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Month: February 2025

Service Organisation Control (SOC) compliance is necessary for any business that handles sensitive data, like financial records or healthcare data, through Amazon Web Services (AWS). 

Australian firms may need a SOC audit from an accredited organisation to ensure compliance and maintain the highest level of data protection. Learn how an AWS specialist like WOLK can help you prepare for a SOC audit and ensure the safe handling and storage of your most sensitive data.

The Five Trust Services Criteria

The versions of SOC that work best with AWS—SOC 2 and SOC 3—are based on five key principles known as the Five Trust Services Criteria:

  • Security. Protecting the data from unauthorised access, such as data breaches, misuse, or destruction.
  • Availability. Monitoring the systems hosting the data to ensure their continued availability to authorised users and clients.
  • Processing integrity. Ensuring the systems processing the sensitive data produce complete, valid, and accurate outputs, preventing errors or unintended modifications as much as possible.
  • Confidentiality. Protecting sensitive data or the confidential information it contains from restricted access or disclosure, such as proprietary data or a client’s personal information.

To comply with either version of SOC, you must meet the Security criteria. Depending on your industry or business sector, you might also need to follow some or all of the other four trust services criteria.

Achieving SOC Compliance on AWS

Amazon handles compliance at the infrastructure level, meaning compliance is only guaranteed for the hardware and networking connections on which your data resides. Your organisation is responsible for security and compliance at all other levels: software, data, applications, and user access rights under the Shared Responsibility Model.

Businesses using AWS to manage sensitive data can tap into specific resources to help prepare for an audit and simplify the compliance process.

  • AWS Artifact. This resource allows your organisation to view the AWS SOC Reports and other audit documentation, such as ISO 27001. You can show copies of these reports to reduce your audit burden and demonstrate the infrastructure’s compliance.
  • AWS CloudTrail. This tool provides logging and auditing of all AWS accounts and activity in your AWS environment, such as user access or API calls. They are necessary for Security and Processing Integrity compliance.
  • AWS Config. This service monitors and records all configuration changes in your AWS environment, such as alterations to a security group, helping with Security and Availability compliance.
  • AWS KMS. Key Management Service (KMS) is a commonly used AWS service that lets organisations create and enforce strong data encryption and key management standards, which can help with Confidentiality and Privacy compliance.

Let WOLK Help You Prepare for a SOC Audit

Cloud computing and AWS experts like WOLK can help assess your needs and prepare you for a SOC audit. We handle everything from broad Well-Architected Reviews to gap assessments and specialized tasks like compliance monitoring and security checks. Every business is different—reach out to our team to learn how we can support yours.

About HSA

Hydraulic Seals Australia (HSA) has successfully modernized its IT infrastructure through a seamless cloud migration, thanks to the expertise of AWS Advanced Consulting Partner, WOLK Technology. By leveraging Amazon Web Services (AWS), HSA has enhanced operational efficiency, strengthened security, and positioned itself for scalable growth.

The Need for Digital Transformation

HSA’s legacy on-premise infrastructure had become a bottleneck, causing performance issues and workplace disruptions. An initial move to a third-party private cloud provider failed to meet scalability and reliability expectations, prompting HSA to seek a more robust solution.

“We faced ongoing technical challenges with our previous provider, which limited our ability to scale effectively,” said Kelly Barrett, HSA. “AWS, in partnership with WOLK Technology, provided the reliable, high-performance cloud environment we needed to transform our operations.”

Migration Led by WOLK Technology

Understanding HSA’s operational challenges, WOLK Technology designed and executed a migration strategy to transition HSA’s IT environment to AWS. With a focus on minimizing downtime and maximizing efficiency, WOLK implemented an End User Compute (EUC) environment that modernized HSA’s workflow and security framework.

Key benefits of the migration include:

Enhanced Security: Eliminating endpoint data storage and implementing encrypted backups significantly improved cybersecurity.

Improved Connectivity: Removing the need for complex VPN configurations streamlined network access across branches.

Effortless Scalability: WOLK facilitated the rapid expansion of HSA’s Melbourne branch, ensuring immediate IT readiness.

Seamless Remote Work: AWS’s EUC solutions enabled HSA employees to work efficiently from any location, ensuring business continuity.

The Future of HSA with AWS

With AWS and WOLK Technology, HSA now operates on a future-ready cloud infrastructure that supports its growth and innovation goals. The transition has eliminated previous IT limitations, improved operational agility, and provided a scalable, cost-effective IT environment.

Many Australian organisations rely on cloud-based services like Amazon Web Services (AWS) to store and manage sensitive business data. If you’re considering moving your business operations to the cloud, it’s essential to understand and follow top security and audit frameworks.

One widely recognised standard is System and Organization Controls 2 (SOC 2), an internationally acknowledged framework initially developed in the United States. Learn about the best practices for SOC compliance and how the AWS experts at WOLK can help you navigate them.

The Main Objectives of SOC Compliance

SOC 2 covers five principles called Trust Services Criteria (TSC), which outline its main benefits, including:

  • Security. Keeping sensitive data safe from unauthorised access at rest, when accessed, transferred, or deleted.
  • Availability. Ensuring your organisation’s data resources are always accessible by maximising uptime and implementing data backup and disaster recovery measures.
  • Processing integrity. Implementing measures to verify sensitive business data is complete, accurate, valid, and processed correctly.
  • Confidentiality. Verifying that confidential business information, such as intellectual property or financial information, is protected through access controls and user privilege systems.
  • Privacy. Protecting personal information, as defined in the Privacy Act 1988, from breaches, unauthorized access, or damage, such as healthcare information

Organisations using AWS benefit from Amazon’s Shared Responsibility Model, which ensures that AWS infrastructure and core software meet SOC compliance standards. However, businesses must also ensure that their data, applications, and resources hosted on AWS servers comply with SOC requirements.

SOC Compliance on AWS: Best Practices

AWS offers organisations a variety of tools and measures to help implement and maintain SOC compliance. Here are some key practices to follow:

  • Enforce the principle of least privilege. One of the core aspects of data security is that each user or team member has only the permissions necessary to perform their tasks. AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) allows you to create roles with clearly defined data access rights, serving as the first line of defence against unauthorised access to sensitive business information.
  • Use data encryption protocols. AWS Key Management Services (KMS), CloudHSM, and server-side encryption protocols can help your organisation maintain SOC compliance. They protect your data when stored on the cloud and in transit, limiting the risk of sensitive data being exposed to the public internet.
  • Maintain visibility in your environment. AWS CloudTrail and CloudWatch provide your organisation with logs, metrics, event viewers, and API calls. They give you a full view of your AWS environment, allowing you to detect and address potential security breaches on time.

Contact WOLK For Guidance with SOC Compliance 

Move your organisation to the cloud confidently with WOLK’s AWS team. Our experts can assess your business needs and guide you through creating a secure and SOC-compliant AWS environment. Contact us today to start your migration process.