Select Page

Vardhan NS

|
originally published on Dec 27, 2024
Share

For SaaS companies, displaying SOC 2 Compliance is more than a nicety, it is a competitive differentiation. Especially with security threats on the rise, enterprises are no longer willing to compromise on security standards. It is safe to assume that information security and data security is now a top priority.

While there are numerous standards and certifications to display security and responsibility of client data, the one that stands out is SOC 2. 

What is SOC 2?

SOC 2 stands for Service Organization Controls 2, a cybersecurity framework designed to ensure third-party service providers follow the protocols to protect sensitive data and information of their clientele. It emphasizes the implementation of robust security controls and best practices in software development, operational processes, and organizational policies to build trust and ensure data protection.

SOC 2 certifications is based on the principles of Trust Services Criteria (TSC), which are: 

  1. Security – controls to prevent unauthorized access of data
  2. Availability – controls that ensure accessibility/availability of data when needed
  3. Processing Integrity – controls that ensure systems and processes work as intended
  4. Confidentiality – controls to restrict data access only to authorized personnel
  5. Privacy – controls to ensure a consumer’s PII (personally identifiable info.) is not compromised
Trust Services Criteria (TSC) for SOC 2

For companies operating in security-critical environments, SOC 2 certification is a bare minimum requirement if they are to engage in a business partnership/service. This is where a solution such as ours, OpsMx Delivery Shield comes in handy.

About OpsMx Delivery Shield

OpsMx Delivery Shield is an Application Security Posture Management (ASPM) platform designed to enhance the security posture of applications by providing a comprehensive approach to managing, monitoring, and mitigating security risks throughout the SDLC.  

Security and DevOps teams can integrate Delivery Shield right into their tech stack to: 

  • Consolidate application security test results 
  • Mange risks from open source software 
  • Gain visibility into the application security posture 
  • Enforce security policies
  • Automate regulatory compliances
  • Improve developer productivity
OpsMx Delivery Shield

SOC 2 Type 2 Compliance with OpsMx Delivery Shield

OpsMx Delivery Shield enforces security controls and secure development practices throughout the application lifecycle to ensure compliance with SOC 2 Type 2 standards. We also automate a significant portion of the requirements associated with SOC 2 compliance thereby simplifying and expediting the SOC 2 compliance process.

Adhering to SOC 2’s Trust Services Criteria (TSC) can help organizations demonstrate security and operational efficiency. We (OpsMx Delivery Shield) can make it easier for organizations to achieve compliance with SOC 2 Type 2 Compliance during the software delivery process. 

How OpsMx Delivery Shield helps achieve SOC 2 Type 2 Compliance

OpsMx Delivery Shield offers features that are in line with the criteria required for SOC 2 compliance. Organisations can use these aspects of Delivery Shield to demonstrate adherence with SOC 2 and leverage them as proof during audits. Below are the features that support the cause:

1. Secure SDLC Practices

Delivery Shield supports secure software development practices such as threat modeling, code reviews, and integration for SAST, DAST. 

  1. Threat Modeling: Delivery Shield frequently analyzes code to identify vulnerabilities and assess risks—especially those arising from open source components. 
  2. Code Reviews: Delivery Shield supports devs to perform manual and automated code reviews to detect security gaps and prevent injection attacks, XSS, etc.
  3. Static and Dynamic Application Security Testing (SAST/DAST): Delivery Shield integrates with all SAST and DAST tools. Security teams can automate code scans before and after code deployment and report threats instantly 

2. Version Control Security

Delivery Shield secures source code repositories and provides visibility into the Git security posture.

  1. Source Code Repositories: Delivery Shield secures code repositories such as GitHub and BitBucket by limiting repository access to personnel, enforcing strong password protection measures, and encrypting data at rest and transit. 
  2. Branch Protection: Delivery Shield can help you enforce branch protection rules such as ensuring peer code reviews for all Pull Requests and performing automated testing before merging code to prod. 

3. DevSecOps Integration

Delivery Shield complies with the best practices of DevSecOps such as automated vulnerability scanning and security testing. 

  1. Automated Security Testing: Delivery Shield integrates with other security testing tools in the CI/CD pipeline, consolidating test results from your favorite SAST, DAST and Dependency Scanning tools for analysis and inspection. 
  2. Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Delivery Shield helps identify IaC risks arising from misconfigurations and security vulnerabilities by integrating with tools and consolidating test results
  3. Automated Vulnerability Scanning: Delivery Shield has native capabilities as well as integrates with tools like Snyk, Dependabot, and Clair to scan for vulnerabilities in open source and third party packages/libraries.

4. Continuous Monitoring and Logging

Delivery Shield continuously monitors and logs events and activities which is valuable information during later times of audit and incident response.

  • Centralized Logging: Delivery Shield implements centralized logging of all activities—build, test, deployment to monitor for suspicious activity
  • Audit Trails: Detailed logs of code changes, infrastructure changes, and deployments are stored for review during later times such as audits 
  • Incident Detection and Response: Real-time monitoring for security incidents and performance anomalies can help you with the details needed for an incident response plan

5. Data Protection

Delivery Shield enforces encryption of sensitive data and passwords to help you in your SOC 2 journey. 

  • Encryption: Delivery Shield enforces encryption of sensitive data at rest and in transit within your application. 
  • Secrets Management: Delivery Shield supports the use of vaults to store and manage API keys, tokens, and other secrets by integrating with tools like HashiCorp Vault, and AWS Secrets Manager.

6. Deployment Security

Delivery Shield enforces various security measures to ensure deployment security—an important criteria for SOC 2 compliance. 

  1. Segregation of Duties: Delivery Shield segregates responsibilities and provides permissions based on roles—development, testing, and deployment to avoid misuse of power and conflicts of interest.
  2. Immutable Infrastructure: Delivery Shield’s deployment firewall automates checks to verify policy violations and ensure no threats/vulnerabilities are deployed. Delivery Shield can ensure environments are identical and report any infrastructure drift in production
  3. Blue-Green or Canary Deployments: Delivery Shield supports progressive deployment strategies to minimize deployment failures and provision a phased approach to software releases.

7. Third-Party Vendor Management

Delivery Shield performs security and vulnerability checks on all third-party components used in the codebase. This is a major criteria for SOC 2 compliance. 

  1. Dependency and Library Auditing: Delivery Shield monitors and analyzes third-party libraries and components for vulnerabilities prior to each deployment and ensures the third-party code meets security standards.
  2. Supplier Risk Management: Delivery Shield routinely performs vendor risk management to ensure that the process and tools comply with SOC 2 standards and other equivalent frameworks.

8. Access Control and Identity Management

Delivery Shield enforces Access Control and Identity Management measures to stay relevant with SOC 2 criteria. We provide the same level of security and follow the same standards needed for any enterprise tool as per SOC 2 requirements. 

  1. Least Privilege Access: By supporting the implementation of role-based access control (RBAC), Delivery Shield ensures developers, testers, and operations engineers only have access to the resources they need.
  2. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Delivery Shield enforces the use of MFA to access critical resources such as development environments, source code repositories, and deployment pipelines.

9. Configuration and Patch Management

Delivery Shield works with a network firewall and ensures that the infrastructure is configured in accordance with the best practices in cloud environments.

  1. Secure Configurations: Delivery Shield ensures that the images, containers, artifacts are secure and configuration changes are tracked through version control systems
  2. Patch Management: Delivery Shield automatically applies security patches and updates to operating systems, libraries, and dependencies in addition to AI-powered remediation suggestions

Key Benefits of SOC 2 Type 2 Compliance with OpsMx Delivery Shield

1. Faster & Secure Deployments

Only manage security exceptions, automate everything else

2. Global Security Visibility

Unified DevSecOps dashboard across all tools and teams

3. Streamline Policy Compliance

Automated policy enforcement and automated audit reporting

4. Developer Productivity

“Shift Left” security with developer-friendly visibility and guidance

5. Improved AppSec Posture

Utilize broad, end-to-end data for comprehensive risk assessment

6. Lower Cost of AppSec

Replace expensive security tools with open source alternatives

About OpsMx

OpsMx is a leading innovator and thought leader in the Secure Continuous Delivery space. Leading technology companies such as Google, Cisco, Western Union, among others rely on OpsMx to ship better software faster.

OpsMx Secure CD is the industry’s first CI/CD solution designed for software supply chain security. With built-in compliance controls, automated security assessment, and policy enforcement, OpsMx Secure CD can help you deliver software quickly without sacrificing security.

OpsMx Delivery Shield adds DevSecOps capabilities to enterprise deployments by providing Application Security Posture Management (ASPM), unified visibility, compliance automation, and security policy enforcement to your existing application lifecycle.

Vardhan NS

Vardhan is a technologist and a marketing professional, currently working as a Sr. PMM at OpsMx. His strength lies in understanding complex technologies, and explaining them in un-complicated ways. Vardhan is a passionate Product Marketer with a keen focus on Content, helping brands Position themselves uniquely with clear messaging and competitive differentiation. Outside of work, he is an athlete that is passionate about Football, Swimming and Surfing.

Link

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.