The cost of SOC 2 compliance is influenced by many variables, and primarily depends on your organisation’s security maturity, which TSCs are required, and the type of report (Type I or Type II) requested.

Here’s a full list of factors influencing the cost of SOC 2 compliance

• How many of the 5 TSCs are required

• If a Type I or Type II report is requested

• The size of your organisation

• Your security maturity – for example, if you already have ISO 27001 you’ll have a lot of policies and procedures already in place

• How much resource you can dedicate to the project

• The experience of your consultants and auditors

Bulletproof’s seasoned SOC 2 consultants leverage their insight and expertise to make the SOC 2 compliance process as simple – and affordable – as possible. In fact, we pride ourselves on offering a better SOC 2 compliance service and a better price that the ‘Big 4’ providers.

SOC 2 audits can only be performed by recognised CPA auditors. It’s recommended that the CPA auditor is someone external from both your organisations, and any organisation who helped you implement SOC 2 compliance. Bulletproof have partnered with experienced, trusted CPA auditors to verify the SOC 2 implementation work and produce the Type I and Type II reports.

SOC 2 compliance is typically led by customer demand, or when an organisation is entering a new sector where SOC 2 compliance is seen as standard. SOC 2 compliance is not required by the letter of the law, but it is becoming increasingly common for businesses to seek SOC 2 compliance to demonstrate to customers, partners, and regulators that they have strong security controls in place to protect data.

SOC 2 reports come in two flavours: Type I and Type II. Type I SOC compliance is a snapshot of your business’ security controls at a specific point in time. Type II SOC compliance is a more comprehensive assessment of an organisation's security controls. It looks at the design, implementation, and operating effectiveness of controls over a period of time.

At the core of SOC 2 compliance is five Trust Service Criteria (TSCs), covering:

1. Security

2. Availability

3. Processing Integrity

4. Confidentiality

5. Privacy

As a data security framework, the Security TSC is mandatory and is often referred to as ‘common criteria’. However, the requirement to complete the other TSCs depends on the service offered and the requirements of your customers. This is where the expertise of SOC 2 consultants can be invaluable – their experience and knowledge of SOC 2 scoping can greatly speed up your SOC 2 compliance journey.

SOC 2 and ISO 27001 are both information security frameworks that aim to protect sensitive data. There’s significant overlap between the two standards and completing SOC 2 is around 40% of the work required for ISO 27001. For businesses with a global reach, or who already have one standard, this makes getting both SOC 2 and ISO 27001 a great time-saver.

SOC 2 is a US framework and is most commonly used by businesses in, or supplying services to, the United States. ISO 27001 on the other hand is an international standard. It’s valued and respected by businesses around the world. As a more in-depth standard, it is seen to give better assurance about your information security than SOC 2.

Bulletproof can provide templates for aspects such as Access Control, Configuration Standards, Human Resource Management, Information Risk Management, Use of Mobile Devices, Physical and Environmental Security, and many more.

The time it takes you to achieve SOC 2 compliance depends on both the type of report you want to achieve and the results of your readiness assessment. Typically, for an organisation with a medium level of controls going to achieve a full Type II SOC2, we’d expect the process to take around six months.