Digital asset storage has become one of the most important strategic decisions a company can make. Whether you’re a small business or a corporate giant, every entity uses data in their business.
Your digital assets must remain secure. Data breaches can lead to serious safety risks, leaving you exposed to attacks like data theft, blackmail, and malware induction. Heartland Technology Data Center (HTDC) clients can be reassured of asset security and privacy thanks to our SOC 2 (pronounced like sock two) certification.
Why should you care about this certification? It’s third-party validation by an independent audit that we have security and privacy practices in place that meet and exceed requirements.
What Is the SOC?
SOC or Security Operation Center is a suite of service organization controls. It is a series of standards designed to measure how well a given service organization conducts and regulates its information. It provides confidence and peace of mind for customers when they engage third-party vendors.
The Service Organization Control reporting framework comprises of 3 types of grades:
SOC 1: Reports on the service organization’s controls related to its client’s financial reporting.
SOC 2: Reports build on the financial reporting in SOC 1 and require standard operating procedures for organizational oversight, vendor management, risk management, and regulatory oversight.
SOC 3: Reports are a simplified version of SOC 2 records, requiring less formalized documentation.
Heartland Technology Data Center now has our SOC 2 certification. We want to walk through what that means and how our SOC 2 certification benefits you when you host with HTDC.
What Is the SOC2 Certification?
SOC 2, developed by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), is designed explicitly for solution providers storing customer data.
The SOC 2 certification is divided into the following:
SOC 2 Type 1:
Type 1 report is about analyzing the design of security processes at a specific point in time and provides opinion on the suitability of the respective designs of those controls. All organizations start their SOC 2 certification with Type 1.
SOC 2 Type 2:
Type 2 report has all the sections mentioned in the SOC 2 Type 1 report, with an addition of the operating effectiveness of those controls that the organization has placed. To validate that the controls are in place and operating effectively, the auditor performs various tests and examinations on internal control policies and practices.
SOC 2 Benefits for Data Center Clients
SOC2 certification is based on trust service principles and focuses on five major factors that provide hosting clients with:
Security:
Security controls are all about protecting the system against unauthorized access, prohibited declaration of data, etc. It helps in blocking the removal of data, exploitation of software, and unwanted disclosure of details.
Availability:
SOC 2 cites the availability of the system, products, or services. This documentation helps maintain a transparent relationship between us, the data center, and you, our clients.
Processing Integrity:
This assures that everything in the audited system is complete, valid, accurate, timely, and authorized to customer needs.
Confidentiality:
Documentation about the entities who can access, use, and control the data provided by the client. This is agreed upon between the data center owners and the client.
Privacy:
This principle asserts the acquisition, usage, declaration, and ejection of personal information with the privacy notice of the organization as well as the principles of AICPA.
Overall, the benefits of hosting with a SOC 2 certified data center are immediate and long-lasting, both for you and your customers.
Greater Services:
SOC2 certification ensures that all the security-related measures are working properly. As an organization, you can get better hosting services if you’re storing your digital assets in a SOC 2 certified data center.
Sense of Confidence:
As per the rules, to obtain a SOC2 certificate, organizations have to pass various tests, carefully curated by the auditor. These tests make sure the data center is actively protecting against breach of data and that they can be trusted by clients, as verified by an independent third party.
Host With a SOC 2 Data Center
To sum up, the SOC 2 certification is important for any data storage service provider to gain client confidence and reiterate top-notch security practices.
For businesses, the certification ensures high security, better services, and a smooth process of data storage. The certificate is validated by trusted committees, which gives you peace of mind that with HTDC, your digital assets are secure and in good hands.
With an increase in digitization, growing cybersecurity threats, and the never-ending need for safe data storage, the SOC 2 certificate acts as a sense of relief to data centers and our clients.