The CSA STAR program consists of three levels. Which of the following is not one of those levels?

The CSA STAR program, developed by the Cloud Security Alliance, is a framework that enables cloud service providers (CSPs) to demonstrate compliance with security best practices and transparency to their customers. The program is structured into three distinct levels: self-assessment, third-party assessment-based certification, and continuous monitoring.

The self-assessment level allows CSPs to perform a self-evaluation against the CSA's security criteria, making it a more accessible and less formal way for providers to indicate their level of adherence to these practices. The third-party assessment-based certification level involves an independent audit by a qualified third-party organization to verify compliance with the CSA's requirements. Continuous monitoring, as the name suggests, includes ongoing security assessments and updates to ensure sustained compliance and security posture.

A SOC 2 audit certification, while valuable and relevant to cloud security, does not fall within the specified structure of the CSA STAR program's levels. Instead, SOC (Service Organization Control) audits focus on reporting controls relevant to security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy but are not categorized as part of the CSA STAR levels. Therefore, this option is not one of the levels established by the CSA STAR program.