CC2.3: External communication
Customers, vendors and other outside parties can learn how the company handles security and privacy, and know how to reach it to report a concern or receive an incident notice.
Category: Security (common criteria, required in every SOC 2 report) · Series: CC2 (Communication and information) · TSC 2017 (2022 points of focus)
That summary is Policyseed’s own paraphrase, written to be read next to the policy sections below. The authoritative wording is the AICPA’s Trust Services Criteria, which the CPA firm tests your controls against during the examination.
Policies that address CC2.3
The Policyseed crosswalk points CC2.3 at 3 policies. Each link opens the full sample text at the section an auditor would read. Section 4 holds the statements management commits to; section 5 holds the procedures that produce evidence.
- P13 Incident Response Policy, section 5 (Procedures). Owner: Security Owner.
- P16 Vendor and Third-Party Risk Management Policy, section 4 (Policy Statements). Owner: Security Owner.
- P22 Privacy and Data Protection Policy, section 4 (Policy Statements). Owner: Security Owner.
Evidence examples for CC2.3
Artifacts a company of 5 to 200 people can realistically produce. The Audit Kit’s evidence checklist lists them per policy with an owner column so each one has a name against it before the examination.
- Public security page or trust page URL and a dated screenshot
- Published privacy notice with the date it was last updated
- Customer incident notification template from the Incident Response Policy procedures
- Contract or DPA clause stating customer breach notification timelines
Related criteria in CC2 (Communication and information)
Previous: CC2.2 Internal communication. Next: CC3.1 Objectives for risk assessment. All 38 criteria are listed on the template index.
Policyseed provides governance policy templates and AI tailoring. It is not legal advice and not a compliance guarantee. Management adopts the policies; the CPA firm performs the SOC 2 examination.