# SOC 2 (2017 TSC) CC1.5 — Accountability for Internal Control Responsibilities

- Source: https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/soc-2-trust-services-criteria/cc1-5-accountability-for-internal-control-responsibilities
- Section: [Compliance](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance) › [SOC 2 Trust Services Criteria (2017, with 2022 points of focus)](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/soc-2-trust-services-criteria) › Common Criteria (Security) — CC1
- Last updated: 2026-06-05
- Publisher: iCompaas, Inc. (https://www.icompaas.com)

**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.

-   [**ISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.8.23** — Web filtering](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022/a-8-23-web-filtering)
-   [**NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3 3.13.4** — Information in Shared System Resources](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/nist-sp-800-171-rev-3/3-13-4-information-in-shared-system-resources)
-   [**CIS Controls v8 9.2** — Use DNS Filtering Services](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/cis-controls-v8/9-2-use-dns-filtering-services)
-   [**ISO/IEC 27701:2025 A.3.8** — Identity management](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27701-2025/a-3-8-identity-management)
-   [**BSI C5:2020 AM-05** — Commitment to Permissible Use, Safe Handling and Return of Assets](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/bsi-c5-2020/am-05-commitment-to-permissible-use-safe-handling-and-return-of-assets)

## Related controls in SOC 2 (2017 TSC)

-   [**Criterion CC6.3** — Access Modification](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/soc-2-trust-services-criteria/cc6-3-access-modification)
-   [**Criterion CC6.5** — Asset Disposal](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/soc-2-trust-services-criteria/cc6-5-asset-disposal)
-   [**Criterion CC6.1** — Logical Access Controls](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/soc-2-trust-services-criteria/cc6-1-logical-access-controls)
-   [**Criterion CC6.2** — Access Provisioning](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/soc-2-trust-services-criteria/cc6-2-access-provisioning)
-   [**Criterion CC6.6** — Boundary Protection](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/soc-2-trust-services-criteria/cc6-6-boundary-protection)
-   [**Criterion CC6.8** — Malicious Code Protection](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/soc-2-trust-services-criteria/cc6-8-malicious-code-protection)

## References

-   [AICPA / ASEC — SOC 2 (2017 TSC)](https://www.aicpa-cima.com/topic/audit-assurance/audit-and-assurance-greater-than-soc-2)
-   Catalogue identifier: `Criterion CC1.5`

Topics: identity accessidentity managementaccess reviewprivileged access

## Related compliance guidance

- [SOC 2 compliance: a practical implementation guide for cloud-native SaaS teams](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/soc-2-trust-services-criteria): Start with the full SOC 2 implementation guide — scope, roadmap, evidence and how the assessment runs.
- [ISO/IEC 27001:2022 compliance: a practical implementation guide](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/iso-27001-2022): The certificate most non-US customers ask for instead of SOC 2; the controls overlap enough to run one matrix for both.
- [HIPAA compliance for SaaS: a practical implementation guide](https://support.icompaas.com/compliance/hipaa): If health-tech customers ask for SOC 2, they will also ask about the Security Rule; the two are usually evidenced from the same controls.
