04 - SOC 2 Policy Templates

soc-2-policy-templates', 'appsec', 'security', 'compliance']

Policies form the foundation of your SOC 2 audit. Without written policies, auditors have nothing to measure your controls against.

Below are outlines of the critical policies required.

The master document that dictates your organization's security posture.

Core Sections:

Purpose: Protect confidentiality, integrity, and availability of customer data.
Scope: All employees, contractors, and systems.
Data Classification: Define Public, Internal, Confidential, and Restricted data.
Endpoint Security: Requirements for MDM, disk encryption (FileVault/BitLocker), and antivirus.
Violations: Disciplinary action for policy violation.

Dictates how access to systems is granted, modified, and revoked.

Core Sections:

Principle of Least Privilege: Users receive minimum access necessary.
Authentication: Mandatory MFA for all internal systems (AWS, GitHub, Google Workspace).
Provisioning: Manager approval required via ticketing system (Jira/Linear).
Deprovisioning: Access revoked within 24 hours of termination.
Reviews: User Access Reviews (UAR) conducted quarterly.

How your team reacts when things go wrong.

Core Sections:

Roles: Incident Commander, Lead Responder, Communications Lead.
Severity Levels: SEV0 (Critical down), SEV1, SEV2, SEV3.
Phases:
1. Preparation
2. Identification
3. Containment
4. Eradication
5. Recovery
6. Post-Mortem (Root Cause Analysis within 5 days).
Breach Notification: SLA for notifying customers (e.g., 72 hours).

Ensures third parties don't compromise your security.

Core Sections:

Risk Tiers: Tier 1 (Critical, handles sensitive data), Tier 2, Tier 3.
Due Diligence: Require SOC 2 Type 2 or ISO 27001 reports from Tier 1/2 vendors before procurement.
Annual Review: Re-evaluate critical vendor compliance annually.

[!TIP] Tools like Vanta or Drata come with highly customized, auditor-approved templates for all of these policies. Use them to save time.