Compliance Standards

Depending on your business and clientele, you may need to comply with security requirements established by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA). The System and Organization Controls (SOC) numbered 1, 2, and 3 apply to service organizations, particularly those that store, process, or come into contact with consumer data.

One of COVID-19’s direct impacts on businesses has been the acceleration toward cloud solutions. Cloud computing and data storage have skyrocketed — in fact, cloud spending increased 37% during the first months of the pandemic. In turn, this means more companies now need to focus on their cloud security practices, especially concerning regulatory compliance requirements. For example, service organizations need to comply with the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) SOC guidelines and SOC cloud security requirements.

The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) has determined a set of requirements your company may need to follow if it is a “service organization” that stores sensitive user data on the cloud. These requirements are known as Security Organization Controls (SOC), and audits to ensure they’re in place are referred to as SOC reporting.