Your security and compliance glossary

All the terms you need to know when you’re trying to get compliance audit ready, fast.

Show filters

What is a SOC report?

A service organization controls (SOC) report is a way to verify that an organization is following specific best practices related to protecting their clients’ data before you outsource a business function to that organization.

These best practices are related to finances, security, processing integrity, privacy, and availability. The reports, which are created and validated by third-party auditors, are built to provide independent assurance and to help potential customers/partners understand any potential risks involved in working with the organization that was evaluated.

You may decide to pursue a SOC report because you’re working to sign on a client who values security, or your own company works with sensitive data and you want to be proactive in setting up security controls.

Depending on the information needed and the types of organizations involved, there are several versions of SOC reports.


SOC 1, SOC 2 & SOC 3

You may also hear “SOC” referring to a security operations center. That’s a separate definition and meaning that doesn’t impact your compliance obligations.

{{cta_withimage1="/cta-modules"}}

Additional resources you might like:

Compliance
Event
Simplifying SOC 2 and ISO 27001 compliance for growing businesses

Join us for a 45-minute webinar where we’ll demonstrate how Vanta automates up to 90% of the work for security and privacy frameworks, and helps you move towards a state of continuous compliance.

Security
Event
The State of Trust 2024: How UK Businesses are managing risk and compliance with automation

Join our upcoming webinar, where leading cybersecurity experts Ciaran Martin and Victoria Baines will discuss findings from Vanta’s second annual State of Trust Report. Understand the risks facing UK organisations, why good security means good business and how to minimise manual security work through AI and automation. 

SOC 2
Event
Compliance for startups with Fern (YC W23)

Join Danny Sheridan, Co-founder and CEO at Fern (YC W23), and Brian Kuan, Product Marketing Manager at Vanta (YC W18), for a deep dive into why startups should prioritize compliance early in their journey, and how Vanta can help you become SOC 2-ready in as little as four weeks—giving time back for you to focus on building a company.

Additional resources you might like:

Compliance
Event
Simplifying SOC 2 and ISO 27001 compliance for growing businesses

Join us for a 45-minute webinar where we’ll demonstrate how Vanta automates up to 90% of the work for security and privacy frameworks, and helps you move towards a state of continuous compliance.

Security
Event
The State of Trust 2024: How UK Businesses are managing risk and compliance with automation

Join our upcoming webinar, where leading cybersecurity experts Ciaran Martin and Victoria Baines will discuss findings from Vanta’s second annual State of Trust Report. Understand the risks facing UK organisations, why good security means good business and how to minimise manual security work through AI and automation. 

SOC 2
Event
Compliance for startups with Fern (YC W23)

Join Danny Sheridan, Co-founder and CEO at Fern (YC W23), and Brian Kuan, Product Marketing Manager at Vanta (YC W18), for a deep dive into why startups should prioritize compliance early in their journey, and how Vanta can help you become SOC 2-ready in as little as four weeks—giving time back for you to focus on building a company.

Compliance
Event
Simplify Compliance and Enhance Your Customer’s Trust

Curious about why compliance is so important, which businesses need it, and how Vanta's automation can help you quickly achieve it? Join Vanta’s 45-minute live product demo where you’ll learn how Vanta goes beyond compliance to enhance your overall security and trust management.

Compliance
Event
Fostering a culture of security in an AI world

Join our expert-led session to explore strategies for embedding a security-first culture in an AI-driven world. We'll address unique challenges and share actionable insights to help safeguard your organization.

Compliance
Event
Streamlining SOC 2 Compliance with Vanta and AWS

Watch our Coffee and Compliance session, where our experts, Ethan Heller, GRC, Subject Matter Expert at Vanta, and Brad Dispensa,WWPS Specialist SA at Amazon Web Services (AWS) cover some of the challenges of SOC 2 compliance and show how Vanta and AWS work together to simplify and accelerate SOC 2 compliance.

Compliance
Event
How to streamline SOC 2 and ISO 27001 compliance with automation

Watch Vanta’s 45-minute live product demo. Our Vanta team will walk you through the platform and answer questions throughout the session.

ISO 42001
Event
How to demonstrate secure AI practices with ISO 42001

Watch Vanta and A-LIGN's Coffee and Compliance session on ISO 42001 —what it is, what types of organizations need it, and how it works.

Company news
Event
What’s new in Vanta: Unveiling the Future of GRC Roadmap

We had the pleasure of hosting Jeremy Epling, Vanta’s CPO from our Vanta Sydney office, where he shares and demonstrates some exciting new product updates designed to help security teams future-proof and scale their GRC programs more easily.