If you run a SaaS company today, you have probably heard of SOC 2. It has become the standard way for organizations to demonstrate that they take security seriously. Most leaders understand that they need SOC 2, but many do not fully know what it involves.
One of the most important and often overlooked parts of the process is the privileged access review.
Let us look at what that means and why it matters.
At its core, a privileged access review means checking, on a regular basis, who in your company has access to what.
In a typical SaaS organization, you might use tools such as Microsoft 365, AWS, GitHub, Asana, or Canva. Over time, people join or leave, roles change, and access lists expand. A privileged access review helps you confirm that everyone still has the right access for their role.
Operationally, this ensures employees can perform their jobs without unnecessary restrictions. From a security point of view, it reduces risk and helps protect sensitive information.
The goal is to grant people access only to the information and systems they need to do their jobs. This concept is known as the principle of least privilege.
This approach is important for several reasons. If an employee account is ever compromised, the attacker can only reach what that person could. You also minimize the risk of employees viewing information they should not, such as HR records or financial data.
It is also helpful when deciding who needs additional security training. For example, employees with access to financial systems may require extra awareness training about deepfakes or wire fraud attempts.
SOC 2 auditors look closely at access management. It is not enough to declare in a policy that you perform quarterly access reviews. You must be able to prove that the reviews took place and show evidence of the results.
Without automation, privileged access reviews are usually performed manually. Someone logs into each application, exports a user list, reviews each name one by one, and saves screenshots or spreadsheets as evidence.
This is time-consuming, repetitive, and easy to overlook, especially in smaller organizations where one or two individuals handle multiple responsibilities.
ProtechSuite simplifies this process by connecting to your cloud applications and displaying everything in one centralized view.
You can see who has access, approve or revoke access, and automatically document your decisions for audit purposes. You can also set reminders to ensure reviews happen on schedule.
Instead of logging into each system separately, you can review everything from one dashboard. ProtechSuite maintains a complete history of who performed each review, when it was done, and what decisions were made.
Consider GitHub as an example. For many SaaS companies, GitHub contains their source code and represents one of their most valuable assets.
With ProtechSuite, you can view all active GitHub users, confirm whether each person still requires access, check if they have multi-factor authentication enabled, and automatically store those results as audit evidence.
That level of visibility helps you manage access responsibly and meet SOC 2 requirements with confidence.
Privileged access reviews are one of the most effective ways to strengthen your security program. They ensure that people have the right access and that you have documented proof to support it.
With ProtechSuite, you can transform what was once a manual and time-consuming process into an efficient, automated, and repeatable one that supports your SOC 2 readiness.
