In an ever-volatile breach landscape, cybersecurity compliance is critical to fostering a cyber resilient business. One such compliance is Service Organization Control (SOC) 2, developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Designed to test and demonstrate a company’s cybersecurity posture, a SOC2 audit evaluates how well your company protects its data from unauthorized access, misuse, or loss.
If you’re looking to achieve SOC2 compliance, a key first step is assessing your business’s password security. Let’s dive deeper into what SOC2 compliance entails, its password requirements, and how a password manager can help with SOC2 compliance.
What is SOC2 compliance?
SOC2 compliance is a voluntary standard, but it has become an integral part of the cybersecurity profile of those companies who handle sensitive customer data. SOC2 is a marker of trust and data integrity and assures customers and prospective clients that their control environment, risk assessments, monitoring, and implementation of security controls is adequate.
Based on five Trust Services Criteria – security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy – password requirements fall under the Security criterion, which covers logical and physical access controls.
What are SOC2 password requirements?
Let’s start with the password requirements of SOC2 compliance. They fall under three categories and are meant to ensure employees are using strong passwords, not reusing passwords, and to prevent unauthorized access to data.
- Password length and complexity: The longer and more complex the better. Passwords should be at least 12 characters long and include a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. A password generator can be a good place to start.
- Password rotation and history: A unique password is a good password. Passwords should be changed every 90 days or less and not be reused for at least six months.
- Account lockouts: Accounts should be locked out after five or more failed login attempts. This helps prevent unauthorized access to data and alerts admins to possible breach attempts.
How can a password manager help with SOC2 compliance?
Here’s where a password manager comes into play. The requirements above? A password management tool can do all of that (and more).
- A password manager generates unique, complex passwords for each employee account and stores them in an encrypted vault, with a strong master password (the only password employees need to remember), which is the key to that vault. It also alerts employees to weak passwords and automatically fills in credentials to reputable sites only.
- Within a password management tool, admins can review employees' last master password change, and if needed, force a master password change. This way you can ensure that an employee’s master password is a dynamic key that thwarts rather than invites hackers to your company’s sensitive data.
- Password manager admin policies include a customized maximum allowance of login attempts. The admin can also see suspicious login attempts and adjust access policies to automatically block these attempts. Integrating multi-factor authentication (MFA) can also prevent unauthorized access.
You may already be implementing some of these password best practices at your business, but a password management tool can ensure that all employees are adhering to good password behavior – and bring you a step closer to SOC2 compliance.
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