Lionel Seaw
Principal Consultant Sapience Consulting
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SOC2 Attestation:
Needed or Needless in this Lion City?
19 AUGUST 2025
In today’s interconnected business world, trust is paramount. Companies increasingly rely on third-party service organisations for critical functions, from financial processing to data hosting. But how can you be sure these partners are handling your sensitive information responsibly and effectively? This is where System and Organization Controls (SOC) reports come into play. These independent assessments, governed by standards from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), provide crucial assurance about a service organisation’s control environment.
SOC1 vs SOC2:Understanding the Core Focus
SOC 1 reports are specifically concerned with a service organisation’s controls that are relevant to its clients’ internal control over financial reporting (ICFR). Think of services like payroll processing, loan servicing, or data centers hosting financial applications. If your services could impact your clients’ financial statements, a SOC 1 report is likely what their auditors will be looking for, especially for Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance. The primary audience for SOC 1 reports is the management of user entities and their external financial auditors.
SOC 2 reports have a broader scope, addressing a service organisation’s controls related to one or more of the five Trust Services Criteria (TSC): Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, and Privacy. These reports are vital for organisations that manage or process customer data, such as cloud computing providers, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies, and data hosting services. The audience for SOC 2 reports is wider, including user entity management, information security teams, business partners, and prospective clients.
The SOC Audit Journey: Key Phases
Often the first step, this involves evaluating current controls against SOC requirements to identify and remediate gaps before the formal audit.
Defining the audit boundaries, selecting TSCs (for SOC 2), choosing the report type, and setting the audit timeframe.
Selecting a licensed, independent CPA firm with SOC expertise.
Addressing any control deficiencies identified during the gap analysis.
The auditors execute their procedures, reviewing documentation, interviewing personnel, and testing controls.
The CPA firm prepares the SOC report, including their opinion, management’s assertion, system description, and test results.
The Future of SRE?The Future of SRE?The Future of SRE?The Future of SRE?
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The Future of SRE?The Future of SRE?The Future of SRE?The Future of SRE?
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The Future of SRE?The Future of SRE?The Future of SRE?The Future of SRE?
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Governance & Service Management
