SOC 2 (2017 TSC) CC7.3 — Incident Detection

What this control requires

The entity evaluates security events to determine whether they could or have resulted in a failure of the entity to meet its objectives (security incidents) and, if so, takes actions to prevent or address such failures.

In plain English

The entity evaluates security events to determine whether they could or have resulted in a failure of the entity to meet its objectives (security incidents) and, if so, takes actions to prevent or address such failures. In practice, this means you can prove you change 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.

This control is rated high. Auditors expect a named owner, a remediation SLA, and a tooling artefact that evidences continuous operation.

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 CC7.3) and look for objective evidence on the latest two assessment cycles.

How to implement

Incident Response

Runbook. Maintain a runbook keyed by incident type with named roles (IC, comms, scribe), an out-of-band comms channel, and a 72-hour timeline for external notification.

Tabletop. Run a quarterly tabletop exercise (ransomware, insider, supply-chain) and feed gaps back into the runbook.

Operational checklist

• Change. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Incident. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Security. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Management. Document the trigger, the owner and the cadence.
• Scope: objectives, detection, response, management.

Evidence to collect

• Ticketing Workflow. ticketing_workflow evidence
• Infra Scan. Continuous infrastructure-posture telemetry — AWS Config, Azure Policy compliance, GCP Organisation Policy, Wiz / Prisma findings.

Workflow metrics (ServiceNow, Jira) show approvals and remediation. Focus: Incident Detection (Original component: System Operations).

Common pitfalls

• Runbooks that name a role but no person, or list a paging channel that no longer exists.

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.

• NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5 IR-4 — Incident Handling
• NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3 3.6.2 — Incident Monitoring, Reporting, and Response Assistance
• CIS Controls v8 17.8 — Conduct Post-Incident Reviews
• ISO/IEC 27001:2022 A.5.27 — Learning from information security incidents
• BSI C5:2020 OPS-21 — Involvement of Cloud customers in the event of incidents

Related controls in SOC 2 (2017 TSC)

• Criterion CC7.4 — Incident Response
• Criterion CC7.5 — Security Incident Recovery Activities
• Criterion P6.6 — Breach and Incident Notification to Stakeholders
• Criterion P6.3 — Logging and Retention of Unauthorized Disclosure Incidents
• Criterion CC7.1 — Change Detection
• Criterion CC8.1 — Change Management

References

• AICPA / ASEC — SOC 2 (2017 TSC)
• Catalogue identifier: Criterion CC7.3

Topics: incident responsechange management