KANSAS CITY, Mo. -

Car dealership data mining, sales-lead generation and communication solutions provider AutoAlert has received the Service Organization Control Type 2 (SOC 2) certification.

The SOC 2 certification is the official recognized auditing standard for service organizations that have gained recognition as a top standard for secure and confidential information handling.

According to AutoAlert, it is the only software company providing automotive solutions to have this high-level security in place, the company recently announced.

With the purpose of streamlining and advancing the data-security measures to increase company data protection, AutoAlert said that it started to prepare for a SOC 2 audit last year — after receiving its SOC 2 Type 1 certification in October.

"This assures our thousands of clients, here in the U.S. and abroad, that we will reliably cover their security requirements," said AutoAlert compliance manager Jim Fales. "Our team takes data protection very seriously, and we know our clients do, too."

The company recently passed a 6-month-long audit conducted by third-party auditors, which showed that AutoAlert was eligible to take on the SOC 2 Type 2 designation.

“The Type 2 report came back from auditor Hancock Askew this week as passing with ‘no exceptions,’ meaning that in six months of observing minutia of the company's handling of sensitive information, no issues were found,” the company said.

In addition to the confidentiality associating with the information processed by the systems, the reports allow clients to better understand controls and processes that impact security.