An international organization has decided to use a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution to support its business operations. Which of the following compliance standards should the organization use…

HIPAA is a U.S.-specific regulation applicable only to healthcare organizations and their business associates that handle protected health information (PHI), making it too narrow and industry-specific for a general international SaaS assessment.

SOC 2 is a widely recognized international auditing standard developed by the AICPA that evaluates a service organization's controls related to security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy - making it directly applicable to assessing SaaS solutions. It is not industry-specific and is used globally to validate that a third-party service provider manages customer data securely and in compliance with privacy principles. Organizations evaluating SaaS vendors commonly require SOC 2 Type II reports to assess the security posture and data privacy practices of the solution.

PCI DSS is a compliance standard specifically focused on organizations that process, store, or transmit payment card data, and is not a general-purpose framework for assessing international code security and data privacy of a SaaS solution.

IATF is a U.S. Department of Defense framework focused on information assurance for government and military systems, and is not applicable to evaluating commercial SaaS solutions for international business operations.