Vendor Security Assessment Questionnaire

Meeting security requirements to grow your business

Maintaining cybersecurity and regulatory compliance for data privacy is of the utmost importance for businesses in almost every field—but doing it effectively is a moving target. Hackers are continually seeking new ways to gain unauthorized access to your systems, so the external threats you need to guard against are constantly evolving. On top of that, every new application, cloud platform, or software update can potentially introduce new vulnerabilities into your network.

A comprehensive cybersecurity strategy doesn’t just put safeguards in place and hope they’ll do the trick, although that is a critical component of protecting your business and the technology that keeps it running. To be truly effective, businesses should proactively search for gaps in their security and remediate them before cybercriminals can exploit those weaknesses. The best way to do this is to conduct a penetration test.

What on earth is a Vendor Security Questionnaire

Acme Corporation received a vendor security questionnaire. They had no idea what this questionnaire meant. It consisted of many questions, some of which were hard to understand. Some were more easily understood, but they were not sure how to answer those questions.  Now, why would they want to these questions in the first place? The questionnaire came from a prospect, a potential client. The client wanted to confirm if the company they want to sign the deal with has the necessary security controls.  Acme Corporation reached out to us for help.

Running a GAP Analysis first

We approached the solution through a two-pronged approach.   First, we conducted a gap analysis and provided Acme with a risk report of what they were missing in their security posture.  Next, we helped them address some of the low-hanging fruits in the risk report. These were some of the essential security controls the company didn’t have in place. For example, two-factor authentication, security monitoring, and alerting, vulnerability scans.  We’re progressing in two parallel paths, one was to help implement the solutions quickly and efficiently, and the second was to answer the security questions with a more confident posture now that we’ve ensured that we have some of the critical controls in place.

Being Transparent with the Client

Acme was very transparent with the client regarding their security posture. They spoke honestly, we understand there are still a few gaps, but here’s our plan, and here are timelines to implement these missing controls within the next few weeks. The client was satisfied with their honesty. They understood that Acme has most of the basic controls. And that there were some additional training policies and procedures that would be addressed within the next few weeks. Acme is working on it and will provide an update as soon as it is done.  Both parties were happy, and the agreement was signed.  For Careful Security, it was yet another successful client delivery. Our goal is to always accomplish the highest value for our clients and we’re happy that we’ve been able to help Acme reach their goal.   

Other Use Cases

While Acme was able to leverage Careful Security to quickly beef up their security controls, other organizations have been able to use a similar audit and implementation approach for some of the other use cases listed below

Deliverable

  • Investigation of the existing process and technical infrastructure
  • Authentication Analysis
  • Security Monitoring and Alerting
  • Vulnerability management
  • Policies and procedures review
  • Written GAP analysis report
  • Completed Vendor Security Questionnaire
  • Guide for adopting CIS 18 controls