Crypto Payment Provider BitPay Undergoes A Security Audit

The major crypto payment provider BitPay has undergone a security and confidentiality compliance review recently – named the Service Organization Control 2. As the latest crypto news show, the business advisory company Aprio confirmed that BitPay is undergoing a compliance review with the SOC 2, a tech audit and a major requirement for technology companies that assures the customers’ personal data is kept secure and fully confidential.

As confirmed in a September 30 news release, the SOC 2 review which BitPay passed means that the firm has met criteria set by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants in terms of its confidentiality, security, privacy, availability and processing integrity.

Dan Schroeder, who is the partner-in-charge of information assurance services at Aprio, talked about the crypto payment provider BitPay and the thorough audit. He said:

“After thorough review, we have confirmed the design and application of BitPay’s payment system meets the standards set forth in SOC 2 for protecting customer data. SOC 2 reporting is an industry best practice standard that evaluates a company’s controls relative to matters such as securing transactional and other sensitive customer data.”

As a reminder, in mid-August the Bitcoin news showed that BitPay introduced new security measures on its platform. Under them, users are required to undergo a one-time verification process that requires the input of data such as their Social Security number (SSN) or passport number – as well as a photo ID.

The measures were met with a dose of skepticism, mostly because of the resistance that many in the cryptocurrency community have towards seeing their personal data being stored in some centralized troves.

In January this year, the major cryptocurrency exchange Gemini also announced that it had completed an SOC 2 Type 1 certification. BitGo was also in the blockchain news for gaining a SOC 2 Type 1 certification from Deloitte last year – and the blockchain security firm upped its procedures to conform to the Type 2 requirements of the same standard.

As a last note, it’s worth stating that last month, 15 global jurisdictions including the G-7 countries announced that they will develop a system for tracking crypto transactions – to potentially prevent illicit uses of cryptocurrencies by collecting and distributing personal data on individuals.