Vendor Security Questionnaire Template: A Practical TPRM Guide

A vendor security questionnaire is one of the most familiar tools in third party risk management. It is also one of the easiest tools to misuse. A long list of questions does not create a strong assessment by itself. The questionnaire becomes useful when it is matched to the vendor’s service, supported by evidence, reviewed by the right people, and connected to an approval or remediation decision.

This guide explains what a practical vendor security questionnaire should contain, how to use it in a manual TPRM process, and what evidence to request from a vendor. You can download the original LearnTPRM Excel workbook at the end of the guide.

What is a vendor security questionnaire?

A vendor security questionnaire is a structured set of questions that a buyer sends to a supplier to understand how the supplier protects information, systems, people, and services. It usually covers governance, data protection, access control, vulnerability management, incident response, business continuity, subcontractors, privacy, contracts, and assurance.

The questionnaire is one part of a wider review. It does not replace risk tiering, evidence review, contract analysis, technical validation, or ongoing monitoring.

When should you use one?

Before onboarding

Use the questionnaire before a new vendor receives sensitive data, privileged access, or responsibility for an important business process. The answers help the organization decide whether the relationship can proceed and what conditions belong in the contract.

During renewal

A renewal review should not assume that last year’s answers are still current. Ask about changes to the service, hosting model, subprocessors, security program, incidents, certifications, and recovery capability.

After a material change

Trigger a focused reassessment when the vendor changes data locations, adds a new subprocessor, introduces a new integration, suffers a security incident, changes ownership, or becomes important to a critical process.

What should the questionnaire cover?

• Governance: security ownership, policy approval, risk tracking, and exception handling.
• Data and privacy: data flows, processing locations, retention, deletion, privacy requests, and subprocessors.
• Access control: unique accounts, multi factor authentication, privileged access, access reviews, and credential rotation.
• Security operations: vulnerability management, patching, endpoint protection, logging, and monitoring.
• Application security: secure development, code review, dependency management, release testing, and penetration testing.
• Incident response: response plans, exercises, escalation, evidence preservation, and customer notification.
• Resilience: recovery objectives, backups, restoration testing, alternate operations, and dependencies.
• Assurance and contracts: independent reports, audit scope, security clauses, subcontractor notice, and exit duties.

How to choose the right review depth

Do not send the same form to every vendor. Start with inherent risk signals such as sensitive data, privileged access, criticality, internet exposure, data volume, subcontractors, and cross border processing.

A light review may be enough for a low impact supplier. A standard review can cover ordinary software and service vendors. An enhanced review should add deeper evidence and validation for vendors with sensitive data or important integrations. A critical review may require independent assurance, resilience testing, contract negotiation, executive approval, and ongoing monitoring.

How to score responses

Keep scoring simple enough that another analyst can understand it. In the LearnTPRM workbook, an implemented control receives a zero gap score, a partial control receives one, a not implemented control receives two, and evidence pending receives one until the reviewer can verify the answer.

Use weights for questions that matter more to the service. Multi factor authentication, privileged access, data deletion, incident notification, recovery testing, and contract obligations may deserve higher weights. Treat the score as a decision aid rather than an automatic approval rule.

What evidence should you request?

• Current SOC 2 report, ISO 27001 certificate, or equivalent assurance
• Security and privacy policy index
• Data flow, processing, and retention description
• Subprocessor list and change notification process
• Penetration test executive summary
• Vulnerability management policy and remediation targets
• Incident response plan summary and recent exercise evidence
• Business continuity, recovery, and backup test evidence
• Access review or privileged access control evidence
• Contract security addendum and exit requirements

Common mistakes

Sending the same form to every vendor

Risk tiering should determine review depth. A low risk office supplier and a critical cloud provider should not receive exactly the same assessment.

Counting a yes answer as proof

A yes answer is a starting point. Ask what evidence supports it, whether the evidence covers your service, and whether it is recent enough to rely on.

Ignoring unanswered questions

Mark unanswered items as evidence pending, request clarification, and record the consequence if the issue remains unresolved.

Separating findings from approval

Every material gap should lead to a clear outcome: remediation, compensating control, restricted use, formal risk acceptance, or no approval.

What is included in the LearnTPRM workbook?

The workbook includes a vendor profile, risk triage, 42 original control questions, evidence register, findings and remediation tracker, executive summary, and framework crosswalk. The scoring formulas update as responses are entered, and dropdowns keep common status values consistent.

Use it as a starting point. Remove questions that do not apply, add service specific questions, and align the thresholds to your organization’s risk appetite.

Download the vendor security questionnaire template

The workbook is an original LearnTPRM template. It is not an official SIG, CAIQ, HECVAT, PCI DSS, or regulatory questionnaire. If you need an official third party questionnaire, obtain it from the relevant owner and check its terms before sharing or modifying it.

Practical checklist

1. Capture the vendor, service, owner, data, access, and criticality details.
2. Assign the inherent risk tier before sending the full questionnaire.
3. Ask questions that match the vendor’s actual service exposure.
4. Request evidence that covers the service and is current.
5. Weight high impact controls more heavily than low impact controls.
6. Record missing evidence and material gaps as findings.
7. Connect findings to remediation, restrictions, acceptance, or rejection.
8. Retain the completed file with the vendor record and refresh it when the relationship changes.

FAQ

Is a vendor security questionnaire mandatory?

There is no single universal questionnaire that every organization must use. Selection depends on vendor risk, service, data, access, contract terms, and applicable requirements.

How many questions should a vendor security questionnaire have?

There is no correct number. The questionnaire should be proportionate to the vendor’s risk and produce useful evidence for a defensible decision.

Can a SOC 2 report replace the questionnaire?

A SOC 2 report may answer some control questions, but it may not cover your specific service, privacy, data location, subprocessor, contract, or exit requirements.

Who should review the answers?

Reviewers should match the risk. TPRM or security may review core controls, privacy may review personal data, legal may review contract terms, and the business owner should support the final decision.

Sources

• OCC Bulletin 2023-17: Interagency Guidance on Third-Party Relationships
• Interagency Guidance on Third-Party Relationships: Risk Management
• FDIC Third-Party Risk Management Guide for Community Banks
• NIST SP 800-161 Rev. 1: Cybersecurity Supply Chain Risk Management
• Shared Assessments: What is the SIG?