Soc2 Trust Services Criteria

SOC 2 Trust Services Criteria

Overview

This skill maps technical and operational controls to AICPA Trust Services Criteria (TSC) used in SOC 2 examinations. The Security category (Common Criteria CC1.0–CC9.0) is mandatory for all SOC 2 reports. Additional categories apply based on report scope:

| Category | Prefix | When in scope | | --- | --- | --- | | Security | CC | Always | | Availability | A | Uptime/performance commitments | | Confidentiality | C | Confidential information protection | | Processing Integrity | PI | Complete/valid processing | | Privacy | P | Personal information lifecycle |

For AI agent and MCP architectures, focus areas include CC6 (logical access), CC7 (system operations/monitoring), CC8 (change management), CC9 (risk mitigation), and category-specific criteria when processing customer or PHI-adjacent data.

When to Use

Use this skill when:

• Scoping a SOC 2 audit or readiness assessment
• Gap analysis against TSC for agent platforms, MCP integrations, or compliance tooling
• Mapping existing controls (IAM, logging, change management) to CC/A/C/PI/P points of focus
• Preparing control narratives for auditors
• Determining which TSC categories apply to a product or internal system
• Cross-walking HIPAA or PCI controls to SOC 2 for unified compliance programs

Do not use this skill when:

• Collecting screenshots and exports (use soc2-evidence-collection)
• Implementing CCM dashboards (use soc2-ccm-continuous-monitoring)
• HIPAA BAA legal review (use hipaa-baa-vendor-assessment)

Core Process

Execute steps in order.

Step 1: Report scope definition

1. Document system description boundaries:

• Agent runtime, skills repository, MCP servers, evidence store, identity provider
• Cloud regions, subservice organizations (carve-out vs inclusive method)

1. Select TSC categories in scope (minimum: Security).
2. Define trust boundaries: where customer data enters, processes, exits.
3. Artifact: soc2-scope-{id}.json.

Step 2: Security (CC) — mandatory mapping

Map controls to each Common Criteria series:

| Series | Focus | Agent/MCP examples | | --- | --- | --- | | CC1 | Control environment | Security policies, roles for agent admins | | CC2 | Communication | Internal security awareness, customer security docs | | CC3 | Risk assessment | LLM vendor risk, MCP tool risk assessments | | CC4 | Monitoring | CCM alerts, quarterly access reviews | | CC5 | Control activities | Skill validation, redaction gate enforcement | | CC6 | Logical access | MFA, RBAC, MCP OAuth scopes | | CC7 | System operations | Logging, incident response, capacity | | CC8 | Change management | Skill/MCP deployment approval, CI/CD | | CC9 | Risk mitigation | Vendor management, insurance, BCP |

For each CC point of focus (e.g., CC6.1, CC6.2), record:

• Control description
• Control owner
• Evidence source (link to soc2-evidence-collection artifacts)
• Design effectiveness: PASS / FAIL / NOT IMPLEMENTED

Step 3: Availability (A) — if in scope

1. Map A1.x criteria: capacity planning, recovery, environmental protections.
2. Document SLAs for agent API and MCP availability.
3. Test failover for critical MCP dependencies (Playwright, Postgres evidence DB).

Step 4: Confidentiality (C) — if in scope

1. Map C1.x criteria: confidential information identification, disposal, access restriction.
2. Align with PHI redaction pipeline and encryption standards.
3. Verify confidential data (API keys, tokens) not in agent logs or Slack alerts.

Step 5: Processing Integrity (PI) — if in scope

1. Map PI1.x criteria: processing complete, accurate, timely, authorized.
2. Agent-specific: skill steps executed in order, deterministic audit workflows, hash verification.
3. Document QA for compliance skill outputs (validate=True in SkillsCapability).

Step 6: Privacy (P) — if in scope

1. Map P1.x–P8.x to privacy notice, choice, collection, use, retention, disclosure, quality, monitoring.
2. Distinguish Privacy (personal information) from Confidentiality (broader confidential data).
3. Cross-reference HIPAA privacy rule if ePHI overlaps—document dual mapping.

Step 7: Subservice organization mapping

1. List vendors (LLM, cloud, MCP hosts) as subservice organizations.
2. Choose SOC report method: carve-out (auditor relies on vendor SOC 2) vs inclusive.
3. Map CC9.2 vendor management to vendor inventory and review cadence.

Step 8: Gap analysis and remediation plan

1. Consolidate FAIL/NOT IMPLEMENTED items by TSC ID.
2. Prioritize by auditor likelihood and risk (CC6/CC7 gaps are high priority).
3. Assign remediation owners and target dates.
4. Produce control matrix export: tsc-control-matrix-{id}.csv.

Common Rationalizations

| Excuse the agent might generate | Required rebuttal | | --- | --- | | "We're a small team—CC1 control environment doesn't apply." | CC1 applies to all SOC 2 examinations regardless of size—scale controls appropriately. | | "Security category is enough; skip Availability even with SLA." | If product commits to uptime SLAs, A criteria are in scope—omission is an audit gap. | | "MCP tools are dev infrastructure, not in system boundary." | If MCP processes customer data in production audits, they are in boundary unless explicitly carved out with evidence. | | "Privacy and Confidentiality are the same." | TSC treats them as distinct categories with different points of focus—map separately. | | "We can mark NOT IMPLEMENTED as PASS with a note." | NOT IMPLEMENTED requires remediation plan or scope exclusion with auditor agreement—not PASS. | | "Vendor SOC 2 covers our CC6 obligations entirely." | Vendor reports cover subservice controls—you remain responsible for oversight (CC9.2). |

Red Flags

• SOC 2 scope excludes MCP servers that process customer data in production
• CC6 MFA gap on agent admin or deanonymization functions
• CC8 change management bypassed for skill/MCP hotfixes in production
• CC7 logging gaps for agent tool invocations
• Privacy category omitted while processing personal information
• Control matrix cites evidence that does not exist or lacks dates
• Carve-out claimed for critical LLM subservice without reviewed SOC 2 report

Verification

• [ ] System description and trust boundaries documented
• [ ] TSC categories in scope explicitly selected (minimum Security)
• [ ] CC1.0–CC9.0 mapped with control owner and evidence source per point of focus
• [ ] Optional categories (A/C/PI/P) mapped if in scope—or exclusion documented
• [ ] Subservice organizations listed with carve-out/inclusive method
• [ ] Gap analysis completed with prioritized remediation plan
• [ ] Control matrix exported with PASS/FAIL/NOT IMPLEMENTED status
• [ ] Cross-references to HIPAA/PCI controls documented where dual compliance applies
• [ ] Auditor-ready narratives drafted for each FAIL gap remediation
• [ ] Evidence cross-reference IDs link to soc2-evidence-collection artifacts

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: vaquarkhan
• Source: vaquarkhan/compliance-agent-skills
• License: MIT
• Homepage: https://github.com/vaquarkhan/compliance-agent-skills#readme

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.