Who is Oread?
Oread Risk & Advisory is a boutique attestation and information-security consulting firm headquartered in Kansas City, Kansas, founded in 2015 by principals with prior Big Four and national-firm risk-consulting backgrounds.
With a team of roughly 5 to 15 professionals, Oread runs a focused practice built around SOC reporting, IT risk assessments, HIPAA, PCI, and related attestation work for small and mid-sized service organizations, rather than competing on the volume or framework breadth of a larger regional firm.
The firm’s core pitch, stated on its site, is a “lifecycle approach” to compliance: helping a client build durable compliance infrastructure rather than treating each audit as a one-off point-in-time exercise. Oread also runs a niche ALTA Best Practice Certification program for the real estate title and settlement industry, done in partnership with Fidelity, alongside its more general SOC/HIPAA/PCI practice.
What credentials does Oread actually hold?
Oread Risk & Advisory is enrolled in the AICPA Peer Review Program, with its most recently completed review dated November 30, 2023, covering the period April 1, 2022 through March 31, 2023 (rating not publicly disclosed). Buyers can verify enrollment and review history directly on the AICPA’s public peer review file search.
The firm’s founding leadership carries genuine attest-practice pedigree: Principal Raja Paranjothi, CISA, has 18 years in IT security, risk, and SOC reporting, and previously led the Business & Technology Risk Services practice at CBIZ and Mayer Hoffman McCann (MHM) after earlier consulting stints at EY and Deloitte. Principal Jason Goethe, CPA, previously owned his own CPA practice (Encompass Accounting Solutions) and worked as an auditor and tax specialist at several regional firms before joining Oread. That combination — a CISA-credentialed risk lead paired with a CPA principal — is the structural answer to “who actually signs this report and why should I trust it.”
What SOC reports does Oread issue?
Oread performs the full range of SOC examinations: SOC 1 (Type I and Type II, covering internal controls over financial reporting), SOC 2 (Type I and Type II, covering security, availability, confidentiality, processing integrity, and privacy), and SOC 3.
The firm structures engagements around an initial readiness phase — identifying control gaps and providing remediation guidance — before moving into the formal Type I or Type II examination.
For a Type II report, buyers should plan for an observation window (typically 3 to 12 months of operating evidence) before the audit itself can conclude; Oread’s site frames this explicitly as the difference between a point-in-time design opinion (Type I) and an operating-effectiveness opinion (Type II).
Does Oread cover HIPAA?
Oread offers HIPAA/HITECH assessments for healthcare, health-tech, insurance, and life-sciences clients, including business associates who fall under HIPAA obligations without being covered entities themselves. The firm is also a certified PCI QSA and offers PCI DSS consulting — vulnerability testing, penetration testing, wireless security review, and web application assessment — for organizations that store, process, or transmit cardholder data.
Beyond SOC and HIPAA, Oread runs a third-party vendor due-diligence practice focused on FCPA compliance (onboarding, monitoring, and auditing third parties) and privacy-regulation consulting for GDPR and CCPA. Its IT audit and IT risk/security assessment services underpin most of these engagements as a shared evidence base.
Oread partnered with Tentacle in April 2023 so evidence collection and the audit team share one instance. Confirm whether that workflow still runs as Tentacle or under the Cytracom rebrand.
Tentacle’s platform has since been folded into Cytracom’s compliance-management product line; buyers evaluating the partnership today should confirm with Oread whether the integration still runs under the Tentacle name or the Cytracom rebrand.
Does Oread also sell penetration testing?
Oread offers network vulnerability testing and penetration testing as part of its IT risk and PCI service lines. If your engagement calls for both a SOC 2 report and a penetration test, the cleaner posture is to have the pen test performed by a different provider than the CPA firm issuing your SOC 2 opinion.
Under AICPA independence rules, an auditor who evaluates a pen test it performed itself for the same client creates a self-review consideration, since the test becomes part of the control environment the audit is meant to assess independently. If you engage Oread for SOC 2, raise this separation question up front rather than assuming the two services should be bundled under one team.
How much does an Oread SOC 2 audit cost?
Oread does not publish a rate card. Based on our independent research into comparable boutique CPA firms of this size and scope, our estimated range for a first SOC 2 Type I engagement is $12,000–$28,000, and for a SOC 2 Type II, $20,000–$50,000.
These are our directional estimates, not Oread’s confirmed pricing — the firm-specific number depends on system count, headcount, and scope, and moves after a scoping call. Request a quote and we’ll route your details to Oread for a ballpark.
How long does an Oread SOC 2 audit take?
Our research points to a fieldwork-to-report window of roughly 3 to 8 weeks for Oread engagements, which is competitive among boutique CPA firms doing SOC work.
That window covers the audit fieldwork and report drafting itself — a SOC 2 Type II additionally requires the observation period (3 to 12 months) to run before fieldwork can begin, so the total time from kickoff to Type II report is longer than the fieldwork window alone.
Which frameworks does Oread cover?
Oread’s public service list does not include ISO 27001 certification (its ISO offering is an ISO 27002 gap/security assessment, not a certification body engagement), HITRUST, CMMC, FedRAMP/StateRAMP, or SOC for Cybersecurity. Buyers who need any of these should plan for a separate specialist or certification body alongside Oread.
Who is Oread a good fit for?
Oread fits small-to-mid tech, SaaS, healthcare, and financial-services companies that want a boutique CPA with Big Four-trained leadership, including Tentacle/Cytracom evidence workflows. It is not an ISO certification body or a FedRAMP shop.
Best fit for:
- Small to mid-sized technology, SaaS, healthcare, financial-services, and cloud-services companies needing a SOC 1, SOC 2, or SOC 3 report from a boutique CPA firm with genuine Big-Four-trained leadership
- Companies already using, or willing to use, the Tentacle (Cytracom) platform for evidence collection and ongoing compliance tracking
- Real estate title and settlement companies pursuing
ALTA Best Practice Certification alongside SOC reporting - Organizations needing PCI DSS QSA services or HIPAA assessments bundled with their SOC work - Buyers prioritizing a smaller, senior-led team over a large regional firm’s staffing model
Not a fit — look elsewhere if you need:
- ISO 27001 certification (as opposed to a gap assessment against the ISO 27002 standard)
- HITRUST, CMMC, or FedRAMP/StateRAMP assessments
- A large multi-office firm with bench depth for a very large or multi-entity SOC engagement
- A penetration test performed by the same firm issuing your SOC 2 report, without a separation conversation first
When should a buyer shortlist Oread?
Oread Risk & Advisory is a Kansas City boutique built around SOC 1/2/3, HIPAA, and PCI work, led by principals with CBIZ/Mayer Hoffman McCann and Big Four consulting backgrounds and backed by an active AICPA peer review (most recent review dated November 30, 2023, for the 2022–2023 coverage period).
Its Tentacle partnership gives clients a shared platform for evidence collection during the audit. The firm does not offer ISO 27001 certification, HITRUST, CMMC, or FedRAMP — for those, plan on a separate firm. For a straightforward SOC 2, SOC 1, or HIPAA engagement from a small, credentialed team, Oread is a reasonable boutique option; get a firm-specific quote before assuming our estimated pricing range applies to your scope.
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