Selecting the Ideal SOC 2 Solution

In today’s digital landscape, the question “Are you SOC 2 certified?” resonates with a sense of urgency among startups and established companies alike. The importance of SOC 2 certification is undeniable when it comes to engaging with enterprise customers. For many, it’s a formidable checkpoint on the road to business legitimacy and trustworthiness. However, the journey toward achieving this certification can seem like a herculean task. Automated Compliance tools ensure your security program can scale as your company grows and partnering with Viridis Security as a service provider can ease the journey.

The Compliance Odyssey: Tackling the Challenges Ahead

For SMEs (Small to Medium Enterprises): Small businesses often juggle the triple hurdles of limited time, constrained budgets, and a shortage of in-house expertise. Embarking on a self-managed path to certification can initially seem viable, but many discover that the tools and procedures they’ve set up are ill-equipped to scale alongside their growing business.

For Larger Organizations: These entities may find their ambitious efforts to enhance security measures and establish multi-layered defenses bogged down by the sheer complexity of their extensive governance structures. A high turnover rate and a general dissatisfaction with cumbersome manual processes can stifle the development of a proactive security-first culture.

The Power of Automated Compliance Tools

Streamline Evidence Collection / Compliance At Scale

Getting your SOC 2 Certification can be a large undertaking but don’t forget that you need to maintain it with annual penetration testing an audit. Viridis Security is committed to helping you build a security and compliance program that can scale.

Organizing and automatically collecting data.
Highlighting compliance gaps.
Accelerating sales cycles by effectively communicating your security posture to prospects.
Automatic completion of security questionnaires
Distributing remediation tasks efficiently.
Automatic control mapping across frameworks

Reduce Audit Costs

Auditors often favor automated tools for their simplicity and efficiency. Many tool providers have a network of SOC 2 auditors who are familiar with their systems, which can lead to faster audits and significant cost reductions.

BONUS: Collaborate with a Service Provider

Viridis Security’s suite of services is engineered to robustly support your organization’s compliance and security needs. Here’s what we bring to the table:

Tool Selection Guidance

Continuous Compliance Monitoring Tools (CCM): Offering recommendations tailored to your specific needs.
Identity & Access Management (IAM): Ensuring only authorized personnel have access to crucial information.
Ticketing Systems: Implementing efficient ticket management to address security concerns promptly.
Data Loss Prevention (DLP): Safeguarding sensitive data from potential breaches.
Vulnerability Scanning: Identifying and mitigating potential security threats.
Mobile Device Management (MDM): Securing and monitoring company-owned devices.

Risk Management

Organizational Risk Appetite Development: Crafting a risk profile that aligns with your business goals.
Policies: Adjusting and refining policies to mirror your company’s risk tolerance.
Procedures and Processes: Draft documents provided and customized
Penetration Testing: Collaborative planning and execution to identify vulnerabilities in your system.
Security Program Roadmap Development: Crafting a strategic plan for the continual enhancement of your security framework.
Tabletop exercise facilitation: Hands-on simulation exercises to test and improve your incident response and disaster recovery strategies
Project Management: Regular meetings to ensure project progress

Cyber Insurance

Demonstrate the control implementation necessary to obtain cyber insurance and potentially reduce premiums

Privacy & Overall Strategy

Privacy Protocols: Ensuring compliance with privacy laws and best practices.
Risk Based Roadmap:

Audit Preparation

Audit Preparation: Ensuring your organization is audit-ready.
Audit Responses: Assisting in responding to any potential findings, ensuring you’re well-prepared for every scenario.

A Look at Viridis Security as a Compliance Service Provider

Shared Feature Set

When it comes to comparing different tools for SOC 2 and other compliance needs, there are several commonalities across the board:

Integrations: Most tools offer a wealth of integrations to facilitate continuous monitoring, typically over 100 standard integrations.
Policy Templates: Standardized policy templates are often provided, with an average of around 17+ templates ready to adapt to your specific needs.
Security Frameworks: These tools usually support an array of security frameworks, with more than 19 standard ones often in the mix.
Cloud Compliance: Ensuring that your cloud-based data and operations are compliant is a core feature.
Efficiency Benefits: Expect a reduction in the time needed to prepare for and undergo audits.
Cost Savings: Partnering with the right firms can also mean tangible savings in audit costs.

Factors Influencing Costs

Employee count.
Number of frameworks.
Vendor count.
Requirement of a public-facing security page.

Vanta & Drata

These two powerhouses are frequently in direct competition, with many of their features mirroring each other. While they might have a slightly higher price tag compared to some other tools, the comprehensive features they offer can offset additional costs associated with procuring separate tools or services. They’ve carved out a dominant position in ratings and reviews:

Vanta‘s Edge: As a pioneer in this market, Vanta established many of the standards now considered industry norms.
Both Vanta and Drata offer agents tailored for device management and risk assessment, robust vendor assessment capabilities, built-in security training, and an external trust page that encompasses NDA management.

Thoropass & Secureframe

Also right at the top of the list are Thoropass and Securefram e with comparable feature sets, Viridis can help confirm they have the frameworks and integrations needed to support your product. These tend to come in at a somewhat lower price point makes it an appealing choice for many businesses.

Sprinto & Trustcloud

Both Sprinto and TrustCloud are designed with user-friendliness at the forefront, especially for compliance needs. They expedite the SOC 2 certification journey. However, they might not have all the advanced features that some of the other tools boast. If your organization is already equipped with comprehensive tools or if you’re just starting out and don’t require advanced features right off the bat, Sprinto and TrustCloud can serve as effective solutions to document and achieve certification requirements. Notably, TrustCloud has an attractive pricing structure for startups which gradually scales up the cost over several years.

Conclusion

Navigating the SOC 2 certification path doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With the right tools and expert guidance from Viridis Security as your compliance service provider, you can streamline the process for SOC 2 evidence collection and bolster your organization’s security framework. Ready for a deep dive? Let’s talk.