There are no set rules, but these tools and platforms will help you meet SOC 2 compliance requirements
Ensuring SOC 2 compliance is a chief concern for cloud-native product developers, signaling to clients and customers that their information is being kept in a secure network environment. However, there’s no definitive checklist for meeting SOC 2 compliance guidelines, which makes it difficult to assess whether or not you’ll meet the standard before an audit is performed.
SOC 2 compliance software will ensure your organization’s security is up to snuff. The following list details prominent SOC 2 compliance solutions that startups, SMBs, and enterprise businesses can use to create a SOC 2-compliant network environment.
The Best SOC 2 Compliance Software and Platforms
Creating an SOC 2 compliant organization is important for facilitating business at all levels. You’ll most likely want to partner with a SOC 2 compliance automation platform to get these controls up and running. Here are some of the industry’s best options.
DuploCloud
by DuploCloud
DuploCloud is an end-to-end DevSecOps platform that assists with the deployment and provisioning of cloud applications. The platform features built-in compliance features for security standards like SOC 2 and other compliance standards like HIPAA, PCI-DSS, and GDPR. DuploCloud’s ability to dramatically reduce cloud development pipelines makes it an ideal solution for SOC 2 compliance for startups, though it can serve organizations of all sizes.
Vanta
by Vanta
Vanta offers a centralized application to manage an organization’s security and compliance. It specializes in onboarding and offboarding employees and contractors, eliminating the need to remove an offboarded employee’s system access manually. Instead, an automated workflow will handle everything automatically, then run a report for auditors. The onboarding tools make it an effective option for SMBs scaling up.
SecureFrame
by SecureFrame, Inc.
SecureFrame enables continuous compliance monitoring across a tech stack. It’s built to regularly and proactively remind administrators to run tests and view audit logs, keeping recent updates at the forefront of utility. Additionally, SecureFrame can notify all personnel to complete tasks such as policy acceptance and security awareness training, which are valuable for SOC 2 certifications.
Drata
by Drata, Inc.
URL: https://drata.com/
Drata provides continuous monitoring services built to scale with organizations of any size. The platform’s control library offers more agency over security protocols, allowing organizations to implement custom controls that suit their needs. Drata will also show real-time views of an organization’s compliance program while gathering audit data.
Laika
by Laika Inc.
Laika is a complete automation platform that allows organizations to start with SOC 2 compliance and then expand to other frameworks, such as GDPR and HIPAA. The platform features in-app audit automation and management designed to make the audit process as fast and efficient as possible.
SOC 2 Compliance Tools by Category
Because the AICPA Trust Services Criteria is more a set of guidelines than rules, there’s not a definitive checklist that ensures compliance. Rather, adopting a security-driven mindset across the organization will be the largest predictor of success. Organizations may use the following tools and software to create a solid foundation for SOC 2 compliance without automating the entire compliance process.
DuploCloud’s SOC 2 Compliance Checklist covers the controls, processes, implementation, and more that govern SOC 2 compliance. Download it today to learn more.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Systems
A SIEM system will aggregate security data from various sources, like endpoint security and intrusion detection systems, to create comprehensive, searchable reports for security teams to analyze in the event of a breach. In recent years, the definition of a SIEM system has been updated to include User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) and Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR).
UEBA will analyze anomalous behavior, such as strange logins, and highlight it for teams to look into, while SOAR will automate the actions security teams must take to respond to an incident. This eliminates the need for analysts to go to individual security systems and create a manual response. For example, SOAR could quarantine a laptop infected with malware to ensure no other endpoint is affected, while UEBA would detect that the malware came from a phishing email and block access to the link containing the malware.
SolarWinds
by SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC.
URL: https://www.solarwinds.com/security-event-manager
SolarWinds provides a variety of network management software designed to increase an organization’s security posturing, and is particularly useful for monitoring network performance, performing bandwidth analysis, and remotely managing endpoint devices. The software also includes health score ratings for leadership teams that give an overview of application and service performance.
Exabeam
by Exabeam
Exabeam provides comprehensive incident response workflows and UEBA analysis to help detect cyber threats. The software also uses machine learning in a variety of ways. For example, Clustering detects commonalities between artifacts and groups them according to their common features to identify DDoS attacks.
Wazuh
by Wazuh, Inc.
URL: https://wazuh.com/
Wazuh is an open source platform that combines SIEM, EDR, and HIDS into a single system. The platform provides protection for public and private clouds, as well as on-premises data centers to actively monitor and detect security threats and events as they arise. Wazuh features dashboards for regulatory compliance, vulnerabilities, file integrity, configuration assessment, cloud infrastructure events, and more.
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Systems
A DLP system will help discover, classify, and protect sensitive data. It will monitor data activity coming in and out of a network, send an alert when it detects suspicious activity, and keep sensitive data from leaving the network. This is particularly valuable for transferring and analyzing sensitive customer information, like addresses and credit card information. Once sensitive data has been identified, DLP can use techniques like tokenization, masking, and redaction to preserve data without compromising its integrity.
BetterCloud
by BetterCloud, Inc.
URL: https://www.bettercloud.com/
BetterCloud’s DLP system is particularly useful for small organizations that rely heavily on Google Drive for storing and accessing sensitive information. The company provides a real-time API-based solution that leverages Google’s Drive Activity Report and Push Notification APIs for reporting.
Forcepoint DLP
by Forcepoint
URL: https://www.forcepoint.com/
Forcepoint is a more generalized DLP solution designed for a zero friction user experience. The toolset audits behavior in real time and uses Forcepoint’s Risk-Adaptive Protection to stop data loss before it occurs.
Identity and Access Management (IAM) Systems
IAM systems cover the provisioning and de-provisioning of user accounts, as well as authentication, authorization for actions, and auditing to ensure that each step of the process has been completed correctly. They have become an increasingly important tool in recent years in part due to the rise of remote work, which has seen more endpoints being used outside of secure network conditions.
An IAM system is useful for SOC 2 compliance because it can be used to enforce least-privilege principles, ensuring that users only have access to the resources they need to perform their jobs. Additionally, IAM systems will monitor access to sensitive data, such as client information.
Okta
by Okta
Okta is a robust IAM tool with Single Sign-On (SSO) and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) capabilities. Its combination of features enables fast, passwordless access to various applications.
JumpCloud
by JumpCloud Inc
JumpCloud is a cloud-based directory service that allows organizations to manage and secure both user identities and devices. It enables automatic provisioning and de-provisioning of users across multiple applications and resources, as well as device and password management capabilities.
Vulnerability Management
Implementing Vulnerability Management is an important part of a holistic SOC 2 compliance solution. As the name implies, a vulnerability scanner will analyze a network, server, application, or the like to identify and report vulnerabilities. Once identified, the scanner will flag and report vulnerabilities for further review.
Nessus
by Tenable
URL: https://www.tenable.com/products/nessus
Nessus helps organizations identify and remediate vulnerabilities within their IT infrastructure. It will scan networks for vulnerabilities, provide detailed assessments of risks, and perform compliance reports.
Network Segmentation
Network segmentation divides a computer network into smaller parts, often down to individual endpoints. Doing so can prevent a widespread cyberattack from infecting more devices and enhance network performance. The more granular level of network segmentation is microsegmentation, which will provide better network traffic visibility across data centers and clouds.
CloudGuard
by Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.
URL: https://www.checkpoint.com/cloudguard/#
CloudGuard enhances the native microsegmentation and elastic networking of cloud environments, delivering advanced security and consistent policy enforcement built to scale. The software allows organizations to secure workloads running in both hybrid and public cloud environments.
Zscaler Private Access
by Zscaler
Zscaler Private Access is a Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) segmentation tool designed to give each endpoint secure, direct connectivity to private applications without placing them on an organization’s network. It supports both user-to-app and app-to-app segmentation, as well as process-to-process/identity-based microsegmentation for communication within a cloud.
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plans
Business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) plans, often called BCDR, establish how a business will continue operating during an emergency scenario and what steps will be taken to return to its full operational state. Having a predetermined plan can help with decision-making in extreme circumstances, as well as boost morale and create a better sense of risk management.
While BCDR plans have long been used to plan for events like natural disasters, the rise of cybersecurity attacks has made data security contingencies an important aspect of BCDR. Part of SOC 2 compliance is ensuring that organizations maintain accessibility to critical services, so BCDR is essential.
Archer Business Resiliency
by Archer Technologies LLC
URL:https://www.archerirm.com/business-resiliency
Archer Business Resiliency is designed to help organizations achieve full operational resiliency by identifying and cataloging mission-critical processes and systems. Visibility into resiliency tasks allows organizations to respond to incidents swiftly, mitigating risks in the event of a crisis.
Ready to take your understanding of SOC 2 Compliance further? Check out The Complete Guide to SOC 2 Compliance.
If your organization is looking to lower its operating costs while speeding up its development and time-to-compliance timeline, DuploCloud can help. Our platform takes a holistic approach to DevSecOps automation, ensuring that your cloud applications are ready to deploy at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional development. If you want to learn more about how DuploCloud can reduce costs by up to 75%, contact us today.
