Security and Privacy Whitepaper

Governance

BACCA’s Security and Privacy teams establish policies and controls, monitor compliance with those controls, and prove our security and compliance to third-party auditors. Our policies are based on the following foundational principles:

• Access should be limited to only those with a legitimate business need and granted based on the principle of least privilege.
• Security controls should be implemented and layered according to the principle of defense-in-depth.
• Security controls should be applied consistently across all areas of the enterprise.
• The implementation of controls should be iterative, continuously maturing across the dimensions of improved effectiveness, increased auditability, and decreased friction.

BACCA maintains a SOC 2 Type I & Type II attestation. Our SOC 2 report and associated policies are available on our Trust Center.

Data Access

At BACCA, we prioritize secure and controlled access to the various data systems required for our operations, adhering to the principle of least privilege and ensuring access is granted based on legitimate business needs.

Required Data Access

• Slack: We access selected operational channels within Slack to gather historical handling knowledge. This auditable access is crucial for capturing insights and improving our operational processes by understanding past incidents and resolutions.
• Observability Platforms (e.g., Datadog): Read-only access to observability platforms like Datadog allows us to perform log and metric investigations. This enables us to monitor system performance, detect anomalies, and troubleshoot issues effectively.

Optional Data Access

• Documentation Systems (e.g., Google Docs, Notion, Wiki Confluence): Access to documentation systems is optional but beneficial for indexing past playbooks and wiki pages. By aggregating this historical knowledge, we can enhance our decision-making processes and streamline the development of new operational strategies.
• Ticketing Systems (e.g., Jira, Linear): Optional access to ticketing systems allows us to index historical incidents. This access helps in identifying recurring issues, analyzing trends, and improving our incident response strategies by leveraging past incident data.

Data Processing

At BACCA, we implement stringent data processing protocols to ensure the highest level of security and privacy for our customers' data. Our practices are designed to maintain data integrity, confidentiality, and isolation.

Data Isolation

We maintain strict logical and physical separation of data for each customer. This ensures that data collected from one customer is exclusively used to serve that specific customer, with no cross-customer data pollination. Each customer's data is handled independently, upholding our commitment to privacy and security.

Secure Data Storage

All customer data is securely stored within the Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Utilizing GCP's advanced security features, we ensure robust protection of customer data at all times. Further details on our data protection measures can be found in the Data Protection section of this whitepaper.

Data Retention and Removal

To comply with regulatory requirements such as GDPR and to uphold best practices in data privacy, all short-term raw incident data is systematically removed within 30 days of the incident occurrence. This stringent data retention policy helps in minimizing the storage of potentially sensitive information beyond the necessary period, significantly reducing the risk of data breaches and unauthorized access.

Data Anonymization

We extract and anonymize non-personally identifiable information (non-PII) from historical and future incidents. This operational knowledge is aggregated and stored in a knowledge graph, which is built specifically for the individual customer. By leveraging this customer-specific anonymized data, we can effectively troubleshoot future issues and enhance our service capabilities without compromising individual customer privacy.

Data Protection

Data at Rest

All datastores with customer data, in addition to GCS buckets, are encrypted at rest. Sensitive collections and tables also use row-level encryption. This means the data is encrypted even before it hits the database so that neither physical access, nor logical access to the database, is enough to read the most sensitive information.

Data in Transit

BACCA uses TLS 1.2 or higher everywhere data is transmitted over potentially insecure networks. We also use features such as HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security) to maximize the security of our data in transit. Server TLS keys and certificates are managed by GCP and deployed via GCLB.

Secret Management

Encryption keys are managed via GCP Key Management System (KMS) service. KMS stores key material in Hardware Security Modules (HSMs), which prevents direct access by any individuals, including employees of Amazon and BACCA. The keys stored in HSMs are used for encryption and decryption via GCP’s KMS APIs. Application secrets are encrypted and stored securely via GCP Kubernetes Engine Secret Store, and access to these values is strictly limited.

Data Privacy

At BACCA, data privacy is a first-class priority—we strive to be trustworthy stewards of all sensitive data.

Regulatory Compliance

BACCA evaluates updates to regulatory and emerging frameworks continuously to evolve our program.

Privacy Policy and DPA

• View BACCA’s Privacy Policy
• View BACCA’s DPA

Product Security

Vulnerability Scanning

BACCA requires vulnerability scanning at key stages of our Secure Development Lifecycle (SDLC):

• Static analysis (SAST) testing of code during pull requests and on an ongoing basis
• Software composition analysis (SCA) to identify known vulnerabilities in our software supply chain
• Malicious dependency scanning to prevent the introduction of malware into our software supply chain
• Dynamic analysis (DAST) of running applications
• Network vulnerability scanning on a periodic basis
• External attack surface management (EASM) continuously running to discover new external-facing assets

Enterprise Security

Endpoint Protection

Our corporate network leverages GCP intrusion detection system to continuously monitor for unusual network activities. This robust system is adept at identifying potential security threats, ensuring round-the-clock surveillance and response capabilities. Utilizing GCP's sophisticated algorithms, we can detect and analyze any anomalies in network traffic, enabling us to swiftly address potential vulnerabilities or attacks. The system is integral to maintaining the integrity and security of our network, offering a comprehensive solution for real-time threat detection and mitigation."

Security Education

BACCA provides comprehensive security training to all employees upon onboarding and annually through educational modules within BACCA’s own platform. In addition, all new employees attend a mandatory live onboarding session centered around key security principles. All new engineers also attend a mandatory live onboarding session focused on secure coding principles and practices. BACCA’s security team shares regular threat briefings with employees to inform them of important security and safety-related updates that require special attention or action.

Identity and Access Management

BACCA enforces the use of phishing-resistant authentication factors, using MFA exclusively wherever possible. BACCA employees are granted access to applications based on their role, and automatically deprovisioned upon termination of their employment. Further access must be approved according to the policies set for each application.

Vendor Security

BACCA uses a risk-based approach to vendor security. Factors which influence the inherent risk rating of a vendor include:

• Access to customer and corporate data
• Integration with production environments
• Potential damage to the BACCA brand

Once the inherent risk rating has been determined, the security of the vendor is evaluated in order to determine a residual risk rating and an approval decision for the vendor.

Responsible Disclosure

Looking to report a security concern? Please review our Responsible Disclosure Policy.