Trust Service Criteria (TSC) set by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) in SOC (System and Organization Controls) reports play a critical role in ensuring businesses can entrust their information to cloud service providers with confidence. Amazon Web Services (AWS), as a leading player in cloud computing, has a strong focus on compliance, notably through their SOC 2 and SOC 3 reports. This blog post will delve into these crucial reports, providing insights into their importance, the distinctions between them, and how AWS meets these industry-standard compliance requirements.
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Understanding the SOC Framework
The System and Organization Controls (SOC) framework is a collection of standards designed to help measure how well a given service organization. Such as a cloud computing service provider like AWS, manages data and safeguards the interests and privacy of its clients.
There are three types of SOC reports, each with a specific focus:
- SOC 1: This type of report assesses the control mechanisms that a service organization has in place to affect its clients’ financial reporting. It is typically of most interest to auditors.
- SOC 2: This report addresses a business’s non-financial controls in areas relevant to security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy of a system. Unlike SOC 1, SOC 2 applies to IT and data center service providers and is based on a defined set of criteria known as the Trust Service Criteria.
- SOC 3: The SOC 3 report provides a broad, high-level overview of the information contained in a SOC 2 report. It doesn’t include the same level of detailed controls and tested processes but can be freely distributed and is often used as marketing material.
The key principle underlying all SOC reports is the demonstration of robust, reliable controls within a service organization. By adhering to the SOC framework, companies such as AWS can provide assurance to clients that their data is secure and handled appropriately.