Vendor Security Questionnaires
Answering Security Questionnaires sent to your Company as part of vendor risk assessment
What is a vendor security questionnaire?
A vendor questionnaire is a series of questions used to help with evaluating or assessing overall risk. Questionnaires are a central part of due diligence and ongoing monitoring. Your questionnaires will inform your risk assessments.
Why are vendor security questionnaires important?
Security questionnaires are an important element of organizations’ third-party risk management (TPRM) programs because it helps them perform vendor due diligence. When an organization provides third-party access to its sensitive data, it adopts all cybersecurity risks associated with that vendor. As such, if a third party suffers a data breach or other security incident, the client organization’s sensitive data is also at risk of compromise. The repercussions for exposing private data, such as customers’ personally identifiable information (PII) can result in regulatory action, financial action, litigation, and reputational damage.
What are some added benefits of vendor security questionnaires?
Security questionnaires not only ensure service providers are following appropriate information security practices, but also help vendors enhance their incident response plans by addressing security gaps in their current cybersecurity programs.