This is the most common question we receive from our customers. They’re two of the most popular information security and risk management frameworks in the world, and each one has its own benefits. Let’s start by defining what they are, the differences, followed by which one of them is right for your company.
What is SOC 2?
SOC 2 is a security and compliance standard created by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountant (AICPA). The framework specifies how organisations should protect customer data from unauthorised access, cybersecurity incidents, and other vulnerabilities. A SOC 2 report attests to the operating effectiveness of an organisation’s security protocols and helps establish trust between you and your customers.
There are two types of SOC 2 Reports:
- SOC 2 Type I reports evaluate a company’s controls at a single point in time. It answers the question: are the security controls designed properly?
- SOC 2 Type II reports assess how those controls function over a period of time, generally 3-12 months. It answers the question: do the security controls a company has in place function as intended?
What is ISO 27001?
ISO 27001 is an international standard for data protection created jointly by the International Organisation for Standardisation and the International Electrotechnical Commission. This outlines the requirements to establish, maintain, and continually improve an Information Security Management System (ISMS). ISO 27001 certification provides customers with third-party reassurance that the organisation has built an ISMS capable of protecting sensitive data.
The differences:
Scope:
ISO 27001 and SOC 2 agree that organisations should only use controls when they are needed, however, their approach is slightly different.
ISO 27001 focuses on development and maintenance of your ISMS, giving it a systematic approach for managing an organisation’s information security. To achieve compliance, businesses will have to assess their risk posture, identify and implement security controls and review their effectiveness.
SOC 2 framework is a lot more flexible. It comprises of five Trust Services Criteria: Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, and Privacy. Security is the only mandatory criteria, Businesses can chose to expand the scope to include one or more of the other 4 trust service criteria if they are relevant to their business. There’s also the option to include security in the first audit and expand the scope to include more criteria down the line. This flexibility is appealing to many organisations as it can reduce the overwhelm and allow companies to build upon their security posture gradually.
Target Market:
Both frameworks are recognised world-wide, however, SOC 2 is more commonly requested if you’re conducting business in the US. SOC 2 is also particularly obtained by SaaS companies.
Project Timeline:
The process is quite similar for both frameworks.
- Businesses can start by conducting a gap analysis to determine the security posture and which areas of the framework they are compliant with and where it needs improvements.
- Identify which security controls are appropriate for the organisation and take steps to implement them. It is essential to document the practices and establish a method to review and improve the processes.
- Conduct a pre-audit. Organisations can either conduct an in-house pre-audit or work with their security and compliance partner to help them with this to determine the areas that need fixing.
Once confident, an audit can be conducted with external auditors to arrange and ISO 27001 or SOC 2 Audit. It usually takes 3-9 months to implement SOC 2 depending on whether businesses are seeking Type 1 or Type 2 report and 6-9 months to implement ISO 27001.
Presentation
ISO 27001 and SOC 2 are presented in different ways and provide a different level of detail about your compliance position.
With ISO 27001, you receive a certification that shows you’ve passed your audit, but it doesn’t provide granularity about which parts of your system passed and which didn’t. With SOC 2, you get a detailed attestation report that shows which aspects passed and which didn’t, providing additional detail to your customers about how your systems operate.
Is ISO 27001 equivalent to SOC 2?
No, ISO 27001 is not equivalent to SOC 2. These two standards are not interchangeable, and prospects that request ISO 27001 certification will not be satisfied with a SOC 2 report, just as clients that request a SOC 2 report won’t be satisfied with an ISO 27001 certification.
So which is a better fit for your company — SOC 2 or ISO 27001 compliance? Or do you need both?
The short answer is that it really depends on your requirements and your customers.
The most important factor for deciding between SOC 2 and ISO 27001 will come down to what your target market expects and requires. What are your customers asking for? You’ll also want to consider the scope of controls, cost, and project timelines.
Many organisations see the value in attaining both a SOC 2 report and ISO 27001 certification — especially since a good number of requirements and controls overlap.
Meeting the requirements for both frameworks demonstrates a strong security program and will earn the trust of customers across the globe. AMARU’s security and compliance specialists will help streamline the SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certification processes and with our AI-powered, compliance platform Swise.ai , it’ll streamline your process, making it a lot faster, easier, and less expensive to achieve compliance with these frameworks.
