This is the most common question we receive from our customers. They\u2019re two of the most popular information security and risk management frameworks in the world, and each one has its own benefits. Let\u2019s start by defining what they are, the differences, followed by which one of them is right for your company.<\/p>\n
SOC 2 is a security and compliance standard created by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountant (AICPA)<\/a>. 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\u2019s security protocols and helps establish trust between you and your customers.<\/p>\n There are two types of SOC 2 Reports:<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n ISO 27001 and SOC 2 agree that organisations should only use controls when they are needed, however, their approach is slightly different.<\/p>\n ISO 27001 focuses on development and maintenance of your ISMS, giving it a systematic approach for managing an organisation\u2019s information security. To achieve compliance, businesses will have to assess their risk posture, identify and implement security controls and review their effectiveness.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Both frameworks are recognised world-wide, however, SOC 2 is more commonly requested if you\u2019re conducting business in the US. SOC 2 is also particularly obtained by SaaS companies.<\/p>\n The process is quite similar for both frameworks.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n ISO 27001 and SOC 2 are presented in different ways and provide a different level of detail about your compliance position.<\/p>\n With ISO 27001, you receive a certification that shows you\u2019ve passed your audit, but it doesn\u2019t 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\u2019t, providing additional detail to your customers about how your systems operate.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t be satisfied with an ISO 27001 certification.<\/p>\n The short answer is that it really depends on your requirements and your customers.<\/p>\n 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\u2019ll also want to consider the scope of controls, cost, and project timelines.<\/p>\n Many organisations see the value in attaining both a SOC 2 report and ISO 27001 certification\u00a0\u2014 especially since a good number of requirements and controls overlap.<\/p>\n Meeting the requirements for both frameworks demonstrates a strong security program and will earn the trust of customers across the globe. AMARU\u2019s security and compliance specialists will help streamline the SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certification processes and with our AI-powered, compliance platform Swise.ai<\/a> , it\u2019ll streamline your process, making it a lot faster, easier, and less expensive to achieve compliance with these frameworks.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2821,"template":"","class_list":["post-2794","blog","type-blog","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amaru.co.nz\/fj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog\/2794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amaru.co.nz\/fj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amaru.co.nz\/fj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/blog"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amaru.co.nz\/fj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amaru.co.nz\/fj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
What is ISO 27001?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
The differences:<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Scope:<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Target Market:<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Project Timeline:<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Presentation<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Is ISO 27001 equivalent to SOC 2?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
So which is a better fit for your company \u2014 SOC 2 or ISO 27001 compliance? Or do you need both?<\/strong><\/h2>\n