Who doesn’t want to be treated as a safe, reliable and trustworthy company? It’s hard to find someone in the IT or cyber security field who would say they don’t know. This is why everyone who works with data wants to achieve SOC 2 and ISO/IEC 27001 compliance.
SOC 2 Compliance: What and Why
When a company is SOC 2 compliant, it guarantees that it maintains a high level of information security and meets all the necessary criteria that Audit requires, such as Security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality and privacy.
- Under insurance, we understand that the company protects all information and the system itself from unauthorized access, using IT security infrastructure such as two-factor authentication, firewall, backup or any other way to protect data.
- Availability explains that the company maintains the software, infrastructure and information and controls the operation, monitoring and maintenance to keep the company viable against all potential external threats.
- In accordance with the integrity of processing, the company proves that all functions work correctly and accurately without any errors, delays, omissions or unauthorized manipulations.
- Confidentiality ensures that all confidential information about the company, including business plans and intellectual property documents, is well protected.
- By privacy we see the ability of an organization to protect its key information.
So, to summarize, we can say that SOC 2 is a set of regulations that determine how technology services store their users’ data in the cloud. At the same time, it guarantees that these services use appropriate controls, mechanisms and practices to effectively protect their clients’ data.
SOC 2 compliance means your organization is regularly monitored for malicious and unrecognized activity, monitors user access levels, and keeps documentation of system configuration changes. At the same time, the company has behavioral protocols for assessing threats and taking appropriate actions to protect data from unauthorized access.
ISO/IEC 27001 Audit: Explanation
Another standard for data protection is ISO/IEC 27001. Basically, it lists the same points that guarantee data security as SOC 2. It is an international standard that sets requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining and continuously improving an information security management system that meets all measures information security.
In accordance with ISO/IEC 27001 Compliance, management should systematically examine the company for information security risks, paying particular attention to threats and vulnerabilities, create and implement sets of information security controls to address said risks and, finally, stay up-to-date and ensure that these information security controls meet the company’s information security needs.
SOC 2 and ISO/IEC 27001: What’s the difference?
Both of these compliance standards are incredibly popular and have the same requirements for security measures. The only difference is in the regions where they are popular. SOC 2 is recognized worldwide, but is more associated with North America. In the rest of the world, ISO/IEC 27001 is more popular.
For both of these certifications you should meet the security framework and the audit is carried out by an external auditor. So who conducts the audit? If we are talking about ISO 27001, it is carried out by a certification body with ISO 2700 accreditation, and the SOC 2 audit is carried out by a certified chartered accountant. That’s the only difference. So once you’re compliant with one of the certifications, you need to make sure you’re compliant with the other as well.
Tips for GitHub admins to become SOC 2 and ISO/IEC 27001 compliant
Although they are two different compliances, they require the same data security standards and, as a result, the same advice for passing GitHub SOC 2 and ISO/IEC 27001 audits.
1. Branch protection rule
It is possible to create a branch protection rule. Can it help? Definitely, since any branch protection rule disables force, it pushes on matching branches and therefore prevents branches from matching and they cannot be deleted. So they are very safe and work continuously. Also, this rule can be applied not only to a specific branch but to all branches or any branch that matches the name patterns you specify using fnmatch syntax.
2. Set up Dependabot
Dependabot is a security scanner that helps manage your dependencies and looks for security issues in them. Due to the fact that it has automated security updates, it can help pass the audit. While this is fine for small businesses, if we consider medium and large enterprises, it is better to look for a more secure scanner solution for the CI/CD pipeline.
3. Apply different levels of access
That might be one of the easiest tips; all you have to do is set up who’s who among your developers. For example, you can set the most trusted developers as administrators and the rest of your DevOps team as those with limited options to protect your data. So let the whole team have logical access: the more you trust them, the more access they will have to the repository.
4. Access keys and secrets
You can reduce the impact of a break-in and protect data by creating encrypted secrets. It is possible to create these secrets — encrypted environment variables, in an organization, repository, or repository environment. You can use all these secrets in GitHub Actions. Then it’s better to pull the encrypted secret as a variable from the settings page. As soon as you deploy it, it’s worth not only locking and loading the variable in plain text from your repository, but injecting secrets via AWS Secret Manager, Hashicorp Vault, or any other similar service. In this situation, you should be responsible for key storage and rotation.
5. CircleCi or GitHub actions
There are some additional tools for running the test phase, such as CircleCi and GitHub Actions. By using them, you can run more tests that your organization needs.
6. Infrastructure as code
Infrastructure as code can be one of the best options that DevOps teams can implement. It allows you to manage your infrastructure using code instead of doing this process manually. Using this method, you can create configuration files that contain the specifications of your infrastructure. In turn, it helps you to edit and distribute configurations more easily. If you decide to codify and document your configuration specifications, IaC allows configuration management to avoid such configuration changes as ad-hoc and undocumented.
7. Multi-factor authentication
Today, MFA is a very popular way to secure your data. Once you opt for two-factor or multi-factor authentication to access your repository, it will greatly increase your actual security. How does it really work? MFA suggests that a person can access a repo only after meeting all levels of authentication. For example, if someone wants to log into your repository, they know the password, so the first stage is over, but the next step comes when the system needs another proof (it can be multiple numbers, say three or even five). If any of the stages are not completed, that bad actor cannot enter your account.
8. Source code backup for SOC 2 and ISO/IEC 27001 compliance
Source code is a key asset of any business. By backing up its source code, the company ensures that it can guarantee a quick restoration of its services so that data remains available and recoverable in the event of a failure. Let’s not forget that accessibility is one of the main requirements of SOC 2 and ISO/IEC 27001 Audit.
For example, when a company has a GitHub backup according to the 3-2-1 backup rule, even if one of the copies fails to start, the company’s security team has several other copies for peace of mind, be it on local storage on the company’s premises or in the cloud – any of AWS, Wasabi, Google Cloud Storage, GitProtect Storage, Azure Blob Storage, BlackBlaze B2, etc.
Take away
Preparing a company for SOC 2 or ISO 27001 audits can be a daunting task, but with the right strategies and tips, it becomes a doable endeavor. By implementing strong and comprehensive security measures, establishing clear policies and procedures, fostering a culture of compliance and using automation tools, it is possible to effectively ensure that your organization meets the strict requirements of these industry standards.
With careful planning, attention to detail, and an ongoing commitment to security best practices, companies can not only pass these audits with flying colors, but also improve their overall cybersecurity posture and build trust with both customers and stakeholders.