Safety and compliance certificates

Why do you need it?

Certifications and certifications confirm mature safety practices and shorten the due diligence cycle, opening access to regulated markets and partners. The key is not to "pass the audit once," but to build a continuous control system with measurable control points.

Landscape map (what to choose and when)

ISO/IEC 27001 - Information Security Management System (ISMS). Universal "skeleton" of processes.

Additions: ISO 27017 (cloud), 27018 (privacy in the cloud), 27701 (PIMS, privacy), 22301 (BCMS, sustainability).
SOC 2 (AICPA): Type I (design for the date) and Type II (design + operational efficiency for the period, usually 3-12 months). Trust Services Criteria: Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, Privacy.
PCI DSS (for card processing): levels by transaction volume, ROC/AOC involving QSA, quarterly ASV scans, pentests, and CHD zone segmentation.
CSA STAR (Level 1-3): declaration/audit for cloud providers and services.
Additionally by domains: ISO 20000 (ITSM), ISO 31000 (risk management), ISO 37001 (anti-bribery), TISAX/ISAE 3402 (industry/finance).
GDPR/privacy: there is no "GDPR certificate" as such; apply ISO 27701 and independent assessments/codes of conduct.

Certification vs certification

Certification (ISO): an accredited body issues a 3-year certificate with annual supervisory audits.
Assessment (SOC 2): the independent auditor issues a report (opinion) for the period; you provide the document to customers under the NDA.
PCI DSS: confirmed by ROC (Report on Compliance) and AOC (Attestation of Compliance), or SAQ for smaller volumes.

Scope: how to outline boundaries

1. Assets and processes: products, environments (prod/stage), regions, data classes (PII/finance/maps).
2. Technical architecture: cloud, VPC/VNet, Kubernetes, CI/CD, secret management, DWH/analytics.
3. Organizational zones: offices/remote, contractors, outsourcing support.
4. Third parties: PSP, content providers, KYC/AML, clouds - shared responsibility model.
5. Exceptions: fix why outside the scope, and compensatory measures.

Roadmap to "first badge"

1. Gap analysis versus targets (27001/SOC 2/PCI).
2. Risk management: methodology, risk register, processing plan, Statement of Applicability (ISO).
3. Policies and roles: information security/privacy policy, data classification, access (IAM), logging, response, BCM/DR.
4. Technical controls: encryption, networks (WAF/WAAP, DDoS), vulnerabilities/patches, secure SDLC, backups, monitoring.
5. Evidence base: regulations, magazines, screenshots, uploads, tickets - we store versioned.
6. Internal audit/Readiness-assessment.

7. External audit: stage 1 (docking review) → stage 2 (efficiency/samples). For SOC 2 Type II - "observation period."

8. Oversight/Maintenance: Quarterly Control Reviews, Annual Oversight Audits (ISOs), Annual SOC Update 2.

Control Matching Matrix (Example Fragment)

What the auditor will show (typical queries)

Accesses: reports from IdP/IAM, JML logs, privilege review.
Secrets: KMS/Vault policies, rotation history.
Vulnerability scanning: latest reports, remediation tickets, MTTP deadlines.
Logs/alerts: incident cases, MTTD/MTTR, post-mortems.
Suppliers: register, DPIA/DTIA (if PII), contractual measures, risk assessments.
Training and tests: phishing simulations, information security trainings, confirmations.
BC/DR: Results of the latest exercise, RTO/RPO facts.

Continuous Compliance

Policy-as-Code: OPA/Gatekeeper/Kyverno for Depleys; "Enforce" on critical rules.
Continuous Control Monitoring (CCM): checks every N minutes/hours (encryption of buckets, open ports, MFA-coverage).
GRC system: register of controls, owners, tasks and deadlines, binding metrics.
Single artifact hub: "evidence" is versioned and marked with a checkpoint.
Auto-generation of reports: SoA, Risk Register, Control Effectiveness, KPI/SLO by controls.

Compliance Metrics and SLOs

Coverage:% of controls with automatic verification;% of assets in scope.
Response time: p95 closure of audit requests ≤ 5 business days.
Reliability: "control not in the green zone" ≤ 1% of the time per month.
Vulnerabilities: MTTP P1 ≤ 48 hours, P2 ≤ 7 days; pentest remediation ≤ 30 days.

Information security training: personnel coverage ≥ 98%, frequency 12 months

Specific to cloud and Kubernetes

Cloud: resource inventory (IaC), disk/channel encryption, logging (CloudTrail/Activity Logs), minimal roles. Use provider certification reports (SOC 2, ISO, PCI) as part of your "legacy" protection.
Kubernetes: RBAC by namespace, Admission policies (image signatures/SBOM, prohibition ': latest'), network policies, secrets outside etcd (KMS), API server audit, scan profiles for images/clusters.
Networks and perimeter: WAF/WAAP, DDoS, segmentation, ZTNA instead of "wide" VPN.

PCI DSS (Payment Media Refinements)

CHD zone segmentation: minimum systems in a cluster; mTLS to PSP; webhooks - with HMAC.
Quarterly ASV scans and annual pentests (including segmentation).
Logs and integrity: FIM, immutable logs, time under seal (NTP).
Documents: Policies, Chart flow charts, AOC/ROC, incident procedures.

Privacy (ISO 27701 + GDPR approach)

Roles: controller/processor, processing registry, legal grounds.
DPIA/DTIA: privacy and cross-border transmission risk assessment.
Rights of subjects: SLA for answers, technical means of search/deletion.
Minimization/pseudonymization: architectural patterns and DLP.

Artifacts (ready-made templates - what to keep at hand)

Statement of Applicability (SoA) with Annex A inclusion/exclusion motivation.
Control Matrix (ISO↔SOC2↔PCI) with owners and evidence.
Risk Register with methodology (impact/likelihood) and processing plan.
BC/DR plans + protocols of recent exercises.
Secure SDLC package: review checklists, SAST/DAST reports, deploy policy.
Supplier Due Diligence: questionnaires (SIG Lite/CAIQ), risk assessments, contractual measures.

Common errors

Audit for Audit's sake: no live processes, only policy folders.

Too wide scope: becomes more expensive and complicates maintenance; start with the "core of value."

Manual evidence gathering: high operational debt; automate CCM and uploads.
Controls without metrics: cannot be managed (no SLO/owners).
Forgotten post-certification regime: no quarterly checks → surprises on supervision.
Contractors outside the loop: third parties become the source of incidents and a "red card" in the audit.

Readiness checklist (abbreviated)

• Scope, assets, owners defined; data and flow map.
• Risk Register, SoA (for ISO), Trust Services Criteria (for SOC 2) decomposed into controls.
• Policies, procedures, staff training are implemented and up to date.
• Controls are automated (CCM), dashboards and alerts are connected.
• Evidence for each control is collected/versioned.
• Internal audit conducted/Readiness; critical breaks are eliminated.
• Auditor/authority appointed, observation period (SOC 2) or Stage 1/2 plan (ISO) agreed.
• On-site pentest/ASV (PCI), remediation plan and confirmation of fixes.

Mini Templates

Metrics policy for controls (example)

Control: "All PII buckets are KMS encrypted."

SLI:% of buckets with encryption enabled.
Purpose: ≥ 99. 9%.
Alert: when falling <99. 9% more than 15 minutes → P2, owner - Head of Platform.

Evidence log (fragment)

iGaming/fintech specific

High-risk domains: payments/payments, anti-fraud, backhoe, partner integrations - priority in cope and controls.
Business metrics: Time-to-Wallet, reg→depozit conversion - consider the impact of safeguards and audits.
Regionality: EU/LATAM/Asia requirements - accounting for cross-border transmissions, local regulators.
Content providers/PSPs: mandatory due diligence, mTLS/HMAC, legal addenda on data.

Total

Certifications are a consequence of discipline and automation: risk management, living policies, measurable controls and ongoing readiness. Choose the right set (ISO 27001/27701/22301, SOC 2 Type II, PCI DSS, CSA STAR), outline a scope, automate checks (CCM/Policy-as-Code), keep artifacts in order and measure SLO - this way compliance will become predictable and support product growth, not a brake on it.