At AppViewX, our top priority is safeguarding the digital identities that are the backbone of modern enterprises. With hundreds of customers and millions of certificates under management, AppViewX bears a significant responsibility to protect its customers’ critical data and infrastructure.

This commitment to security is not merely a claim. It is substantiated through independent audits that validate adherence to the highest standards in security, availability, processing integrity, and confidentiality. The Trust Services Criteria (TSC) are comprehensively addressed on an annual basis, ensuring a robust and proactive security posture for the AppViewX AVX ONE Certificate Lifecycle Management and PKI platform that aligns with industry best practices.

The Necessity of SOC 2 Compliance

As a B2B SaaS provider, AppViewX collects and stores sensitive customer data from across the globe, including digital certificates and keys. Operating within a multi-tenant architecture necessitates stringent security controls to maintain strict data isolation while sharing the same infrastructure across multiple customers. SOC 2 certification is essential as it validates the existence and effectiveness of these controls over time. The certification is not merely about implementing controls but also about proving their continuous operational effectiveness.

Engaging and Educating Stakeholders on SOC 2 Compliance

Key Stakeholders Involved

The SOC 2 compliance process at AppViewX involved several critical teams, including General & Administrative (G&A), Engineering, Product, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Security, and Technical Assistance Center (TAC) teams. Each of these stakeholders plays an essential role in ensuring that compliance efforts are both comprehensive and effective.

Communication Strategies

To communicate the importance of SOC 2 compliance, a strategic approach was taken by identifying security champions within each team. These champions were educated on the specific controls that needed continuous monitoring. Since the software development lifecycle (SDLC) at AppViewX already adhered to NIST SP 800-53 standards, mapping the necessary controls to existing practices was streamlined. This alignment allowed the compliance efforts to integrate seamlessly into the established processes.

Training and Education

Training sessions are conducted for each department, focusing on the control requirements and objectives relevant to their roles. These sessions provide guidance on best practices and empower teams to incorporate these practices into their daily operations, ensuring that the compliance objectives are continually met.

Overcoming Implementation Challenges

Integrating and organizing various security components—such as identity management, access controls, continuous monitoring, and telemetry integrations—was a necessary process and introduced complexity during the SOC 2 compliance journey. To address these complexities, AppViewX developed comprehensive security guardrails and platform security defaults, guiding the approach to product development. New secure coding guidelines were also established to embed security throughout the SDLC.

In the production environment, standard operating procedures, policies, and minimum security baselines were implemented to cover all critical areas. This holistic approach included identity and access management, telemetry integration, and continuous monitoring. Specific tools and automation scripts were utilized to ensure correct implementation and seamless operation of each component within the overall security framework.

Ensuring Continuous Monitoring and Effectiveness

Continuous monitoring and effectiveness of security controls began with thorough threat modeling, which informed a defense-in-depth strategy. This strategy involved selecting and reinforcing appropriate security controls across various areas, including zero trust architecture, the principle of least privilege for access management, perimeter security, application security, and compliance with privacy regulations.

During this process, specific use cases for alerting and monitoring were developed and integrated into the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) system. This integration enabled continuous monitoring across the environment. For compliance monitoring, compliance automation tools were implemented and integrated with various business systems, including those from Enterprise IT, Engineering, SRE, and Security.

The internal audit team leverages these tools to continuously monitor the effectiveness of the controls. Each control criterion is meticulously mapped against relevant evidence and ongoing monitoring activities within these tools, ensuring the maintenance of compliance and upholding the rigorous security standards required by the SOC 2 cybersecurity compliance framework.

Data Privacy and Confidentiality

Data privacy and confidentiality efforts began with a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA). Given the global customer base, navigating a complex landscape of privacy regulations and compliance requirements was essential. The PIA allowed for a thorough evaluation of data collection practices and ensured that each data point handled had a clear and justified purpose.

Following this assessment, security controls for processing and storing sensitive customer information were revisited and strengthened. A comprehensive approach was taken, considering not only Personally Identifiable Information (PII) but also any data that could impact the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of customer information. Enterprise-grade encryption standards were implemented alongside strict key management and rotation policies to safeguard this data.

For data retention and deletion, rigorous policies were established, and a unique tenant encryption key was implemented for each customer. This approach ensures that customer data can be securely erased through cryptographic methods upon offboarding, adding an additional layer of privacy protection.

Dedicated to Securing and Protecting Customers

AppViewX is dedicated to ensuring the security of our products to keep our customers secure and protected. In addition to our SOC 2 compliance, AppViewX holds additional security compliance certifications, including ISO 27001 and PCI DSS.

To learn more about the AppViewX AVX ONE Certificate Lifecycle Management and PKI platform, request your personalized demo today.

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Blogs Archive - AppViewX authored by Prasanth Sundararajan. Read the original post at: https://www.appviewx.com/blogs/soc-2-compliance-provides-appviewx-customers-security-and-data-protection-assurance/