12 min read
By: RedLegg Blog
Does a clean SOC 2 report mean your vendor is secure?
While SOC 2 is an important compliance milestone, it’s not a guarantee of real-time protection or visibility into third-party risk.
SOC 2 reports have become a default security checkpoint in vendor evaluations. When a partner hands over a clean SOC 2 Type II audit, it often feels like a green light:
“They’ve been reviewed, tested, and verified. What else is there to check?”
But that sense of assurance can be misleading.
While SOC 2 is an important step in demonstrating a vendor's commitment to security, it’s not a guarantee of ongoing protection. These audits are scoped, limited, and time-bound. They rarely reflect the full risk exposure of an evolving environment, and they don’t account for whether the controls in place are actually effective or just performative.
That’s why many security teams are shifting their approach, viewing SOC 2 as a baseline, not a benchmark. They're asking tougher questions, integrating scenario-based evaluations, and using techniques like tabletop exercises to see how vendors respond under pressure. (See how tabletop exercises reveal real readiness →)
In this blog, we’ll break down the limitations of SOC 2 and what a more risk-aware vendor evaluation strategy looks like in 2025.
What Does a SOC 2 Report Actually Cover?
A SOC 2 Type I report shows what controls were in place at one point in time.
A SOC 2 Type II report shows how those controls performed over a set period, usually a few months.
But neither reflects the current state of the vendor’s security environment.
A SOC 2 report tells you what existed during the audit period, not what was added, changed, or overlooked afterward. New infrastructure, SaaS integrations, staff turnover, or configuration drift may introduce vulnerabilities not captured in the report.
As Dark Reading explains:
“SOC 2 reports are valuable but not sufficient … because of scope and time-bound limitations.”
In fast-moving environments, a clean SOC 2 report might say more about the audit process than the actual risk posture.
Scope Gaps That Hide Real Risk
SOC 2 assessments don’t cover everything; they cover what the vendor chooses to include. That often means customer-facing systems are in scope, while internal development platforms, employee tooling, or third-party subservices are not.
If your business relies on systems outside the vendor’s audit scope, your risk is invisible. Worse yet, many vendors rely on subservice organizations (e.g., cloud providers, managed service layers) and only provide summary controls rather than full reports.
In essence, you could be trusting a certified partner who’s leaning on uncertified dependencies.
Control ≠ Protection: The Effectiveness Gap
A SOC 2 audit verifies whether controls are present, not whether they work under real-world conditions. Many vendors can “pass” SOC 2 by deploying templated frameworks, without tailoring controls to their environment or validating outcomes.
As Mauricio Herrejon, Senior Information Security Consultant at RedLegg, explains:
“Companies may waste a lot of resources implementing SOC controls that may not be very effective in their environment.”
Think of logging, for example. A SOC 2 report may confirm logging is enabled, but is anyone reviewing the logs? Are alerts configured? Are events correlated across systems?
The result: security controls that exist on paper but offer little protection in practice.
How to Evaluate a Vendor Beyond SOC 2 Compliance
SOC 2 isn’t useless; it’s a valuable signal. But if you're making vendor decisions that affect your crown jewels, your most critical systems, or data, it's time to build beyond the checkbox.
To get a more accurate view of vendor risk, you need to go beyond what’s included in an audit. Here are several methods to validate vendor security in real-world conditions:
1. Validate Technically
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Use pen testing, tabletop exercises, or attack surface scans to simulate risk scenarios that a SOC 2 audit won’t touch.
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Ask for sample outputs (e.g., logs, incident reports) to verify controls are operational.
2. Understand the Scope
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Review the exact systems and services covered by the report. Ask what was excluded and why.
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For critical integrations or high-risk services, request additional documentation or testing.
3. Tier Vendors by Risk
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Not every vendor needs a deep dive, but those who handle sensitive data, customer access, or privileged infrastructure should face more scrutiny.
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Group vendors into tiers and apply oversight accordingly.
4. Build Security into Contracts
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Require annual SOC reports, breach notification, right to audit, and continuous security obligations—not just a static certificate.
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Ensure contract language reflects risk ownership and accountability.
5. Monitor Continuously
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Use tools or services that track vendor changes over time, like domain or IP shifts, new tech stack usage, or public exposure events.
You’ll find similar guidance in vendor-risk best practices literature. linfordco.com
SOC 2 is a useful baseline, but alone it can be dangerously incomplete. Don’t mistake audit compliance for true security. For vendors you depend on, you need real-time validation, layered assessments, and contracts that enforce accountability.
Turn SOC 2 paperwork into real vendor protection.
RedLegg’s Advisory Services go beyond the checkbox, helping you assess the real-world effectiveness of your vendor’s controls, align assurance with your business risks, and uncover hidden gaps standard audits miss.
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