Be prepared. This timeless motto from the Boy Scouts of America is relevant in a number of business scenarios — including your path to SOC 2 compliance. 

Taking the time to run a SOC 2 readiness assessment ensures that by the time you go through the audit itself, you’re far more likely to be classified as compliant. It lets you identify and address any gaps that could ultimately compromise your audit. 

In this article, we’re taking a closer look at what a SOC 2 readiness assessment is and how you can make the best use of it. 

What Is a SOC 2 Readiness Assessment

A SOC 2 readiness assessment is a trial run of your SOC 2 audit. Your compliance team — or external partners — examine the same controls and processes that will be under review in the audit. This way, you can determine whether your business is ready to go through audit, or whether there are any problem areas that need addressing. 

Teams that don’t conduct a SOC 2 readiness assessment risk having issues come up during the audit phase and being marked as non-compliant. 

When Is the Right Time to Conduct a Readiness Assessment?

Depending on the state of your organization and its security controls, you will want to give yourself as much time as possible to conduct the readiness assessment. We typically suggest getting started between 12 and 18 months before you’d like to have the final SOC 2 Type 2 report.

When you look at the full timeline for your SOC 2 compliance, the audit can typically take anywhere from six to 12 months to run, and the report takes another few weeks to complete. If any exceptions are found during the audit, then you’d have to spend another significant amount of time to address those and have them re-evaluated — ultimately impacting how quickly you can achieve compliance.

Meanwhile, if you spend time up front to run the readiness assessment and remediate any gaps to ensure you’re checking all the compliance boxes, then the audit and report process can be streamlined. The assessment can take anywhere from weeks to months, so there will be an initial investment, but it will be worth it in the long run. 

How to Conduct a SOC 2 Readiness Assessment?

Whether you decide to do it yourself or hire a consultant, a readiness assessment will often be made up of a variety of core components:  

• Mapping existing controls to your Trust Services Criteria (TSC). Depending on which of the five TSCs (including security) you will be audited for, you’ll need to review how you measure up against the controls under each criteria. Review what controls and documentation already exist, and map them against your criteria. You can simplify and automate this process by using SOC 2 automation software like Drata, or simply use a readiness checklist. 

• Identifying potential gaps. Review all your controls, policies, documentation, processes, and employee training for anything that’s missing. Note: you’ll need to take more than a cursory glance of each of these areas — each area needs to be reviewed with the same degree of diligence that an auditor would. This should help you identify the work that needs to be done as part of the remediation process. 

• Conducting vulnerability and risk management assessments. Alongside your other checks, the readiness assessment will provide you with the opportunity to check your company’s risk exposure from a data privacy and security perspective. This will help you understand whether you need to increase your investment in these core areas.

• Crafting a roadmap for remediation. Map out the work that needs to be done and set specific deadlines for each task. Appoint a team or person to be responsible for the work, and get as many people involved and on board as possible.

The next step after the readiness assessment will be the remediation stage. This is where you may need external support to keep you on track and on time, and to provide the information and insight your team doesn’t have.

How Marana Helps You Prepare for SOC 2 Audits

When it comes to the SOC 2 compliance journey, you don’t know what you don’t know. The chance of success is much higher if you choose to partner with a team that specializes in SOC 2 audits, like Marana. At Marana, we guide you through the compliance journey, providing support along the assessment, remediation, and compliance stages. From the get go, we take the time to understand your business, and create a custom roadmap that will help you become SOC 2 compliant. 

Remember, SOC 2 compliance is an ongoing process. Even once you put the work into the readiness assessment and remediation, you’ll still need to ensure compliance leading into the audit. Things as simple as a missed software patch during the audit become exceptions in the final report. Work with a team and tools that can help you keep track of everything so that you don’t need to worry as you wait for your report.

Ready to get started? Let’s chat.