For Singapore software and fintech companies whose US customers have asked for a SOC 2 report. We prepare you for the CPA audit and map the work to the PDPA, MAS technology risk rules and CSA's Cyber Trust mark, so one set of controls serves all of them. Our teams in Coimbatore and Chennai, India, run it remotely, two and a half hours behind Singapore.
SOC 2 is not a Singapore requirement. It arrives in a US customer's security questionnaire, and a local certificate such as the Cyber Trust mark or ISO 27001 may not answer it, because SOC 2 is a specific AICPA attestation with its own report format.
We prepare companies for the audit. We do not issue SOC 2 reports, because only a licensed CPA firm can. Our SOC 2 readiness assessment covers scoping, gap analysis, control design, evidence and auditor coordination. Our Coimbatore and Chennai teams in India run Singapore engagements over video and shared trackers; we have no Singapore office.
| Aspect | SOC 2 report | CSA Cyber Trust mark |
|---|---|---|
| Scheme owner | AICPA, United States | Cyber Security Agency of Singapore |
| Who assesses | A licensed, independent CPA | Certification bodies appointed by CSA |
| What you get | An attestation report containing the auditor's opinion | A certificate and mark at one of five tiers |
| Structure | Trust Services Criteria: Security, plus optional Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, Privacy | Tiers from Supporter (10 domains) to Advocate (22 domains) |
| Time frame | Type 1 on a date; Type 2 across an observation period | Valid three years, with a surveillance audit every year |
| Recent change | 2017 criteria with 2022 points of focus in use; a 2027 revision was proposed in October 2026 | 2025 edition added cloud, AI and OT security; the 2022 edition was retired in February 2026 |
Neither replaces the other, yet the evidence overlaps. CSA publishes a cross-mapping from the 2025 Cyber Trust standard to ISO/IEC 27001:2022, and we plan SOC 2 controls so the same access reviews, change records and incident logs can feed an ISO 27001 or Cyber Trust assessment later.
SOC 2 criteria say what a control must achieve, not how. A Singapore company should meet them in a way that also satisfies its local obligations. References below are to the AICPA 2017 Trust Services Criteria.
A breach is notifiable under the PDPA if it is likely to cause significant harm or is of significant scale, which PDPC guidance sets at 500 or more people. PDPC expects the assessment within 30 days, and once a breach is assessed as notifiable the Commission must hear within three calendar days. Individuals are told when significant harm is likely. Those clocks go into the incident plan that CC7.3 and CC7.4 test, and into P6.6 when Privacy is in scope.
Section 24 requires reasonable security arrangements against unauthorized access, use, disclosure, copying, modification or disposal of personal data. Logical access controls tested under CC6.1 make good evidence. Since 1 October 2022 the maximum penalty is 10% of Singapore turnover for organizations above S$10 million, or S$1 million otherwise.
MAS's January 2021 TRM Guidelines cover third-party services, secure development, IT resilience, access control, cyber operations and security testing up to adversarial attack simulation. For banks, Notice FSM-N05 sets hard numbers: incidents reported within one hour, a root cause report within 14 days, and no more than four hours of unscheduled downtime for a critical system in 12 months. Change records under CC8.1 and recovery tests under A1.2 and A1.3 carry much of that evidence.
For banks, Notice FSM-N06 lists six cyber hygiene requirements, from administrative account control and patching to MFA, which CC6.1 access controls help evidence. MAS's outsourcing guidelines apply from 11 December 2024, and a March 2026 consultation proposes letting institutions rely on independent audits done for a certification, but not on self-attestations. Ask your bank customer early whether it will accept a SOC 2 report; CC9.2 then tests how you vet your own vendors.
Cyber Essentials targets SMEs; Cyber Trust targets larger or more digitalized enterprises. In March 2026 CSA announced that critical information infrastructure owners must hold Cyber Trust Level 5 for supporting non-CII systems by the end of 2027, and that licensed penetration testing and SOC monitoring providers must hold Promoter (Tier 3) by 31 December 2026.
If you sell cloud services in Singapore, buyers may ask for the Multi-Tier Cloud Security standard: three levels, certified by bodies accredited by the Singapore Accreditation Council, valid three years. IMDA states SS 584:2020 has been superseded by SS 584:2026, so confirm transition timing with your certification body.
We define the service your US customer buys, the systems and people behind it, and whether any criteria beyond Security belong in the report.
Controls, policies and evidence are reviewed against the chosen criteria and against PDPA and, where you are MAS-regulated, the TRM expectations. You get one prioritized list, not three.
Policies and procedures for who gets access, how changes ship, what gets logged, how incidents escalate and how suppliers are vetted, each written once and cross-referenced to SOC 2, the PDPA and MAS.
Evidence collected automatically from cloud accounts, the identity provider, CI/CD and ticketing, so the audit trail accumulates as a by-product of daily operations.
We help you shortlist licensed CPA firms, agree timing, organize evidence and answer requests. The firm carries out the examination and signs the report independently.
Regular checks through the Type 2 window so a missed access review or an undocumented change is caught while it can still be fixed.
If your scope includes a penetration test of systems in Singapore, note that penetration testing is a licensable service under Singapore's Cybersecurity Act, overseen by CSA's Cybersecurity Services Regulation Office since April 2022. Check the tester's license. Companies also pursuing ISO 27001 can run both programs together through our ISO 27001 consulting.
Singapore Time is UTC+8 all year and India Standard Time is UTC+5:30, also with no daylight saving, so Singapore is two and a half hours ahead. Between noon and 6:00 p.m. in Singapore, which is 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in India, both sides are inside an ordinary office day.
A video session with your founders or CTO. Output: a draft system description, the criteria choice, and a list of PDPA and MAS obligations the controls must also meet.
We review your cloud console, identity provider, code repository and ticketing system with read-only access, then deliver a written gap report ranked by audit risk.
A weekly call in the Singapore afternoon and a shared tracker. Your engineers fix what only they can fix; we write policies, configure evidence collection and review changes.
We line up the CPA firm so the Type 2 observation period starts when controls are ready, not before.
Evidence checks continue through the period, and during fieldwork we help answer the auditor's requests within your working day.
Timing: On our readiness engagements, an assessment often takes 2 to 6 weeks and a first Type 2 observation period commonly runs 3 to 6 months. Both depend on scope and on the CPA firm, so treat them as typical ranges, not commitments.
Product companies whose US pipeline stalls at the security review stage.
MAS-licensed firms that need SOC 2 for US partners on top of their MAS notices.
Suppliers facing outsourcing due diligence who want independent evidence ready.
Providers weighing SOC 2 alongside MTCS or Cyber Trust for different buyers.
Teams that need SOC 2 and HIPAA compliance in one control set.
Companies holding ISO 27001 or a Cyber Trust mark that want to reuse that evidence.
We never act as your auditor. Keeping preparation and examination separate is what makes the final report credible to a US buyer.
SOC 2, PDPA, MAS and ISO 27001 evidence planned together, so each control is built and tested once.
A bench of more than 60 in-house engineers means a gap in logging or access control can be fixed by us, not only reported.
A solution architect owns each engagement from scoping to fieldwork.
Six shared office hours every working day, with written updates waiting for you each morning.
Founded in 2008, with more than 250 projects delivered across 10+ countries.
Tell us what you sell, who asked for the report and whether MAS regulates you. Expect an answer inside one business day setting out a proposed scope, the criteria we would include and the Singapore obligations we would map alongside them.
Prefer email? info@xcodefixglobal.com
Talk to the specialist who would scope the work — not a call-centre script.
Ask us directlyOnly a licensed, independent CPA performing the examination under AICPA attestation standards. Consultants such as Xcodefix prepare the company but cannot issue or sign the report. Before engaging an audit firm, confirm its CPA licensing and ask who will sign the opinion, since a US customer's reviewers may check the same thing.
No Singapore law requires SOC 2. It is a commercial requirement that usually comes from US customers. Singapore's own obligations, such as the PDPA and, for financial institutions, MAS notices and guidelines, apply regardless, which is why we map SOC 2 controls to them instead of running separate programs.
Follow your pipeline. If the deals waiting on a security review are with US companies, SOC 2 usually answers them directly. If buyers ask for a certificate, ISO 27001 fits better. The controls overlap heavily, so the second framework costs far less once the first is in place. Our ISO 27001 page for Malaysia covers the regional certification side.
No. The Cyber Trust mark is CSA's certification, granted by appointed certification bodies at one of five tiers. A SOC 2 report is an AICPA attestation by a licensed CPA. A US customer asking for SOC 2 will usually want the report itself. The two share much of their evidence, so holding one makes the other easier.
Partly. SOC 2 security controls support the PDPA's Protection Obligation, and a tested incident response plan supports breach notification within the PDPA's three-day window. SOC 2's Security criteria do not test how you obtain consent or answer access requests, so those PDPA duties need their own review unless the Privacy category is in scope.
A Type 1 report describes controls as designed on a specified date, so it can be ready sooner. A Type 2 adds an opinion on whether controls operated effectively across a period, commonly three to six months for a first report. Some companies take a Type 1 to show progress while the Type 2 period runs; ask your customer which it accepts.
We have not found a reliable public price list for SOC 2 examinations in Singapore, and we do not publish our own prices. CPA examination fees are quoted by the audit firm and depend on scope, criteria and report type. Our readiness work is priced separately after a scoping call, and the audit fee is never bundled into it.
Yes. Readiness work happens in cloud consoles, identity systems, repositories and documents, all reviewable with read-only access. Singapore is two and a half hours ahead of India, leaving about six shared office hours a day for video calls. We have no Singapore office. Our SOC 2 page for Bengaluru shows the same method applied in India.
