Business

Do you run a company or business that uses the cloud to store sensitive information about your customers?

If so, then you will need to be SOC 2 compliant. Up until 2014, you would have only needed to be SOC 1 compliant, but no things have changed when it comes to storing sensitive customer data.

SOC 2 is simply a technical audit and it requires your company to comply with strict policies and procedures regarding the security, integrity, confidentiality, and availability of customer data stored in the cloud. Today, it is a necessity for several different types of organizations.

Here are three things that you will want to know in regards to SOC 2 Compliance:

Have Alerts In Place

 Whenever there is a security threat, you need to have a proper alarm system in place so your are alerted to it. This way, if there is any attempted unauthorized access to your customer data, you can respond and take appropriate action.

Examples of security threats that SOC 2 requires you to have alerts set up for include anything dealing with failed login accesses, exposure of data and configurations, or file transfer activities.

Use Audit Trials

Equally as important as being alerted to a security attack is knowing how to respond to it as well. But how can you respond properly without knowing the true root cause between the attack.

This is where SOC 2 audit trials come in. They can tell you multiple details about the attack include who it was, where they came from, and how they managed to breach your security protocols. This way, you can make a more informed decision on how you will respond.

An audit trial specifically will give you insight into the source, the full scope of the attack, any unauthorized modifications that were made into your data, and which system component were modified as well.

Monitor For Unknown Activity

Just as you want to carefully monitor for any known malicious threats, you’ll also want to monitor for threats that are unknown as well.

The best way to accomplish this will be to baseline normal activity in your cloud environment. This way, recognizing any abnormal activity will be made much easier.

SOC 2 compliance means you need to monitor for any unusual system activity and unauthorized changes made to your system’s configuration. It’s for this reason that monitoring for any kind of malicious threats, known or unknown is absolutely vital and should not be ignored.

Staying SOC 2 Compliant

In conclusion, SOC 2 compliance is all about your business or organization having certain procedures in place to ensure that your cloud infrastructure remains secure over the long term.

Not only will staying compliant with SOC 2 ensure that your customer information is kept safe, it will also help you to build a relationship based on trust with each of your customers as well.

 

 

 

 

 

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One of the most common ways for a business to restructure is through merger and acquisition. While this is an opportunity for companies to achieve tremendous growth, it is also a period of significant uncertainty, particularly for employees.  People such as Boris Blanche have developed a number of key methods to help companies keep their employees motivated and secure during such a business restructure.

 

Boris Blanche on Motivation in Restructure

 

The most important thing is to have open and clear communication. Communication is always key to the success of any business but during mergers and acquisitions, it becomes even more important. It is very important to speak to employees about any merger or acquisition considerations. In fact, if an organization has over 50 employees, it is legally obliged to speak to it staff about this.

 

Secondly, it is important to create a fully cohesive team. Management must show real leadership and build a strong team that is capable of Performing properly. The greatest difficulty in this is bringing together the people from the two different companies, not in the least because both sides are likely to have lost friends and coworkers during the merger or acquisition. This means that there is often some bad blood and tension that has to be addressed properly.

 

It flows from this that the organization must focus on the psychological well being of the employee. Everybody must feel positive about the new direction of the business. Hence, positivity should be fostered at every opportunity and new work environment should be as fresh as possible.

 

At the same time, there should be full clarity about the goals and milestones of the new organization. Management should be able to set key milestones for the business as a whole, while teams should work together to set the individual goals and milestones. In so doing, there is full clarity for everybody in terms of where the business is going and what everybody should be working towards.

 

Last but not least, people such as Boris Blanche always emphasize the importance of being realistic. Any business that believes a merger or acquisition can go by without any glitches or hiccups will be sorely disappointed. Being open and honest about the fact that things are likely to go wrong and that this is ok because contingency plans are in place is hugely important. Without that, staff will continuously feel on edge and will rather than be productive, be preoccupied with their own future. That is not conducive to a properly running organization.

 

An important lesson to be learnt during mergers and acquisitions is just how vital it is to have property engaged employees. When staff is giving a voice, made to feel that their opinions matter, and that what they say is listened to, they will feel far more secure and more like part of the business. This, in turn, will make them more productive as well. It is vital to leave the lines of communication open and to take every idea and suggestion seriously.

The media portrays the life of attorneys as being fabulous but in reality, there are many things that can and do go wrong. Daniel DeKoter, highly experienced attorney servicing the residents of Iowa and Osceola County, discuss the common challenges that should be understood by anyone aspiring to become a legal professional. They are listed below.

Conflicting Priorities – Home Versus Work

All practice areas require some sort of sacrifice when you are an attorney. The real estate lawyers rarely get the possibility of having a vacation during summer while family lawyers tend to lose months as they get ready for hearings. A business lawyer can always work 24-hour shifts in order to close deals that have tight deadlines and if you run a law firm, you never know when you have to work.

For many lawyers juggling work and family life is really difficult. This is why most of the lawyers are not married. Climbing the ladders at a law firm is stressful and time for personal life is often not available.

Running The Law Practice And The Business

Sole firm partners and practitioners will juggle the practice and the business side of running the agency. You basically need to be sure that the firm is running well. That includes budgeting, networking, marketing and even human resources. Obviously, you can always delegate but the simple fact that you run a business can easily lead to huge problems in actually running the law practice.

When you juggle both clients and the business at the same time, problems can appear, simply because of a lack of time. You are forced into going to events that you would rather miss and have to deal with many other tasks that have nothing to do with representing your clients. You basically have problems in being a lawyer and a businessman at the same time.

Addiction

A firm culture can enable the addictive personality to be engaged in behaviors that are damaging. For instance, your clients may want to celebrate their wins in an extravagant way, all while expecting the lawyers to be a part of celebrations. Then, there are networking lunches you have to drink at. Various drinking opportunities exist when you work as an attorney so that can quickly turn into a problem for some people. If stress is high and you go through damaging behaviors, it is easy to become addicted to drugs, gambling, alcohol or others.

Errors Take A Toll On You

The last important thing mentioned by Daniel DeKoter is that in the profession, professionalism is a really common trait. This can easily lead to a fear that mistakes can cost money, clients can lose child custody and go to jail. At first view, this is just a part of the job but in time this can easily have a strong toll on the attorney. Clients need to have strong attorneys and for an attorney it is not as simple as it seems to remain objective and not affected by feelings at all times. Combine this with high stress and lack of vacation days and it is really easy to understand why so many lawyers end up depressed.

When you decide to become a real estate agent you make a first step towards a very lucrative career but one that is often misunderstood. The good news, according to specialist Brandon Wetzel Yardley, is that people can easily enter the real estate field from numerous careers and occupations, no matter at what stage in their lives they are. There are different background reasons why people start looking at real estate as a career option but regardless of them, everything needs to start with following some steps. Becoming a real estate agent is not as easy as some may think. Also, specifics tend to vary from state to state. However, the main steps are the following:

Comply With Real Estate Licensing Requirements

States have different licensing requirements. Because of this, you need to visit the website of the state’s real estate commission. Official pre-licensing requirements are listed there. See if you meet all the requirements before you start on your way to becoming a real estate agent since there might be some things you cannot meet, like age restrictions.

Real Estate Pre-Licensing Courses

Real estate pre-licensing education is necessary. Fortunately, you can do this in various ways. The most common option is the live classrooms offered by real estate schools, universities, technical schools and realty firms. There is even online education that is currently available. Make sure you choose the best option for you since you do want to enroll in a school that has a high reputation, is focused on the outcome of the student and offers quality instructors and content. Remember that real estate licensing education is going to be comprehensive and difficult.

Real Estate Salesperson Exams

Every single state has a specific application process so it is important that you follow procedure. Try to take the exam as quickly as possible after the licensing classes are finished. A fee will be needed and you have to check the regulatory authority of the state for all needed details. For instance, in some states you will need to go through a complete background check and fingerprints need to be submitted. Something like this can easily take weeks.

The problem with the real estate salesperson exam is that you need much more than just educational requirements. You do need to prepare. Many end up failing the first exam they take because in order to pass you will need to have more study time. A great idea is to enroll in exam preparation classes. Practice exams have to be taken so you can measure weaknesses and strengths.

Real Estate Brokers

The fact that you pass the real estate licensing exam will not mean you have the license you want. The real estate agent will be licensed through a real estate broker. You need to find the broker as early as possible during licensing process. After pre-licensing education requirements are completed and the exam is passed, the last step is completing the paperwork to make everything legal and to actually become a real estate agent.

The term “audit” is one that can pretty quickly strike fear in the heart of everyone in an organization, even though ultimately it can bring some significant business benefits. During an internal audit, there are opportunities for businesses to achieve a range of strategic objectives. Rather than trying to avoid internal audits, businesses are better off seeing the strategic objectives.

First and foremost, when it comes to the logistics of an internal audit, having the right tools, technology and software in place can simplify things quite a bit. For example, having the best expense management software is going to make an internal audit a more efficient, value-creating process.

The following are some of the benefits of an internal audit.

Legal Compliance

Businesses that are subjected to various regulatory and compliance requirements have to regularly conduct internal audits. To be noncompliant can cause problems for a business in terms of the law, financial implications, and it can be damaging for branding.

Noncompliance can be something that starts out small and maybe is just the result of an oversight. However, when that noncompliance isn’t spotted, it can grow and become something much more damaging to the entire organization.

With internal audits, small problems can be identified sooner and dealt with proactively.

Process and Procedure Alignment

It’s good business sense to be able to show a clear link and sense of alignment between processes and procedures in an organization. When internal audits are done, and there are quality checks in place, this is easier to adhere to.

It’s also possible to align processes and procedures with what’s really being put into practice. In some of these cases, a business might gain the insight to know that their current processes and procedures aren’t the best option and there are better ways to do things.

Identifying Opportunity

Rather than looking at an internal audit as a way only to spot problems, it can be better to reframe the purpose of an internal audit. It can be something used to identify opportunities.

For example, going back to the example of expense management software—by conducting an internal audit, a business could see there are opportunities to cut costs or improve efficiency. Internal audits are a good way to get a detailed view of what’s happening in any particular area of a business, and a lot of times that visibility can create opportunities and positive change.

There can be ways to optimize the business, reduce waste, and improve overall efficiency discovered in internal audits as well.

Spotting Fraud

Finally, fraud can be a huge expense for many businesses, especially large ones. Unfortunately, many businesses don’t even realize fraud is happening until it’s too late. Fraud can affect a company not only financially, but also regarding culture. A culture where fraud is pervasive can be toxic and lacking in transparency.

An internal audit is a good way to see potential fraud, and deal with it head on while also implementing practices to avoid similar situations in the future.

 

 

 

 

 

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