SOC 2 Compliance Services
A SOC 2 report shows your customers how the controls around their data are designed and, in a Type 2, whether they operated over a period. CyberCrest's SOC 2 consultancy takes you from scoping to the examination itself: readiness assessment, gap remediation and the evidence that shows the sensitive data your service handles is protected.
METHODOLOGY
Our SOC 2 Compliance Methodology
Our four-step methodology starts with a scoping call and ends with your system description and evidence ready for the service auditor's fieldwork. Each step produces what the next one needs.
Scoping
We define the system boundary, the trust services categories your customers ask about and whether a Type 1 or a Type 2 report is the right first step, then run the risk assessment the common criteria expect.
Gap Assessment
We compare your current controls with the criteria in scope and develop the remediation roadmap, gap by gap, in the order the work has to happen.
Remediation Support
We help your team write the documentation and put the controls in place, from policies to the technical controls behind them to security awareness training where a gap calls for it.
Examination Support
We assess the implemented controls against the criteria in scope, help you assemble the system description and the evidence register, then support your team through the CPA firm's fieldwork. Where we did not design or implement the controls in scope, that examining firm can be CyberCrest: our licensed CPA firm performs the examination and issues the SOC 2 attestation report. Where we did, the independence rules send the examination to another firm and we prepare you for it.
SERVICES
Our SOC 2 Compliance Consulting Services
At CyberCrest, SOC 2 consulting and readiness services are tailored to the service organization in front of us: the system you run, the customer data it holds and the categories in scope. Beyond readiness, we also review your systems, documentation and processes to assess how closely they align with the SOC 2 requirements in scope. You can buy any one of the three services below on its own or run them as a single engagement.
Readiness Assessment
We evaluate your current security posture, policies and procedures against the Trust Services Criteria you plan to include, and map your existing controls to each criterion. The result tells you how far you are from a report and what has to change first.
Control and Policy Implementation
Where the readiness assessment finds a gap, we design the technical and administrative controls that close it and write the policies behind them. Where a control already exists but leaves no evidence, the fix is the evidence trail rather than a new control.
Ongoing Compliance Maintenance
A Type 2 report covers a period, and the next report covers the next one. Our ongoing support keeps evidence collection running between examinations, reviews controls when your system or your vendors change and helps you maintain compliance from one report to the next.
DELIVERABLES
What You Receive from Our SOC 2 Readiness Consulting
A SOC 2 examination runs on documents: the description management writes, the assertion management signs and the evidence behind every control. The five below are what your team keeps when the engagement ends; a service organization that already has policies and a control register needs fewer of them.
Readiness Assessment Report
The gap assessment findings: where your organization's controls stand against the criteria in scope, with each gap mapped to the relevant Trust Services Criteria and to the evidence that would close it.
System Description
Management's description of the service organization's system, drafted with you against the description criteria (DC section 200) of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA): the services provided, the service commitments and system requirements, the components of the system and the controls that meet the criteria. It has to be complete and accurate before the fieldwork starts.
Policies and Procedures
The written policies that describe your information security program as it runs, from access provisioning to incident response to vendor review, each tied to the criteria it supports. Written with your team, so the document and the practice match.
Evidence Register
A control-by-control record of what shows each control is operating effectively, who produces it, where it lives and how often it is captured, so the service auditor's request list arrives at a team that already has the answers.
Remediation Roadmap
A dated plan for every gap the readiness assessment left open: which control, who owns the fix, when it is due and in what order, with the controls that need the longest evidence trail scheduled first.
WHY US
Why Choose CyberCrest's SOC 2 Compliance Consultants
CyberCrest is a SOC 2 compliance company and a licensed CPA firm registered with the AICPA. That assurance background shapes how our SOC 2 compliance specialists work: a control is checked against the evidence it leaves, not the policy that describes it. Our practice covers cybersecurity and regulatory compliance well beyond SOC 2, and the four commitments below hold across every framework we work in.
Client-First Strategies
CyberCrest will always put your organization's needs and business goals first as we help you mature your security program. We make your priorities central to our strategy without sacrificing quality.
Technology-Driven
We use specialized audit and compliance software to streamline and enhance your compliance journey. Our consultants are also trained on the top compliance platforms and have hands-on experience with them.
Tailored Solutions
No two engagements run the same way: we shape the work to your organization, so that you not only achieve compliance but also enhance your overall security posture against evolving threats. Our proposed compliance strategy will take into account your current objectives, digital environment, existing security controls and compliance requirements.
Hands-On Remediation
We do the remediation with you rather than hand over a list of findings: the technical changes in your systems and the administrative ones in your policies and procedures, worked through until each gap is closed.
TESTIMONIALS
Hear from Our Clients
I have worked with CyberCrest on multiple compliance engagements over the past several years including HITRUST, NIS 2 and ISO 27001. Without exception, CyberCrest has consistently exceeded expectations for my clients through a combination of highly experienced consultants, and a practical approach to achieving compliance. They are willing to roll up their sleeves and help organizations fully understand and address their compliance challenges, not just function as external auditors.
“I have used the CyberCrest team for a variety of critical information security compliance engagements over the years including successfully attaining ISO 27001 and HITRUST certifications. All of our engagements have exceeded expectations!”
"We have worked with CyberCrest on multiple penetration testing and cybersecurity risk and maturity assessments. The CyberCrest team has consistently produced high quality deliverables at fair prices. We give their client prospects our strongest recommendation."
ABOUT SOC 2
About SOC 2
SOC 2, or System and Organization Controls 2, is a report on a service organization's controls over security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality or privacy, issued under the AICPA's attestation standards. The CPA who examines those controls and issues the report is known as a service auditor.
The report matters to any organization that stores, processes or transmits sensitive customer data as a service: cloud providers, SaaS companies and the technology businesses whose customers need evidence of data protection before they sign. The controls are measured against the AICPA's Trust Services Criteria, currently the 2017 Trust Services Criteria with revised points of focus from 2022. The points of focus under each criterion describe characteristics a control may have and can help management design and operate controls, but using the criteria does not require an assessment of whether each point of focus is addressed.
A service organization chooses which of the five trust services categories its examination covers, and the choice follows the assurance its customers need rather than a fixed list.
Trust Services Categories
- Security: information and systems are protected against unauthorized access, unauthorized disclosure of information and damage to systems that could compromise the availability, integrity, confidentiality and privacy of information or systems.
- Availability: information and systems are available for operation and use to meet the organization's objectives.
- Processing Integrity: system processing is complete, valid, accurate, timely and authorized.
- Confidentiality: information designated as confidential is protected from its collection or creation through its final disposal.
- Privacy: personal information is collected, used, retained, disclosed and disposed of to meet the organization's objectives.
Once issued, the report is what the service organization shares with customers and business partners as evidence that their data is handled as the description says, and that is where it earns customer trust.
WHO IT APPLIES TO
Who Needs a SOC 2 Report
No law requires a SOC 2 report. A customer does: the request arrives in a security questionnaire, a procurement checklist or a contract clause, and the service organization that cannot answer it loses the deal rather than paying a fine. Any company that holds or processes customer data as a service can be asked, and the ones below are asked most often. A report is also a competitive advantage where a rival cannot produce one, and some service organizations start before anyone asks, because working to the criteria leaves them with strong internal controls whether or not a customer ever reads the report.
SaaS and Cloud Service Providers
Software delivered as a service holds the customer's data on the provider's systems, so enterprise procurement asks for a SOC 2 report before the contract is signed, and the signed contract often carries a data security clause that requires a current report to stay in place. For a SaaS company, SOC 2 security compliance is part of the sales cycle.
Fintech and Financial Services Firms
Payment, lending and financial data platforms are asked for a SOC 2 report by the banks and institutions they serve. Where a customer depends on your platform for the data integrity of its transactions, the processing integrity category belongs in scope alongside security.
Healthcare Technology and Managed Service Providers
Vendors that process patient data for healthcare organizations and managed service providers with administrative access to customer systems are both asked for a report by customers who have to answer for that access to their own regulators and their own service auditors. The confidentiality and privacy categories exist for exactly that data.
RELATED SERVICES
Compliance Beyond SOC 2
Looking for more than just SOC 2 compliance? CyberCrest offers a wide range of cybersecurity and compliance services, including NIS 2, HITRUST, CMMC, PCI DSS, ISO 27001 and more. Our expert team helps your organization meet industry standards, strengthen security and navigate complex regulatory requirements. Let us help you achieve comprehensive compliance today.
Frequently asked questions
Is SOC 2 a certification?
No. What a SOC 2 engagement produces is an attestation report carrying the service auditor's opinion on the service organization's controls. No certificate is issued: the report itself, with its opinion, management's description and the controls tested, is the document a customer reads. People still say SOC 2 certification, but a buyer who asks for the certificate will be handed a report.
Who performs a SOC 2 audit?
What most buyers call the audit process is, in the AICPA's standards, an examination performed by a licensed CPA firm, such as CyberCrest. Two checks settle whether a firm can issue your report: it holds a CPA firm license, and it is enrolled in a practice-monitoring program such as the AICPA Peer Review Program. A firm that designed, implemented or maintained your controls cannot be independent for your examination. Hands-on remediation is what a SOC 2 compliance consultant at CyberCrest does with you, so where we did that work the examination goes to another CPA firm, and our role stays SOC 2 cybersecurity consulting: preparing you for the fieldwork and supporting you through it.
What is the difference between SOC 1 and SOC 2?
Both are CPA firm examinations under the AICPA's attestation standards. A SOC 1 report covers controls relevant to your customers' internal control over financial reporting; a SOC 2 report covers controls relevant to security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality or privacy. A payroll or claims processor is usually asked for a SOC 1, a SaaS platform for a SOC 2. Our SOC 1 vs SOC 2 comparison works through which one your customers want.
How much does SOC 2 compliance cost?
It is priced by scope. The factors are the systems and locations inside the audit scope, the categories beyond security, the report type and period length, how much remediation your current controls need and whether evidence collection is already tooled. Readiness consulting and the examination are separate fees, so get both before comparing SOC 2 services providers. Our SOC 2 cost guide walks through each factor.
How long does it take to become SOC 2 compliant?
It depends on your compliance posture today and on the report you want. Audit readiness work, from scoping through gap analysis and remediation, is the part that varies: a service organization with policies, logging and access reviews already running moves through it far faster than one writing them from scratch. A Type 1 can follow once the controls are designed and described; a Type 2 adds the period it covers and the fieldwork after it. Our guide to getting SOC 2 compliant walks through each step.
What does a SOC 2 report contain?
A SOC 2 report has three parts: management's description of the system; management's assertion that the description is presented in accordance with the description criteria and that the controls were suitably designed and, in a Type 2, operating effectively; and the service auditor's report, with the opinion and, in a Type 2, the tests of controls, their results and any exceptions. Security is in scope in every examination, so the report covers your controls related to security plus any other category you chose.
What is a qualified opinion in a SOC 2 report?
A qualified opinion means the service auditor could not give a clean opinion: a control was not suitably designed or, in a Type 2, did not operate effectively throughout the period, and the effect was material but not pervasive. The report states the reasons and, in a Type 2, describes the exception in the tests of controls. A buyer reads the exception rather than the word.
What is a SOC 2 bridge letter?
A bridge letter is a statement from the service organization's management covering the gap between the end of the last Type 2 period and the date a customer needs assurance for. It is not a CPA firm report, carries no service auditor's opinion and is not defined in the AICPA's standards: management states whether the controls have continued to operate since the period ended. A Type 2 report covers its stated period and has no expiry of its own; customers usually want one whose period ended within the last year, and that expectation, not a rule, is why bridge letters exist.
