What Are Complimentary User Entity Controls?
When you think of third-party risk management, what usually comes to mind is the process of vetting third-party vendors to ensure they comply with your security standards. Today, we will talk about controls that work in the opposite direction. Complementary user entity controls (CUECs) are essentially controls provided by a third-party service provider to help achieve the vendor’s control objectives.
CUECs can be thought of as a laundry list of controls and activities that customers or clients of a service provider must have in place to receive services.
Complementary user entity controls (CUECs) are controls that exist on a user-entity level in a vendor company. CUECs ensure that an agreement to agreed-upon requirements binds clients’ or customers’ access to specific services.
CUECs In SOC Reporting
CUECs are a crucial part of any SOC audit report. Almost all SOC audit reports, including SOC 1, SOC 2, and SOC 3, rely on CUECs. If you’re involved with an organization that provides services for user entities, you are probably already familiar with the CUEC SOC report requirements.
SOC reports frequently represent the collaborative effort of numerous people, each of whom has distinct duties and responsibilities toward the security of an organization. Because CUECs assist in the planning, creation, and execution of SOC reporting requirements, the relationship between SOC reports and CUECS is crucial.
Additionally, CUECs are used in SOC reports to ensure that access is provided effectively, increasing productivity. CUECs have become a crucial part of SOC reports, to the point that if a SOC audit report does not have CUECs, that report is generally regarded as incomplete and likely to cause inadequate audits for user entities.
Examples of CUECs
- An organization’s SOC report may say that user entities must send data in an encrypted manner using industry-standard encryption or request that the service organization provide a secure transmission method.
- A vendor might require customers to monitor and update antivirus definition updates and implement security patches.
- A cloud-based file-sharing program, like Dropbox, may require user entities to remove a former employee’s corporate account from the file-sharing program.
- Holding clients responsible for setting up strong password parameters when using your service
- Requiring customers to notify the service provider in case of a cyber incident
- User entities are responsible to inform the service organization if physical access needs to be added or revoked for a user entity’s employees
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Where Will I Find CUECs?
CEUCs are included in the applicable control objective or process area in this report.
Who Is Responsible for CUECs?
User entities (customers) will need to implement CUECs provided to them by a third-party service provider to achieve their control objectives. Complimentary User Entity Controls SOC 2 implementation falls on the user entity, not on the service provider. Therefore, the user entity must understand the requirements and confirm that the required controls are in place within its environment.
When vendors write their CUECs, effort should be made to make sure that the wording is not going to confuse non-technical customers.
The Importance of Continuous Monitoring of CUECs
Without ongoing monitoring, tracking, and development, CUECs may not be able to provide effective control environments, which could harm the SOC report’s overall effectiveness. Because they frequently necessitate additional work, CUECs should never be overlooked. If the required CUECs are not correctly examined and added, even the tiniest or most inconsequential vendor relationship can offer the largest degree of risk to a SOC report. Without a Complementary User Entity Control matrix, the SOC report is thought to have a higher level of risk because there may be missing safeguards, which are frequently seen as the strict responsibility of the service organization.
How Can Centraleyes Help You With SOC Reports?
Understanding CUECs is not nearly enough for your vendor risk management program. As part of your vendor risk management process, you must map them back to your governance strategies to ensure that your controls are in place and properly meet your suppliers’ expectations.
SOC reports and other compliance and risk management needs can be made easier by leveraging Centraleyes. A centralized picture of your risk management posture across several frameworks is visible at all times.
Get in touch with us today to schedule a free demo of Centraleyes.
Start Getting Value With
Centraleyes for Free
See for yourself how the Centraleyes platform exceeds anything an old GRC
system does and eliminates the need for manual processes and spreadsheets
to give you immediate value and run a full risk assessment in less than 30 days
