SOC 2 (2017 TSC)·Criterion CC1.5·medium·Component: Common Criteria (Security)

What this control requires

The entity holds individuals accountable for their internal control responsibilities in the pursuit of objectives.
— SOC 2 (2017 TSC), Criterion CC1.5

In plain English

The entity holds individuals accountable for their internal control responsibilities in the pursuit of objectives. In practice, this means you can prove you accountability objectives-level controls on a defined cadence.

Why it matters

Every SOC 2 audit opinion is built control-by-control from the Trust Services Criteria. A missing or failing criterion produces an exception in the report, which buyers, partners and procurement teams read line-by-line during vendor reviews.

What an auditor looks for

A SOC 2 auditor (under AT-C §§ 105/205) tests both design and operating effectiveness over the audit window. For each criterion they expect a written control, a control owner, a population of events, and a sample tested against the population — including remediation tickets for exceptions.

Within Common Criteria (Security), the assessor will trace your implementation back to the catalogue reference (Criterion CC1.5) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

How to implement

  1. Write a short policy stating intent, scope and named owner.
  2. Encode it as a platform guardrail — SCP, Azure Policy initiative, Organisation Policy, or repository policy.
  3. Wire a monitoring signal that catches drift (CSPM rule, SIEM rule, scheduled query, Workspace alert) and ticket it.
  4. Review on a documented cadence and capture the review in the risk register or compliance tracker.

Operational checklist

  • Accountability. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
  • Internal. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
  • Control. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
  • Access. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
  • Security. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
  • Scope: objectives, management.

Evidence to collect

  • Identity Scan. IAM / IdP exports — Entra ID, Okta, IAM Identity Center, Workspace directory — showing accounts, roles, MFA state and last sign-in.
  • Infra Scan. Continuous infrastructure-posture telemetry — AWS Config, Azure Policy compliance, GCP Organisation Policy, Wiz / Prisma findings.

Identity analytics (Okta, SailPoint, Access Analyzer) demonstrates least-privilege. Focus: Accountability for Internal Control Responsibilities (Original component: Control Environment).

How it maps to other frameworks

Computed from shared tags, control component and key-operation subjects — handy when you are reconciling controls across an audit.

Related controls in SOC 2 (2017 TSC)

References

Topics: identity accessidentity managementaccess reviewprivileged access