Building SOC2 Security Program (High Level) Roadmap

This is assuming you are starting from scratch and covering only SOC 2 Security Criteria and not Availability, Confidentiality, Processing Integrity, and Privacy Criterias. This is also assuming that you will go for the SOC2 Type 2 Report in 12-18 Months.

The Benefits of SOC2

• Establishing a third party opinion on which — or all — of the Trust Services Principles apply to your organization.
• Identifying security gaps in your organization.
• Demonstrating to clients that you truly take the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of their information seriously.
• Differentiating yourself from competing companies who have not achieved SOC

SOC2 consists of three types of documents:

• Narratives: Narratives provide an overview of the organization and the compliance environment.
• Policies: Policies govern the behavior of employees and contractors.
• Procedures: Procedures prescribe specific steps that are taken in response to key events.

1 Month

SOC2 Type 1 Audit  (Only if you have money in the budget for it)

• This will allow your company to look at your security controls at a point in time.
• Around only 2 weeks.

3 Months

• Decide on the Scope of the Audit
• SOC2 Gap Analysis (If you didn’t do the SOC2 Type 1 report)
• Build a Policy Portal
• Identify and fill gaps in your cybersecurity program.
• Create and Edit Policies and Other documentation.

From the gaps from SOC2 Gap Analysis or SOC2 Type 1 Audit

• Select Tools and Technologies to fulfill these gaps
• IF NO SECURITY TRAINING TOOL: Create security awareness and educational trainings for the company and specific teams (For the time being)
• Complete risk assessments of high risk processes and come up with gaps and recommendations

6 Months

• Create a governance program for different security areas like Infrastructure, Application, HR and Personnel Security, and others
• Deploy and Integrate GRC Tools across functional teams
• Review Your Vendor/Partner Onboarding Process

Review the contracts of your company Customers, Vendors, and Partners  (Ensure contracts are standardized)

• Review 5 Customers
• Review 5 Vendors
• Review 5 Partners

Develop Narratives

• Organizational Narratives
• Product & Services Narratives
• Control Environment Narrative
• System Architecture Narrative
• Research and Select Security Awareness Training Tool for the organization

7  Months

• Rollout security awareness trainings for the company and Engineering teams using Security Awareness Training tool

9 Months

• Start gathering evidence
• Finalize Policies and Procedures

12 Months

• Successfully Complete SOC2 Type 2 Audit

You can see the ISO 27001 Security program roadmap here.

You can purchase some of my prepared SOC2 documents that are ready for download at https://songer.gumroad.com/