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  • Products
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    • Security Ratings
      Identify security strengths across ten risk factors.
    • Security Data
      Get actionable, data-based insights.
    • Security Assessments
      Automate security questionnaire exchange.
    • Attack Surface Intelligence
      NEW
      On-demand contextualized global threat intelligence.
    • Automatic Vendor Detection
      Uncover your third and fourth party vendors.
    • Cyber Risk Quantification
      Translate cyber risk into financial impact.
    • Reporting Center
      Streamline cyber risk reporting.
    • SecurityScorecard Marketplace
      Discover and deploy pre-built integrations.
    SERVICES
    • Active Security Services
      Test your security controls.
    • Cyber Risk Intelligence
      Partner to obtain meaningful threat intelligence.
    • Digital Forensics & Incident Response
      Prepare to respond to any threat.
    • Third-Party Risk Management
      Reduce risk across your vendor ecosystem.
    BUY NOW
    • Compare All Plans
      Choose a plan that's right for your business.
    • Try Free Account
      Make informed decisions with confidence.
    • Buy Pro Now
      Add automated event responses.
    • Buy Business Now
      Expand on Pro with vendor management and integrations.
    • Request Enterprise Demo
      See the capabilities of an enterprise plan in action.
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A Vendor Risk Management Questionnaire Template

Private: Michelle Wu
05/04/2020

Vendor risk management becomes more important every year. Increasingly, enterprise IT incorporates a complex, interconnected system of cloud-based storage and application resources. Leveraging the cloud’s speed and volume to reduce operational overhead increases compliance risk in equal measure. As companies add more vendors to their IT ecosystem, they need to ensure that they verify vendors’ security controls. Most organizations take a three-pronged approach to security. After identifying risks, they incorporate technology and processes to help people protect data security. Although “knowing is half the battle,” knowing the right questions to ask is the other half which is why we’re offering a vendor risk management questionnaire template to help you.



What is a vendor risk management questionnaire?

A vendor risk management questionnaire is a tool that helps your organization spot potential threats and weaknesses within your vendor landscape. This includes both third-party vendors as well as hidden fourth-party vendors that your third-party vendors communicate with. In some cases, organizations might not even be aware of these fourth-party vendors or the risks that they present.

Why is a vendor risk management questionnaire important?

Working with third-party vendors can bring various forms of risk into your organization, including information security risk, compliance risk, reputational risk, and more. If your company is not aware of these risks, your vendor’s risks and vulnerabilities can become your own. A vendor risk management questionnaire helps you manage these risks by highlighting threats associated with your third- and fourth-party vendors and determining the level of risk each individual vendor poses. Without monitoring for threats with a vendor risk management questionnaire, your organization could be at a greater risk of data breaches or other forms of cyberattacks.

How to conduct a vendor risk management questionnaire?

Most organizations take a three-pronged approach to security. After identifying risks, they incorporate technology and processes to help people protect data security. Although “knowing is half the battle,” knowing the right questions to ask is the other half which is why we’re offering a vendor risk management questionnaire template to help you.

Step 1: Identify the cybersecurity risks

The first step to creating an actionable questionnaire is identifying risks so that you can analyze them. In many ways, this identification process is similar to the one you do for yourself. At the core, you want to ensure that your vendors are applying the right controls to nonpublic personally identifiable information (PII) to protect the information that you share with them.

Risk Type

Question

Yes/No/Other

Comment

Data

Do you collect, store, or transmit personally identifiable information (PII)?

Data

Do you limit your PII collection and storage?

Location

Do you store PII in an on-premises location?

Location

Do you store PII in a cloud location?

Location

What geographic locations do you use when storing PII?

People

How do you provide users access to PII?

People

Can users access PII remotely?

Devices

What types of devices do your users collect, store, or transmit PII from?

Devices

Do you monitor all devices connected to systems, software, and networks?

Compliance

Do you need to comply with any governmental regulations? (Please list regulations in comments)

Compliance

Do you have any industry standards certifications? (Please list certifications in the comments section)

Step 2: Identify key technical controls

Your organization determines its own risk tolerance. In other words, your organization knows the risks that you are willing to accept, reject, transfer, or mitigate. As part of creating a vendor risk management questionnaire, you need to ensure that your third-party business partners have a risk tolerance that aligns with yours.

Control Type

Question

Yes/No/Other

Comment

Network Security

Do you use a firewall?

Network Security

Do you use a VPN?

Network Security

Do you encrypt data-at-rest and in-transit? (Describe encryption level in comments)

Network Security

Do you use TLS and SSH certificates to ensure data exchanges are secure?

Endpoint Security

Do you install antimalware and antiransomware on all devices?

DNS

Do you monitor for DDoS attacks?

DNS

Do you protect against spoofing of email servers?

Patching Cadence

Do you install security patches for systems, networks, and software? (Explain timeline in comments)

Patching Cadence

Do you retire “end of life” products? (Explain process in comments)

IP

Do you install antimalware and antivirus on all devices connected to your networks?

Application Security

Do you secure web applications from SQL injection and cross-site scripting attacks? (Explain further in comments)

Identify key process controls

A mature organization establishes both written policies and a series of processes for maintaining a secure IT environment.

Control Type

Question

Yes/No/Other

Comment

Monitoring

Do you continuously monitor your controls to prevent cyber attacks? (Describe in comments)

Vendor Risk Management

Do you have a vendor risk management program?

Vendor Risk Management

Do you have clauses in your service level agreements about vendor cyber security? (List relevant clauses in comments)

Vendor Risk Management

Do you monitor your vendors’ cybersecurity? (Explain process in comments)

Incident Response

Do you have an incident response team?

Incident Response

Have you tested your incident response processes?

Business Continuity

Do you have a business continuity plan? (Explain further in comments)

Business Continuity

Do you incorporate DDoS and other cyber attacks as part of your business continuity plan?

Remediation

Do you have a process to remediate new risks? (Explain further in comments)

Audit

Have you had an IT audit in the last 12 months? (List any findings in comments)

Penetration Testing

Have you had a penetration test in the last 12 months? (List any findings in comments)

Step 3: Identify key “people” controls

The final part of a vendor risk assessment questionnaire should identify employees in charge of certain controls across the company.

Control Type

Question

Yes/No/Other

Comment

Password

Do you have a password policy? (List password requirements in comments)

Authentication

Do you require multi-factor authentication?

Access

Do you limit access according to the principle of least privilege?

Training

Do you require workforce members to take a phishing training annually? (Provide documentation of completion)

Training

Do you require annual workforce security training? (Provide documentation of completion)

Download the template

SecurityScorecard for vendor risk management (VRM)

Requesting information from vendors and providing questionnaires acts as the first step to a mature vendor risk management program. Our security ratings platform enables organizations to continuously monitor their vendor ecosystem across ten risk factors, including IP reputation, network security, DNS health, web application security, endpoint security, hacker chatter, leaked credentials, and patching cadence.

In addition, SecurityScorecard’s Security Assessments, makes the entire questionnaire management process easier and more efficient. Atlas – our security assessments – aligns questionnaire responses with SecurityScorecard Ratings, providing an instant 360° view of cybersecurity risk and automatic validation of responses, enabling companies to objectively pinpoint risk.


Vendor Risk Management FAQs

What is a vendor risk questionnaire?

A vendor risk questionnaire is a tool that helps organizations spot potential threats and weaknesses that come from working with third- and fourth-party vendors.

What to include in a vendor risk questionnaire?

Alongside an assessment of risk, you’ll want to ensure that your vendor risk questionnaire includes questions that cover your entire threat landscape. Your vendor risk questionnaire should include questions that correspond with the following key topics:

  • Information security

  • Physical security

  • Control security

  • IT environment security

  • Data privacy

  • Compliance management

What is the importance of a vendor risk management questionnaire?

Working with vendors is inherently risky, and is a leading cause of many data breaches. Without monitoring for such threats, you leave your organization open to data breaches or other forms of cyberattack that could cost millions.

What are the challenges of vendor risk management questionnaires?

Cybersecurity is an ever-evolving platform. Technology can change as quickly as a year, and policies can be updated or discarded. A vendor risk management questionnaire provides only a brief overview of your vendors at a specific point in time. For what it’s worth, these questionnaires can also be labor-intensive to implement within your organization as well as ensure that your organization is informed on vendor risk.


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