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Companies increasingly rely on external service providers – from cloud platforms to outsourced processes. At the same time, the need to demonstrate to clients, partners, and regulators that these services are managed securely, transparently, and with appropriate control mechanisms continues to grow.
Third-party assurance provides independent confirmation that an organization has established and effectively operating control processes in areas that are critical to its clients – particularly in information security, IT environments, and financial reporting.
BDO helps organizations assess and verify their control environment or the control mechanisms of their service providers. The result is a professional report that provides a clear view of the control setup, identified risks, and recommendations for improvement.
When performing assurance engagements, we rely on a thorough understanding of the organization’s environment, its services, and associated risks. This enables us to deliver outputs that are practical and useful for management, clients, and regulatory authorities.
The ISO 27001 standard focuses on the development and maintenance of an ISMS (Information Security Management System), which represents an overarching approach to managing data protection processes.
Achieving this standard requires conducting a risk assessment, defining and implementing security controls, and regularly reviewing their effectiveness.
ISAE 3402 is a third-party assurance mechanism (primarily for service providers) in the form of SOC (Service Organization Controls).
ISAE 3402 (International Standards for Assurance Engagements) is a global standard for reporting on controls in organizations providing services.
It came into force on June 15, 2011, primarily as a response to the adoption of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) following the financial scandals of Enron and WorldCom. The aim of this legislation was to strengthen financial reporting transparency and protect shareholders and the public from accounting errors and fraudulent practices.
ISAE 3402 builds on the earlier standard SAS 70 (Statement on Auditing Standards No. 70), which defined the methodology for assessing internal controls of organizations. SAS 70 was developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).
Under ISAE 3402, auditor reports are classified into two types:
The auditor evaluates the design and existence of control mechanisms at a specific point in time and assesses their ability to prevent inconsistencies or errors in financial processes.
A Type II report contains the same information as Type I, but also evaluates the actual effectiveness of the controls over a defined period, typically covering at least six months.
The SOC (Service Organization Controls) framework provides independent assurance regarding the control environment of organizations that deliver services to their clients.
SOC reports were introduced in response to growing regulatory requirements and the need for transparency in risk management, information security, and financial reporting.
The SOC methodology was developed by AICPA and includes three main types of reports: SOC 1, SOC 2, and SOC 3.
During the initial preassessment phase, the auditor analyses the current state of the organization’s cybersecurity risk management program. The objective is to identify gaps in documentation or processes and prepare the organization for the subsequent SOC audit.
This phase may take several months or even more than a year, depending on the maturity of the existing risk management program.
SOC 1 focuses on control mechanisms that may impact a client’s financial reporting. It evaluates the effectiveness of internal controls of a service organization that are relevant for financial statement audits.
SOC 2 evaluates IT and security controls based on five trust service criteria:
SOC 2+ extends the SOC 2 framework with additional security standards and regulatory requirements. In practice, it often combines several frameworks, such as:
SOC 3 contains similar information to SOC 2 but in a simplified format intended for a broader audience. Unlike SOC 2, it does not include detailed control testing and can be publicly published, for example on an organization’s website.
Why collaborate with BDO?
BDO provides services in accordance with the specific requirements of European regulators (e.g. ECB, EBA, ESMA) and standards such as DORA, NIS2, and ISO/IEC 27001. Our methodology combines static and dynamic application testing, knowledge of regulations, and deep technical know-how – including an approach that reflects specific application risks and sector threats in the European financial environment.
Technical expertise and experience
Our team has deep experience in reverse engineering, binary code analysis and testing client applications in the Windows environment. We use top tools such as IDA, Ghidra, Burp Suite, WinDbg or fuzzers (e.g. AFL++, libFuzzer). Our specialists are certified by organizations OSCP, CRTP, ECPPT, BSCP, CEH, CRT, CPSA, CISSP, CCISO and others. It has experience testing large banks, insurance companies and ICT providers and has experience testing applications for banks, insurance companies and e-government service providers.
