SOC 2 Security Requirements Guide

Quick Answer: SOC 2 security requirements are defined by the AICPA's Trust Services Criteria and cover five control categories: security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. Security is the only mandatory category. You must demonstrate that your systems and data are protected against unauthorized access, breaches, and misuse.

SOC 2 security requirements are set by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and organized around five Trust Services Criteria. The security category is required for every SOC 2 report, while the other four are optional based on your service commitments.

Meeting these requirements involves building and documenting dozens of technical and administrative controls, then proving they work over time. This page covers what the requirements include, what makes compliance difficult, and how organizations typically approach certification.

Key Takeaways

• SOC 2 security requirements are built around five Trust Services Criteria, with the security category mandatory for all reports.
• The biggest challenge is not the audit itself but the months of evidence collection, policy documentation, and control implementation required before it.
• A SOC 2 Type 1 report typically takes one to three months to prepare, while a Type 2 report requires six to twelve months of control observation.
• Building compliance in-house requires at least one dedicated hire at $84K to $132K or more per year, not including tooling or auditor fees.
• Managed compliance partners handle implementation, tooling, and auditor coordination for a fraction of that cost, making certification accessible without building an internal team.

What Are SOC 2 Security Requirements?

SOC 2 security requirements are defined by the AICPA's Trust Services Criteria (TSC) and published in the SOC 2 Reporting on an Examination of Controls at a Service Organization Relevant to Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, or Privacy guide. The five criteria are:

The security category, often called the Common Criteria (CC), is the foundation of every SOC 2 report. It maps across nine control categories covering organizational governance, communication, risk assessment, monitoring, logical access, system operations, change management, and risk mitigation.

Within the security criteria alone, you are expected to implement and document controls such as multi-factor authentication, role-based access controls, encryption in transit and at rest, vulnerability management, security awareness training, incident response procedures, and vendor risk management. The AICPA does not prescribe exactly how you implement each control, but your auditor will evaluate whether your controls are appropriately designed and operating effectively.

If your business also handles sensitive customer data, processes financial transactions, or operates under privacy regulations, you may need to include one or more of the optional criteria. Most enterprise clients requesting SOC 2 reports focus on the security criteria at minimum, with confidentiality and availability commonly added for SaaS and cloud service providers.

For a broader look at how all five criteria fit together, the SOC 2 Trust Services Criteria breakdown covers each category in detail.

Challenges Companies Face When Getting SOC 2 Compliant

Most organizations underestimate how much work SOC 2 compliance requires before the auditor ever shows up. The audit itself is not the hard part. Getting your controls, documentation, and evidence in order is.

Here are the most common pain points:

• Underestimating scope: The security criteria alone requires controls across nine categories, and adding optional criteria multiplies the documentation and testing burden significantly.
• No internal expertise: SOC 2 compliance spans IT, security, legal, and HR. Most companies do not have staff with experience across all four areas, which creates gaps that auditors will find.
• Evidence collection volume: Auditors require logs, screenshots, policy sign-offs, access reviews, and vendor assessments. Gathering this evidence manually is time-consuming and error-prone.
• Ongoing burden: SOC 2 Type 2 requires you to maintain controls over a six to twelve month observation period. That means continuous monitoring, regular training, and periodic access reviews, not a one-time project.
• Type 1 vs. Type 2 decision: Starting with Type 1 makes sense for organizations new to SOC 2, but most enterprise clients now require Type 2. Misreading this can mean repeating the process sooner than expected.
• Tool sprawl: Selecting, configuring, and integrating security tools, a GRC platform, SIEM, endpoint management, and identity controls into a coherent compliance environment is a project in itself.

What Does It Take to Meet SOC 2 Security Requirements?

Meeting SOC 2 security requirements is not a single task. It is a coordinated effort across documentation, technical controls, monitoring, and people. The sections below break down what each area actually involves.

Documentation and Policy Development

You need written policies covering access control, incident response, change management, vendor risk, data classification, and more before your audit period begins. Auditors will ask for evidence that these policies exist, that employees have read and acknowledged them, and that your team follows them in practice. Most organizations need to create or rewrite 15 to 20 policies from scratch.

Technical Controls and Tooling

The security criteria requires specific technical controls to be deployed and configured, not just documented. This includes MFA across all systems, endpoint detection and response, encryption, vulnerability scanning, and SIEM logging. Selecting the right tools and configuring them correctly to produce audit-ready evidence is where many in-house efforts stall.

Ongoing Monitoring and Maintenance

A SOC 2 Type 2 report evaluates whether your controls worked consistently over an observation period. That means you cannot set controls up and walk away. You need continuous log monitoring, regular access reviews, periodic vendor assessments, and documented responses to any security events. This is an operational commitment, not a one-time implementation.

Auditor Coordination and Evidence Collection

Working with a SOC 2 auditor involves multiple rounds of evidence requests, follow-up questions, and remediation cycles. If your evidence is incomplete or your controls have gaps, the auditor will flag them and you will need to address them before the report is issued. Managing this process without prior experience can stretch your timeline significantly. For a closer look at what this process involves, see how to prepare for a SOC 2 audit.

Staff Training and Awareness

Your employees are part of your control environment. Auditors will look for evidence that staff completed security awareness training, that phishing simulations were conducted, and that new hires received security onboarding. Tracking this at scale requires a dedicated platform and consistent follow-through.

In-House vs Managed: Approaches to SOC 2 Compliance

There is no single right way to approach SOC 2 compliance. Your best path depends on your internal resources, timeline, and how much of the work you want to own. Here is an objective comparison of the three most common approaches.

The DIY path gives you the most control but requires significant internal investment in people, tools, and time. A GRC platform like Drata or Vanta can automate evidence collection and reduce manual effort, but you still own the implementation, policy work, and auditor coordination. A managed compliance partner takes on the full scope, from controls deployment to audit support, but requires trust in an external team to deliver the outcome.

If you are weighing these options, our guide on common compliance mistakes is worth reading before you commit to a path.

Getting Started With SOC 2 Compliance

If you are ready to move forward, here is how the process typically unfolds:

1. Book a GAP Assessment: Start by evaluating your current security posture against SOC 2 security requirements. A GAP assessment identifies which controls you already have, which are missing, and what needs to be remediated before your audit period begins.

1. Get Your Implementation Roadmap: Based on the GAP assessment, you receive a prioritized plan covering which controls to implement, which tools to deploy, which policies to write, and a realistic timeline for reaching audit readiness.

1. Deploy Controls: This is the hands-on phase. Security controls are configured, your GRC platform is set up, documentation is written, and your environment is brought into alignment with the Trust Services Criteria.

1. Achieve and Maintain Compliance: Once your observation period is complete, your auditor issues the SOC 2 report. From there, ongoing compliance requires continuous monitoring, annual training cycles, access reviews, and vendor management to stay audit-ready year-round.

Why Choose BEMO for SOC 2 Compliance

The challenges covered in this article, from evidence collection to auditor coordination to ongoing monitoring, are exactly what BEMO is built to handle. BEMO is a managed compliance partner, not a SaaS platform, which means a dedicated team does the work alongside you rather than handing you a checklist.

Here is what you get when you work with BEMO on SOC 2 compliance:

• A dedicated team assigned to your account: Customer Success Manager, Project Manager, Delivery Engineer, Security Engineer, SOC Analyst, IT Manager, Support Engineer, and virtual CISO.
• Microsoft-native security stack: Built on M365, Entra ID, Purview, Sentinel, Intune, and Defender, with GRC automation through Drata.
• BEMO is certified themselves: SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 certified, so the team advising you has been through the same process.
• Full auditor coordination: BEMO works directly with auditor partners including Sensiba, A-LIGN, and Johanson Group on your behalf.
• 8-month implementation timeline with bi-weekly status meetings and a 72-hour SLA on remediation items.
• Cost advantage: Starting at approximately $4,800 per month versus $84K to $132K or more for a single in-house compliance hire, before accounting for tooling or auditor fees.
• 24/7 SOC coverage: AI reviews over 100,000 monthly logs with approximately 100 per month human-verified by SOC analysts.
• Proven track record: 2023 Microsoft US Partner of the Year, Inc. 5000 four consecutive years, and featured by Satya Nadella at the Microsoft Secure 2024 Summit.

Start Your SOC 2 Compliance Journey

BEMO assigns a dedicated team to your account and owns the outcome. You do not manage the process alone.

Book a meeting with BEMO to get a SOC 2 GAP assessment and find out exactly where you stand.

Frequently Asked Questions About SOC 2 Security Requirements

What are the SOC 2 security requirements?

SOC 2 security requirements are defined by the AICPA's Trust Services Criteria and cover nine categories of controls within the mandatory security category. These include logical and physical access controls, system monitoring, change management, risk assessment, and incident response. The security category is required for every SOC 2 report, regardless of which optional criteria you include.

How many controls does SOC 2 security compliance require?

The AICPA does not publish a fixed control count because SOC 2 is principles-based rather than prescriptive. In practice, most organizations implement between 60 and 100 individual controls across policies, technical configurations, and operational procedures to satisfy the security criteria. Adding optional criteria like availability or confidentiality increases the total.

What is the difference between SOC 2 Type 1 and Type 2 for security?

A SOC 2 Type 1 report evaluates whether your security controls are designed appropriately at a single point in time. A Type 2 report evaluates whether those controls operated effectively over an observation period of six to twelve months. Most enterprise clients require Type 2 because it provides stronger evidence of consistent security practices. You can read a detailed comparison in this SOC 2 Type 1 vs Type 2 breakdown.

How long does it take to become SOC 2 compliant?

Type 1 typically takes one to three months from GAP assessment to report issuance, depending on how many gaps you need to remediate. Type 2 requires six to twelve months of control observation on top of implementation time. With a managed compliance partner, the full process from kickoff to Type 2 report typically runs around eight months.

What does a SOC 2 GAP assessment include?

A SOC 2 GAP assessment reviews your current security controls against the Trust Services Criteria and identifies what is missing or insufficient. It covers your IT infrastructure, access controls, data management practices, policy documentation, and security tooling. The output is a prioritized list of gaps and a remediation roadmap you can use to prepare for your audit period.

Why choose a managed compliance partner for SOC 2?

A managed compliance partner takes on the implementation, tooling, documentation, and auditor coordination that would otherwise require multiple internal hires. For organizations without a dedicated security or compliance team, this approach is often faster and more cost-effective than building the capability in-house. BEMO's SOC 2 service starts at approximately $4,800 per month and includes a full dedicated team.

What team is assigned for SOC 2 compliance with BEMO?

BEMO assigns a dedicated team to every client account. That team includes a Customer Success Manager, Project Manager, Delivery Engineer, Security Engineer, SOC Analyst, IT Manager, Support Engineer, and virtual CISO. Each role covers a specific part of the compliance process, so you are not relying on one person to manage everything.