. One tells you they’ll put your house up in two weeks, no problem. Sounds great, right? You decide to hire them. Once the job’s done, you pull up in your car and the house looks fantastic. It’s one of those old Victorians, and it has a manicured lawn with a white picket fence. But when you walk through the front door, there’s no inside.
Your contractor put up a facade, not a real house.
For some customers and prospects, SOC 2 provides enough security assurance. However, others will want to take a deeper look at your security posture. They’ll want to step inside, so to speak. In those cases, you need more than a facade. You need a credible InfoSec program.
If It Takes 14 Days, You’re a One-and-Done Job
SOC 2 isn’t a hundred meter sprint. It’s more like a marathon. A never-ending marathon.
Getting compliant is one thing, but you need to maintain compliance and that takes a lot of time. In fact, prep work for subsequent SOC 2 audits can take upwards of 360 hours.
Yes, big yikes.
Companies that boast about a 14-day SOC 2 are only showing you how to get out of the starting gate, but that’s the easy part. Crossing the finish line is the hard part. It’s also what matters most.
Look, we wish SOC 2 was a one-and-done job. But it isn’t. It’s ongoing. Make sure any vendor you work with can provide you with adequate support throughout your compliance journey and that they have the tools to back it up.
Final Thoughts
If our spiel here has left you reeling, hold up.
You can get your SOC 2 quickly and correctly. That’s sort of what we do. After all, our team is made up of former auditors representing each of the Big Four accounting firms. They have conducted hundreds of SOC 2 audits, so they understand how complicated the process can be. That’s why they joined our team—to make SOC 2 more accessible to businesses like yours. And their knowledge and experience is central to our compliance automation software.
Businesses that work with us have cut their time to compliance in half. They’ve also spent 60% less money on audit readiness. We’re also the only compliance automation shop in the biz that’s compliant with SOC 2 (Type 2, might we add) and ISO 27001.
If you have any questions or would like to learn more about our software, feel free to get in touch.
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