What Certifications Anthropic Holds — and What They Cover
Anthropic maintains SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certifications for its Claude API and Enterprise platform infrastructure. These are genuine, third-party-audited certifications — not self-assessments or marketing claims. They apply to Anthropic's internal controls, its cloud infrastructure management, its access control procedures, its incident response programme, and its vendor management practices.
What they do not cover: your organisation's deployment of Claude. When you build an application on the Claude API, your application layer, your data pipelines, your user authentication, your logging infrastructure, and your output validation controls are all outside the scope of Anthropic's certifications. The shared responsibility model that governs cloud security applies equally to AI platform security: Anthropic is responsible for the security of the platform; you are responsible for the security of everything you build on top of it.
This distinction is critical in procurement and vendor risk assessment contexts. An enterprise customer asking "Is Claude SOC 2 compliant?" should more precisely be asking "Does Anthropic have a SOC 2 Type II report, and does its scope include the controls relevant to how we use Claude?" The answer to the first part is yes; the second part requires reviewing the actual report. Our Claude security and governance team can walk your procurement team through this review.
Anthropic SOC 2 Type II
Annual audit of Anthropic's operational controls across Security, Availability, Confidentiality, and Processing Integrity trust service criteria. Type II means controls were tested over a period (typically 6-12 months), not just assessed at a point in time. Available to enterprise customers under NDA.
Anthropic ISO 27001
International standard for Information Security Management Systems (ISMS). Certification confirms Anthropic has a structured programme covering risk assessment, asset management, access control, cryptography, physical security, incident management, and business continuity. Renewed annually with surveillance audits.
SOC 2 Type II: What the Report Actually Tells You
A SOC 2 Type II report has a specific structure. Section 1 is the auditor's opinion — the pass/fail on whether controls operated effectively. Section 2 describes the system being audited (Anthropic's infrastructure and operations). Section 3 describes the controls Anthropic has implemented. Section 4 is where every enterprise security team should spend most of their time: it lists the tests the auditor performed and any exceptions found.
When your information security team reviews Anthropic's SOC 2 report, they should check which Trust Service Criteria are covered (Security is mandatory; Availability, Confidentiality, Processing Integrity, and Privacy are optional inclusions), whether any exceptions were identified and how material they were, whether the audit period and report date are current (reports older than 12 months should be supplemented by a bridge letter), and whether the specific services you are using fall within the scope of the audit.
SOC 2 reports are confidential documents shared under NDA. Enterprise customers can request Anthropic's current SOC 2 Type II report through their account team. If you are evaluating Claude for a regulated use case — financial services, healthcare, government — your vendor risk management process should include a formal review of this report, mapped against your own control requirements. If your organisation doesn't have the internal expertise to conduct this review, this is one of the services our security governance team provides.
ISO 27001: What It Means for Enterprise Claude Deployments
ISO 27001 certification confirms that Anthropic has implemented an Information Security Management System that meets the international standard's requirements. Unlike SOC 2, which is a US-origin standard, ISO 27001 is globally recognised and is often the preferred certification for European enterprises, government contractors, and organisations operating across multiple regulatory jurisdictions.
The certification covers 93 controls across four categories in the 2022 version of the standard (ISO 27001:2022): organisational controls, people controls, physical controls, and technological controls. Annex A of the standard defines these controls. When evaluating Anthropic's ISO 27001 certification, your security team should confirm the certificate is from an accredited certification body, check the certificate scope statement to confirm it covers the services you use, verify the certificate expiry date and surveillance audit status, and request the Statement of Applicability (SoA) if available — this document lists which Annex A controls Anthropic has implemented and which have been excluded and why.
For UK enterprises, ISO 27001 aligns well with the National Cyber Security Centre's Cyber Essentials Plus framework requirements. For EU enterprises, it is a strong indicator of compliance maturity that regulators and supervisory authorities recognise. It does not, however, replace GDPR compliance obligations — as our Claude GDPR compliance guide covers in detail.
The Shared Responsibility Model: What You Own
Every enterprise security certification review of a Claude deployment should include a shared responsibility mapping — a documented breakdown of which security controls are Anthropic's responsibility (covered by their certifications) and which are yours. Below is the structure we use with clients.
| Security Control Domain | Anthropic | Shared | Customer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Model infrastructure security | Anthropic | — | — |
| API endpoint security | Anthropic | — | — |
| Data centre physical security | Anthropic | — | — |
| API key management | — | Shared | — |
| Prompt and input security | — | — | Customer |
| Application authentication / authorisation | — | — | Customer |
| Output validation and filtering | — | — | Customer |
| Data classification before sending to Claude | — | — | Customer |
| Application audit logging | — | Shared (Enterprise) | — |
| Incident response for your application | — | — | Customer |
| User access management (Claude Enterprise admin) | — | — | Customer |
| Network security (your environment) | — | — | Customer |
The practical implication of this mapping: your SOC 2 or ISO 27001 audit, if you maintain these certifications yourself, must include controls for all the "Customer" rows. If your current scope doesn't cover AI system usage — and most pre-2024 certifications don't — you need to extend your scope to include Claude deployments or document them as an accepted risk with compensating controls.
Preparing for a SOC 2 or ISO 27001 Audit That Includes Claude?
Our Claude Certified Architects help enterprises extend their existing security certifications to cover Claude deployments — from scope definition to control evidence, shared responsibility documentation, and auditor briefings.
Extending Your Own SOC 2 or ISO 27001 to Cover Claude
If your organisation maintains its own SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification, adding Claude to your environment means updating your certification scope to account for the new processing activities, new third-party relationships, and new attack surfaces that Claude introduces.
For SOC 2, this typically means adding Anthropic to your vendor management programme with a formal risk assessment, documenting Claude's role in your system description, adding relevant controls around AI system usage (prompt security, output validation, access controls), and ensuring your monitoring and alerting infrastructure covers Claude API usage. These additions should be reviewed with your external auditor before your next audit cycle, not presented as a surprise during fieldwork.
For ISO 27001, the process involves updating your asset inventory to include Claude as an information processing asset, conducting a risk assessment specific to Claude (using your standard risk methodology), implementing controls appropriate to the risk level identified, and updating your supplier evaluation process to include AI platform providers. The 2022 version of ISO 27001 has a new control (8.25-8.30 series) specifically addressing secure development and supplier relationships that is directly applicable to Claude integrations.
Claude Enterprise administrators should ensure that the audit log capabilities available in the Enterprise console are configured and that log data is exported to your SIEM. This provides the monitoring and alerting evidence your auditors will look for. Our Claude Enterprise setup guide covers audit log configuration in detail.
Answering Vendor Risk Questionnaires About Claude
If your organisation is a vendor to other enterprises, you may receive security questionnaires from customers asking about your AI usage policies and specifically about Claude. These questionnaires are becoming more common as enterprise procurement processes evolve to address AI risk.
The key questions typically asked and how to answer them accurately: Does your organisation use AI services that process customer data? Answer based on your actual configuration — if you are processing customer data through Claude, the honest answer is yes, and you should be prepared to explain your safeguards. What certifications does your AI provider hold? You can truthfully state that Anthropic holds SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certifications, with the caveat that you can provide the specific scope on request. Does your AI provider use customer data to train models? For Claude Enterprise and API customers, Anthropic does not use API inputs/outputs to train models by default — this is a contractual commitment in the enterprise agreement.
For customers who receive your questionnaire and want to conduct a deeper review, having your Anthropic DPA, a completed shared responsibility matrix, and your own AI usage policy ready to share significantly reduces the back-and-forth that vendor risk assessments generate. We help clients build this package as part of our Claude security governance service.
Penetration Testing Claude-Integrated Applications
SOC 2 and ISO 27001 both expect organisations to conduct regular penetration testing of systems within scope. When Claude is integrated into your applications, penetration testing scope must extend to cover the Claude integration points — API call handling, authentication, prompt injection vectors, and output processing.
Anthropic's terms of service permit customers to conduct penetration testing of their own applications that integrate with the Claude API, but do not permit testing of Anthropic's infrastructure itself. Your penetration test scope statement should clearly delineate the boundary: you are testing your application and integration code, not Anthropic's endpoints.
A Claude-focused penetration test should include prompt injection testing (both direct and indirect), authentication and authorisation testing for your Claude application, API key management review, output handling and injection testing (for web-based Claude applications), and review of logging and alerting coverage. Our Claude prompt injection defence guide provides the attack taxonomy your penetration testers should work through. Talk to your penetration testing firm about adding AI-specific test cases — most reputable firms now have AI security testing capabilities.
The Enterprise Procurement Checklist for Claude
When evaluating Claude for enterprise deployment from a security and compliance perspective, your procurement and information security teams should work through the following due diligence items. Request Anthropic's current SOC 2 Type II report and verify its scope covers the services you intend to use. Request and execute Anthropic's Data Processing Agreement before any personal data is processed. Review the sub-processor list and assess whether sub-processor locations meet your data residency requirements. Confirm the no-training guarantee is included in your contractual terms. Review Anthropic's incident notification procedures and ensure they align with your breach response SLAs.
Beyond Anthropic-specific due diligence, your internal checklist should include: completing a Data Protection Impact Assessment for any Claude use case involving personal data, updating your vendor risk register and ISMS asset inventory, extending your acceptable use policy to cover AI systems, training relevant staff on AI use policies, and establishing monitoring and alerting for Claude API usage anomalies. This is not a trivial undertaking for a large enterprise — it typically takes two to four weeks for a structured deployment and longer if there are significant gaps to remediate. Our Claude Enterprise implementation service can run this process in parallel with your technical deployment to avoid compliance becoming a blocker to go-live.
Anthropic's Trust Centre (available at trust.anthropic.com) provides publicly available security documentation, current certification status, sub-processor lists, and penetration testing summaries without requiring an NDA. Use it as your starting point for initial due diligence before requesting the full SOC 2 report.
Key Takeaways
- Anthropic holds SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certifications covering its Claude API and Enterprise platform infrastructure. These are third-party audited, not self-assessments.
- The certifications cover Anthropic's infrastructure — not your application. A shared responsibility model applies: you own the security of everything you build on top of Claude.
- When reviewing Anthropic's SOC 2 report, focus on Section 4 (tests and exceptions), confirm the audit period is current, and verify your specific services are in scope.
- Extending your own SOC 2 or ISO 27001 to cover Claude requires updating your scope, risk assessment, asset inventory, and vendor management programme.
- Penetration testing of Claude-integrated applications should include prompt injection, authentication, and output handling — but cannot include testing Anthropic's infrastructure directly.
- Build a procurement package: Anthropic's DPA, your shared responsibility matrix, your AI usage policy, and evidence of your own controls. This dramatically reduces vendor risk assessment friction.