The Salesperson’s Guide to IT Security Questionnaires

Introduction

In today's digital age, security is more important than ever. Organizations are increasingly reliant on third-party vendors to store and process sensitive data. As a result, they need to be able to trust that their vendors are taking security seriously. Consequently, buying organizations increasingly leverage IT security questionnaires, making them critical parts of their vendor evaluation and/or onboarding process. They help these organizations assess the security posture of their third-party vendors and ensure that they are meeting the required standards.

For salespeople, IT security questionnaires can be a source of both opportunity and challenge. On the one hand, they can provide a way to demonstrate your company's commitment to security and compliance. On the other hand, they can be time-consuming and complex to answer, particularly for salespeople who generally don’t have extensive training in IT security. Don’t worry, we’re here to help!

This guide will help you understand the importance of IT security questionnaires and how to answer them effectively. We also discuss the benefits of using a tool to help you answer IT security questionnaires.

The Important of IT Security Questionnaires

IT Security Questionnaires are an important tool for assessing the security posture of IT systems, whether they are hosted or premise-based. The Information Technology Security Questionnaire (ITSQ) has been in use for several years and helps organizations evaluate the security of their systems. While often standalone documents, they are sometimes included as part of the RFP process, making vendor answers to the ITSQ binding¹.

With the increasing reliance on third-party vendors to fulfill critical business functions, it is essential to ensure that these vendors have adequate data protection safeguards in place. Security assessment questionnaires help businesses ask the right questions to vet potential partners and make better third-party hiring decisions. And don't think that your SOC 2 certification is going to get you off the hook; distributing security questionnaires to vendor partners remains a cybersecurity best practice across most industries today.

Security questionnaires are lists of often complex and technical questions, usually compiled by IT teams, to determine a company’s security and compliance posture. The layout, format, and questions may differ between organizations, but the goal is always the same: all security questionnaires are designed to determine if a third party can be trusted to adequately protect sensitive information. By taking the time to understand the risks each potential vendor poses and only working with those that have responsible security safeguards in place, organizations can avoid unfortunate outcomes and better protect their data.

Different Types of IT Security Questionnaires

There are several types of IT security questionnaires that are used to assess the security posture of IT systems. One of the most common is the Standardized Information Gathering (SIG) questionnaire, which evaluates vendors based on 18 individual risk controls, which together determine how security risks are managed across the vendor’s environment. For vendors who have less inherent risk, who don’t require the entire SIG assessment, SIG LITE can be valuable.

Other types of IT security questionnaires include those that focus on specific areas of security, such as penetration testing, web application security, internal privacy policies, IT infrastructure security, physical security, incident response, and access control. These questionnaires are designed to assess a company’s security and compliance posture in specific areas.

Unfortunately, there isn't uniformity across security questionnaires. IT Security Teams tend to build questionnaires that reflect their own standards and practices and contemplate their specific risks. The questions asked in these questionnaires vary depending on the type of questionnaire and the focus of the assessment. However, they typically cover topics such as security audits and penetration testing, internal security practices and policies, incident response and disaster recovery plans, and past security incidents. By asking these questions, organizations can gain a better understanding of the risks posed by potential vendors and make more informed decisions about which vendors to work with.

How to Answer IT Security Questionnaires

When answering IT security questionnaires, it is important to be accurate and compliant in your responses. Here are some tips on how to answer IT security questionnaires effectively:

• Be honest and transparent: It is important to provide accurate and truthful information when answering security questionnaires. If there are areas where your organization falls short, it is better to be upfront about them rather than trying to hide or misrepresent the facts.
• Provide detailed and specific information: When answering questions, provide as much detail as possible. This will help the organization evaluating your responses to better understand your security posture and make more informed decisions.
• Be organized: Make sure that your responses are well-organized and easy to follow. Use headings, subheadings, and bullet points to break up the text and make it easier to read.
• Be compliant: Ensure that your responses are compliant with relevant regulations and industry standards. This will demonstrate that your organization takes security seriously and is committed to protecting sensitive information.
• Provide supporting documentation: If possible, provide supporting documentation such as policies, procedures, and audit reports to back up your responses. This will help to demonstrate that your organization has implemented the necessary controls to protect sensitive information.

By following these tips, you can effectively answer IT security questionnaires and demonstrate that your organization takes security seriously. Bear in mind that for vendors that take IT security seriously, these questionnaires rarely result in losing business. Rather, if the team doing the assessment is unsatisfied with some of the responses, there is generally an opportunity to discuss the implications and opportunities to remediate the issues.

Common IT Questionnaire Questions

Even though most organizations build their own questionnaires, many will work off existing templates. As a consequence, while the format and structure of one IT Security Questionnaire may be different than another, there is usually a lot of common ground in terms of subject matter and even specific questions.

While the following certainly falls far short of being an IT Security Questionnaire template, it should give you a sense of the type of sections and questions you'll come across.

1. Governance and Risk Management:
   • Who is responsible for cybersecurity within the organization?
   • Is there a chief information security officer (CISO)?
   • Is there a cross-organizational committee that meets regularly on cybersecurity issues?
   • How do you conduct vulnerability analyses?
2. Identity and Access Management:
   • How do you manage user access to systems and data?
   • How do you ensure that user access is revoked when an employee leaves the company?
   • Do you use multi-factor authentication for accessing sensitive systems and data?
3. IT Infrastructure Security:
   • How do you secure your network infrastructure?
   • Do you have firewalls in place to protect against external threats?
   • How do you monitor your network for security breaches?
   • Do you have a disaster recovery plan in place?

Tools to Make the Job Easier

Using a tool to help you answer IT security questionnaires can provide several benefits. These tools can help streamline the process of answering questionnaires, saving your organization time and money. They can also help improve the accuracy of your responses by providing access to up-to-date information and reusable content.

Many of these tools provide a content management solution that allows you to easily search for and update answers, reducing the time it takes to complete the questionnaire. With the incredible growth of AI-enabled products, some tools now use AI and machine learning to automate responses, making it easier and faster to complete security questionnaires. (Click if you'd like to learn more about how the Vendorful AI Assistant can help you answer IT Security Questionnaires.)

In addition, some tools offer features such as task assignment, progress monitoring, and easy access to supporting documentation. This can help ensure that your responses are well-organized and easy to follow, improving the chances that your organization will be selected as a vendor partner. Since the process of responding to an IT Security Questionnaire is strangely strikingly similar to responding to an RFP, many of the tools on the market apply to both. Check out this blog post to learn more about RFP Response Automation software.

Overall, using a tool to help you answer IT security questionnaires can provide several benefits, including improved accuracy, faster turnaround times, and reduced costs. By taking advantage of these tools, you can effectively demonstrate your organization’s commitment to security and compliance. 

Conclusion

I realize that the subject matter here can be dry. And with good reason; IT security is hugely important! Having said that, this is a guide for salespeople and we don't expect you to be steeped in the same wisdom as your security-obsessed colleagues. Given this context, we'll try to summarize things in a way that is a bit lighter and easier to digest.

IT security questionnaires are like a secret weapon for assessing the security posture of IT systems and ensuring that third-party vendors have their data protection shields up. There are several different types of IT security questionnaires, each with its own superpowers to assess a company’s security and compliance posture in specific areas.

When answering these questionnaires, it’s important to be a superhero of accuracy, transparency, and compliance in your responses. And don’t worry, you don’t have to do it all alone — there are tools available to help streamline the process of answering security questionnaires and improve the accuracy of your responses.

By taking the time to understand the risks posed by potential villains (ahem, vendors) and only working with those that have responsible security safeguards in place, organizations can better protect their data and save the day.