Putting a SOC 2 Report to Work
A Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or Cloud Service
Organization that offers virtualized computing
environments or services for user entities and
wishes to assure its customers that the service
organization maintains the confidentiality of its
customers’ information in a secure manner and
that the information will be available when it is
needed. A SOC 2 report addressing security,
availability and confidentiality provides user
entities with a description of the service
organization’s system and the controls that help
achieve those objectives. A type 2 report also
helps user entities perform their evaluation of
the effectiveness of controls that may be
required by their governance process. Another
example is a medical claims processing service
organization that processes claims for health
insurers (user entities) and wishes to assure
those users that its controls over the processing
of claims will protect the information in those
claims, which is subject to privacy laws.