What auditors look for and how to prepare your audit trail system
Learn how comprehensive audit trails are essential for SOC 2 compliance, what auditors look for, and how to prepare your audit trail system for certification.
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Achieving SOC 2 certification is a significant milestone for SaaS companies. It demonstrates to customers, partners, and regulators that you have robust security controls in place. Central to SOC 2 compliance is the requirement for comprehensive audit trails that provide evidence of your security practices. Let's explore how audit trails fit into SOC 2 and what you need to know.
SOC 2 (System and Organisation Controls 2) is a framework developed by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) that evaluates an organisation's controls related to security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.
Unlike SOC 1 (which focuses on financial reporting), SOC 2 is specifically designed for service organisations that store, process, or transmit customer data. It's become the de facto standard for SaaS companies seeking to demonstrate their security posture.
SOC 2 evaluates organisations against five Trust Service Criteria (TSC):
Most organisations pursue SOC 2 Type II, which requires an independent auditor to examine your controls over a period of time (typically 6-12 months) to verify they're operating effectively.
Audit trails are not just helpful for SOC 2 compliance—they're essential. They provide the evidence auditors need to verify that your security controls are working as designed.
SOC 2 doesn't prescribe exactly how to implement audit trails, but it does require that you:
Log Access to Systems: Record who accessed what systems, when, and from where. This includes both successful and failed authentication attempts.
Track Data Access: Log access to customer data, including viewing, modification, deletion, and export operations.
Monitor Administrative Actions: Record all administrative and privileged actions, including configuration changes, permission modifications, and system maintenance.
Detect Anomalies: Have processes to review logs and detect suspicious or unauthorised activity.
Retain Logs Appropriately: Maintain logs for a sufficient period (typically at least 90 days, often longer) to support investigations and audits.
Protect Log Integrity: Ensure logs cannot be modified or deleted without detection, which is where hash chains become critical.
Here are specific areas where audit trails support SOC 2 controls:
CC6.1 - Logical Access Controls: Audit trails prove that access controls are working—you can show who was granted access, when, and by whom.
CC6.2 - Authentication: Logs of authentication attempts demonstrate that your authentication mechanisms are functioning correctly and can detect brute force attacks or credential stuffing.
CC6.6 - Data Transmission: Audit trails can show when data was transmitted, to where, and by whom, supporting controls around data encryption and secure transmission.
CC6.7 - System Boundaries: Logs help define and monitor system boundaries, showing what systems are accessing what data.
CC7.2 - System Monitoring: Audit trails are the foundation of system monitoring—you can't monitor what you don't log.
When SOC 2 auditors examine your audit trail system, they're evaluating several aspects:
Do your audit trails capture all significant events? Auditors will sample various types of events to ensure nothing important is missing. They'll look for:
Can you prove that your audit logs haven't been tampered with? Auditors will verify:
Are events logged in real-time or near real-time? Delayed logging can create gaps that attackers could exploit. Auditors want to see that events are captured promptly.
Are logs retained for an appropriate period? This varies by organisation and risk profile, but auditors will verify that you have a defined retention policy and that you're following it.
Do you actually review your audit logs? Having logs is useless if you're not monitoring them for suspicious activity. Auditors will look for:
Many organisations struggle with SOC 2 audit trail requirements. Here are common issues and how to address them:
Problem: Not logging all significant events, or logging inconsistently across systems.
Solution: Create a comprehensive event catalog that defines what should be logged. Integrate audit logging into your application architecture from the start, not as an afterthought.
Problem: Logs stored in files or databases that can be easily modified.
Solution: Use hash chains or other cryptographic techniques to make logs tamper-evident. Store logs in systems designed for immutability.
Problem: Logs exist but are difficult to search and analyse.
Solution: Use structured logging formats (like JSON) and systems that support efficient querying. Ensure you can quickly find events by user, resource, time range, or event type.
Problem: Logs are deleted too quickly or retention policies aren't followed.
Solution: Define clear retention policies based on your risk profile and compliance requirements. Automate retention management to ensure policies are consistently applied.
Problem: Logs are collected but never reviewed.
Solution: Implement automated monitoring and alerting. Schedule regular log reviews. Document your monitoring processes and any incidents detected.
If you're preparing for SOC 2 certification, here's how to ensure your audit trail system meets requirements:
Start by identifying all events that matter for SOC 2 compliance. This should include:
Document each event type, including what fields should be captured.
Integrate audit logging throughout your application:
Use cryptographic techniques (like hash chains) to make logs tamper-evident. Store logs in systems designed for immutability, or use a dedicated audit trail service.
Set up automated monitoring and alerting for suspicious patterns:
Create clear documentation of:
Before your audit, test that:
While SOC 2 compliance is often the initial driver for implementing comprehensive audit trails, the benefits extend far beyond certification:
Security: Audit trails help you detect and respond to security incidents faster.
Operational Excellence: Understanding what's happening in your system helps you operate more effectively.
Customer Trust: Demonstrating that you have robust audit trails builds customer confidence.
Risk Management: Audit trails help you identify and mitigate risks before they become incidents.
SOC 2 compliance requires comprehensive, tamper-evident audit trails that capture all significant security and operational events. While this can seem daunting, it's achievable with proper planning and the right tools.
The key is to think of audit trails not as a compliance checkbox, but as a fundamental component of your security and operational infrastructure. When done right, audit trails provide value far beyond SOC 2 certification—they make your entire organisation more secure, transparent, and trustworthy.
If you're preparing for SOC 2, start by assessing your current audit trail capabilities, identifying gaps, and building a plan to address them. Consider whether building this capability in-house makes sense, or if a dedicated service like HyreLog would be more efficient and reliable.
Remember: SOC 2 is not just about passing an audit—it's about building systems and processes that genuinely protect your customers and your business. Audit trails are a critical part of that foundation.