Skip to content

47-Day Certificates Are Coming. Are You Ready?

Act Now →

Case Study

10,000 Employees. Millions of Customers. An Online Retail Giant's Path to SOC 2 Compliance

How Encryption Consulting audited an international online retailer’s cryptographic framework, uncovered critical gaps across certificate management, governance, and vendor security, and delivered a roadmap that reduced service interruptions by 30%.
10,000 Employees. Millions of Customers. An Online Retail Giant’s Path to SOC 2 Compliance

Customer Profile

An international online retail platform serving millions of US consumers with flagship products, electronics, and premium high-fashion apparel. 10,000+ employees, known for fast deliveries, personalized shopping, and tech-driven engagement — handling sensitive data from personal and financial details to login credentials and biometrics.

Industry

International E-Commerce Retail

Engagement Type

SOC 2 Compliance Audit, Gap Analysis & Remediation Roadmap

Download Case Study

At a Glance Outcome

30%

Service interruptions reduced

15%

Prior cost from cert outages

5 TSC

Trust criteria assessed

CertSecure

Certificate lifecycle automation

The Enterprise

Challenges

Achieving SOC 2 compliance required a complete evaluation of the organization's controls and processes. The audit uncovered critical gaps across certificate management, governance, vendor security, and incident response, each compounding the risk to sensitive customer data.

Certificate expirations causing service outages

Recurring certificate expirations triggered service malfunctions and outages, driving a 15% cost increase from emergency mitigation — and left sensitive customer data exposed to breaches.
01 Certificate Management

No centralized governance or encryption consistency

Every system used its own encryption and access policies with no central governance — so no one could tell who could access sensitive data, or at what level — weakening monitoring and fragmenting access control.
02 GOVERNANCE

Non-compliant third-party vendors

Payment and cloud vendors with access to PII and payment data failed SOC 2 — obsolete encryption (DES), poor access management, and delayed patching. Any vendor breach would directly compromise the retailer.
03 Vendor Risk
The gaps weren’t isolated: certificate failures, fragmented governance, non-compliant vendors, and absent incident response plans all compounded into a compliance posture that couldn’t meet any of SOC 2’s five trust service criteria.

Encryption Consulting

Engagement Summary · Encryption Consulting · Compliance Services

Our Offered

Solutions

The audit was structured around SOC 2's five trust service criteria — security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. A customized audit report, strategy, and implementation roadmap addressed every gap found across the organization's cryptographic framework.

Capability 01

SOC 2 Trust Service Criteria Assessment

Assessed all five criteria — unauthorized-access protection (security), SLA reliability (availability), accurate and timely data delivery (processing integrity), encrypted authorized access (confidentiality), and policy-aligned data handling (privacy).

Capability 02

CertSecure Manager & Certificate Lifecycle Automation

Recommended CertSecure Manager — a vendor-neutral platform automating the full certificate lifecycle: real-time monitoring, expiration and revocation alerts, and automated renewals — replacing the manual processes behind past downtime.

Capability 03

Compliance Gap Analysis, Monitoring & Incident Response

A detailed gap analysis pinpointed unmet SOC 2 requirements and produced a prioritized roadmap. Continuous monitoring, threat detection, and logging closed detection gaps, and incident response plans were rebuilt with detection, response, and mitigation workflows.

Capability 04

Third-Party Vendor Security Assessment

Assessed vendor access controls (RBAC, MFA), incident response, and how sensitive-data access was granted, monitored, and revoked. A structured framework set accountability, obligations, and periodic audits for ongoing SOC 2 compliance.
The result is a compliance framework built across all five SOC 2 trust service criteria — automated certificate management, centralized governance, compliant vendor relationships, and strengthened incident response across the organization.

Encryption Consulting

Engagement Summary · Encryption Consulting · Compliance Services

The Overall

Business Outcome

The customized roadmap addressed the organization's critical challenges and established an enhanced security framework — reducing service interruptions by 30%, strengthening data protection, and positioning the retailer for future cybersecurity challenges.

01

Service interruptions reduced by 30%

CertSecure Manager automated certificate lifecycle management, eliminating the expirations behind the 15% cost increase. The result: uninterrupted operations, improved SLA compliance, restored trust, and a faster path to SOC 2 compliance.
02

Stronger security posture and standards

A prioritized plan covered encryption uplift, access-control hardening, vulnerability management, and incident response — with stronger algorithms, key management, and authentication protecting sensitive data against evolving threats.
03

Managed vendor risk and future-proof security

Vendor assessments, accountability frameworks, and audits aligned vendors with SOC 2, cutting supply-chain risk, while scalable encryption, advanced access controls, and proactive threat detection delivered future-proof security for long-term growth.

Discover Our

Latest Resources

  • Blogs
  • White Papers
  • Videos

Education Center

What is Software Key Management?

Software key management controls encryption keys without dedicated hardware. See how it compares to HSMs and cloud KMS, plus FIPS 140-3 limits and use cases.

Read more
Case-Studies
view all blogs
What-is-Secret-Management?
What is Secret Management?
What-Features-Do-Commercial-Key-Management-Solutions-Have?
What Features Do Commercial Key Management Solutions Have?
Cloud-Key-Management-Services:-Advantages-and-Disadvantages
Cloud Key Management Services: Advantages and Disadvantages

White Paper

The Cert Wars: The Race Against Expiry

One expired certificate (cert) can bring operations to a halt. Discover how to prevent outages and manage certificate expiry before it impacts your business.

Read more
Case-Studies
view all white papers
Post-Quantum-Cryptography-for-Finance:-Threats,-Standards,-and-the-Road-to-2035
Post-Quantum Cryptography for Finance: Threats, Standards, and the Road to 2035
FIPS-140-3-Migration:-The-Complete-Guide-to-Meeting-the-September-21,-2026-Deadline
FIPS 140-3 Migration: The Complete Guide to Meeting the September 21, 2026 Deadline
The-PQC-Signature-Selection-Playbook
The PQC Signature Selection Playbook

Video

The 2029 Convergence: Why Microsoft, Google, and Cloudflare All Chose the Same PQC Deadline

Explore expert insights on cybersecurity, PKI, and post-quantum readiness, with practical guidance to strengthen security and future-proof cryptography.

Watch Now
Case-Studies
view all videos
The-Quantum-Mandate-Explained:-What-the-2026-Executive-Order-Means-for-Post-Quantum-Cryptography
The Quantum Mandate Explained: What the 2026 Executive Order Means for Post Quantum Cryptography
Decoding-Post-Quantum-Security-on-the-International-Space-Station-(Part-2)-|-What-It-Means-For-You
Decoding Post-Quantum Security on the International Space Station (Part 2) | What It Means For You
Decoding-Post-Quantum-Security-on-the-International-Space-Station
Decoding Post-Quantum Security on the International Space Station