For the person who has to sign, soc 2 controls is a phrase that gets searched by two people: the one who wants a definition for a memo and the one who has to sign an attestation about it next quarter. This page is written for the second. For a regulated small business, soc 2 controls comes down to a record and a set of figures: the record is the obligations, the controls, the evidence, the incidents, the cases and the attestations, kept with an owner, a date and a status; the figures are the evidence load that record puts on its reviewers, the days an audit of it takes, the gaps an audit will find and what they cost, the incidents and cases it produces, and the training it requires. The sections below explain soc 2 controls in those terms, say what it is not, and show where the free sheets on this site work each figure from the program's own numbers with no account.
What soc 2 controls means in practice
For a regulated small business, it means being able to show, for each obligation, which control satisfies it, what evidence proves the control operated, who reviewed the evidence and who attested to the result. The record is the obligations, the controls, the evidence, the incidents, the cases and the attestations. The regulator's own material, linked below, says what the obligations are; this site publishes none of that and no legal advice. What it publishes is the arithmetic: the obligations register sheet turns the count of obligations, controls and evidence items into reviewer hours and the months to a full attestation.
The soc 2 risk assessment the criteria start from
The common criteria open with the control environment and risk assessment, not with technology, and an examination that finds no documented risk assessment has found a gap under the first criterion rather than a missing tool. What it asks for is that the organization identifies what could stop it meeting its objectives, judges how likely and how damaging each is, and shows that the controls in scope follow from that judgement. The scale is yours to choose. What is not optional is that it is written, dated and revisited, because the next question is always which controls changed when the assessment did.
Why the search is soc 2 controls
The words in soc 2 controls are the words a regulated small business uses when the obligation has a name and the program does not yet have a number. The name is the regulator's, linked below; the number is the program's own, and it is the count of obligations, controls and evidence items behind regulatory compliance turned into reviewer hours on the obligations register sheet and into audit days on the audit scope sheet. A program that searches soc 2 controls and comes away with those two figures has done the first day of the work, and the paid plan on this site keeps what follows: the record, with owners, dates and the attestation that closes each period.
What soc 2 controls is not
It is not a certificate, a piece of software or a consultant's memo, although all three are sold under the name. It is a record and the figures that follow from it, kept by the business that owes the obligations. The guide this page supports covers choosing among regulatory compliance consulting firms, the help a small business buys around that record. Attestvio Pro keeps the record at one flat price; the sheets are free with no account.
The figures behind soc 2 controls
Evidence items and reviewer hours; audit samples, days and coverage; expected gaps, remediation hours and cost; incident hours; case backlog months; training seats outstanding. Each is a free sheet on this site and each computes from the program's own inputs. For regulatory compliance the sheet to start with is the obligations register sheet, which works the figure a regulated small business is examined on first. A program that knows those numbers has stopped estimating its own compliance.
Soc 2 policies, and how many a small program really needs
Fewer than the template packs suggest and more than most first attempts have. The criteria do not enumerate a policy list, so the honest count is one policy per commitment you have to be able to evidence: access, change, incident, vendor, data handling, availability if it is in scope, and the code of conduct the control environment criterion expects. A pack of thirty policies nobody has read is worse than seven that match practice, because the examination tests the document against what happened. Write the seven, name an owner and a review date on each, and add an eighth only when a criterion has nowhere to point.
Questions people ask about soc 2 controls
What is soc 2 controls?
For a regulated small business: keeping the obligations, the controls, the evidence, the incidents, the cases and the attestations as a record with an owner, a date and a status, and being able to show for each obligation the control, the evidence and the attestation. The regulator's own material, linked below, defines the obligations; the free sheets on this site work the arithmetic.
Who is responsible for soc 2 controls in a small business?
The compliance officer, or the owner wearing that hat, who signs the attestation. The sheets on this site are written for that person and need no account.
Does Attestvio make a business compliant with regulatory compliance?
No. The business meets the obligations; Attestvio keeps the record and works the figures, and publishes no rule and no advice. Counsel and the regulator's own material say what the obligations are.