The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) is the national professional organization of Certified Public Accountants in the United States, with more than 418,000 members in 143 countries in business and industry, public practice, government, education, student affiliates and international associates. The AICPA is the originator of the SOC (System and Organization Controls) audit and reporting standards.

Through the SOC 2 standard, the AICPA sets guidelines for the evaluation of an organization’s data Security, Availability, Confidentiality, Privacy, and Processing Integrity — a set of criteria known as the Trust Services Criteria.

Learn more about the AICPA and its SOC reporting standards with these articles about SOC 2.