As companies increasingly depend on outside service providers for essential operations and processes, ensuring that these partners follow strict security and compliance guidelines is critical. However, selecting the incorrect partner can expose your business to serious financial, legality, regulations, and reputation problems.
Customers, investors, and other stakeholders want ever-stronger environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards in the current atmosphere. Governments demand complete adherence to complex anti-money laundering (AML), sanctions, and know-your-customer (KYC) regulations. This is where the SIG Questionnaire comes in.
The Standardized Information Gathering (SIG) questionnaire was developed to reduce risks with third-party vendors and suppliers. It is a vendor evaluation that links to the specifications of numerous cyber frameworks and policies. As part of a larger Agentic AI-Powered Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) program employed by most organizations, a SIG security evaluation aims to assist in managing operational risks, business resiliency, security policies, cybersecurity risks, and third-party risks. Many procurement and risk management experts today employ the SIG questionnaire before onboarding new trading partners.
In this blog, we will discuss SIG questionnaires—including what they are, their types, benefits, drawbacks, and how you can use one to improve your business’s risk management.
What is a SIG Questionnaire?
The Standardized Information Gathering (SIG) Questionnaire is a security evaluation survey developed by Shared Assessments, a membership organization devoted to streamlining and standardizing the vendor risk assessment procedure across industries.
Their objective is to give businesses the means to control the risks connected to outsourcing more effectively.
You can access the SIG Questionnaire developed by Shared Assessments by being an active member or pay for it separately. The assessment is updated annually to consider new industry requirements and adjustments to the cybersecurity environment.
SIG evaluates nineteen risk domains, including Enterprise Risk Management, Security Policy, Organizational Security, Asset and Information Management, Human Resources Security, Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) Criteria, IT Operations Management, Access Control, Application Security, Cybersecurity Incident Management, Operational Resilience, Compliance and Operational Risk, Endpoint Device Security, Network Security, Privacy, Threat Management, Server Security, and Cloud Hosting Services.
So, what are SIG surveys frequently employed for?
Here are the use cases:
- Vendor Assessment: The SIG Questionnaire is used to assess the risk controls of third-party service providers relevant to every risk domain, as the SIG enables organizations to address all relevant risk domains.
- Security Self-Evaluations: Businesses can examine their internal cybersecurity and risk management procedures using the SIG.
- Standard Baseline for Personalized Surveys: The SIG may also serve as a foundation for customizing internal review procedures for certain organizations based on their unique requirements and security threats.
There are two main versions of SIG Questionnaires, which we will explore in the section below.
SIG Questionnaires: Core Vs. Lite
The SIG Core and SIG Lite are the two variants of the SIG questionnaire that differ according to the required level of assessment. The main differences are their lengths and the breadth of material they cover. Let’s examine each of these in detail below.
SIG Core
Depth and Specifications: The SIG Core is an extensive survey that normally addresses 19 risk categories. It is intended to comprehensively evaluate data security, privacy, cybersecurity, business continuity, and other operational risk domains.
Length: With over 850 questions, the SIG Core is significantly longer than the SIG Lite due to its greater comprehensiveness. It goes into great detail about the vendor’s internal workings and security measures.
Use Cases: Excellent for thorough evaluations, particularly for high-risk suppliers, those managing private information, or vital processes.
SIG Lite
Efficiency and Simplicity: The SIG Lite is a condensed and simplified form of the due diligence questionnaire. It is intended for quicker and higher-level evaluations concentrating on important risk areas.
Length: With around 125 questions, the SIG Lite requires less time and effort to complete for both the vendor answering the questions and the organization conducting the assessment.
Use Cases: This method is ideal for first screenings or evaluations of lower-risk suppliers. It is also employed when time or financial limitations make a complete SIG Core assessment impractical or unnecessary.
Now that you have a basic understanding of SIG questionnaires and their types let’s check out their benefits.
Benefits of Using SIG Questionnaires
Depending on the types of standardized security questionnaire you are using for your third-party risk assessment, i.e., SIG Core or SIG Lite, here are some of the most common benefits of these evaluations:
Advantages of SIG Core Questionnaires
With 855 questions encompassing 19 risk controls, the SIG Core questionnaire is an extensive instrument for evaluating third parties that handle regulated or sensitive data.
This version ensures compliance with numerous regulatory requirements and industry best practices for protecting personal data by thoroughly investigating a third party’s security policies. Moreover, organizations can customize the questions for each vendor to get the precise data they require for a successful third-party risk assessment.
Advantages of SIG Lite Questionnaires
SIG Lite is a condensed form with about 126 questions that offers a high-level summary of internal security measures used by third parties.
This streamlined version is ideal for companies seeking a fast but thorough evaluation of a vendor’s security posture. It is possible to complete the SIG Lite questionnaire more quickly than the Core version, which saves time on due diligence without sacrificing the assessment of a vendor’s security procedures.
The SIG questionnaires further evaluate all vendors under the same standardized criteria, leading to an unbiased assessment. This saves time for both the assessing organizations and the vendors. It also helps implement best practices across several sectors, pushing suppliers to raise their bar to reach an accepted level. Furthermore, these questionnaires are regularly updated based on feedback from cybersecurity experts. As they develop, the SIG can be updated to reflect industry best practices in risk management, cybersecurity, and data protection. This guarantees that businesses are constantly evaluating their vendors against the strictest guidelines.
While the benefits of using SIG questionnaires can be significantly transformative for any business, they also have certain shortcomings. The following section will explain the challenges of implementing SIG questionnaires.
Challenges of Using SIG Questionnaires
Even if the SIG makes it possible for businesses to carry out efficient, relevant, and focused assessments, only some companies will succeed with it.
Here are some potential disadvantages you must consider:
Cost: Businesses need a paid annual subscription to access SIG surveys; the corporate license presently costs $6,000.
This pricing package includes everything you need to implement SIG questionnaires for your business, including a SIG Manager, SIG User Procedure Guide, SIG Implementation Workbook, SIG Documentation Artefacts Request List, and SIG Fundamentals Training.
Slower Reaction Times: The SIG, particularly the SIG Core, can be lengthy and complex due to its complete nature. This can be too much for suppliers, especially smaller ones with fewer resources, resulting in missing or delayed information.
Resource-Intensive: Both the company sending out the questionnaire and the suppliers answering it may find the SIG questionnaire process resource-intensive. Vendors must devote considerable time and effort to providing comprehensive information regarding their data security procedures, which can frequently divert the team’s attention from other tasks.
Analyzing, contrasting, and following up on several completed questionnaires might take a similar amount of time for evaluating organizations.
Possibility of Checkbox Security: Instead of using the SIG to support information security and strategic risk management procedures, some organizations may use it simply as a compliance checklist. This may result in a box-checking strategy where completing the questionnaire’s requirements precedes strengthening security postures.
Lastly, we will discuss implementing the SIG questionnaire to evaluate your organization’s data security measures.
How To Implement the SIG Questionnaires?
Here is a step-by-step guide for using the SIG questionnaire to enhance your organization’s Agentic AI-Powered Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) program.
Determine Scope: Based on the services the vendor provides and the possible risks they may provide, determine which sections of the SIG are relevant to the vendor being evaluated.
Customize the Questionnaire: This entails choosing relevant modules or sections of the survey and including questions unique to a company or industry.
Distribute To Vendors: Send the customized SIG questionnaires to the vendors you are evaluating. Along with the questionnaire, you may also include a cover letter explaining the goal of the assessment and sharing guidelines and completion dates.
Review the Completed Questionnaire: Once the vendor completes the questionnaire, answer all of the questions regarding their policies, processes, and controls for security and compliance in detail, and examine and evaluate the responses to determine whether the vendor’s procedures and controls are sufficient.
To find potential risks, create a team of professionals in risk management, cybersecurity, and compliance and seek their judgment and feedback.
Follow-up: This could entail requesting further proof or specific examples. Contact the vendor again if replies are ambiguous or lacking or if more details are required.
Decide the Vendor’s Efficacy: Determine whether the vendor satisfies the organization’s compliance and risk tolerance needs in this step. Assess the necessity of any risk mitigation techniques, such as extra controls, contractual clauses, or continuing observation. Write a report on the evaluation’s conclusions for future use and audit trails.
Based on the assessment, decide whether to engage the vendor, require specific risk mitigation measures, carry out more assessments, or move on with the vendor relationship.
Monitor Regularly: This last stage involves keeping an eye on the vendor’s risk profile and compliance at all times, even if they passed your evaluation with flying colors. The SIG questionnaire may be reissued on a regular basis or in the event that the vendor’s offerings or the regulatory landscape significantly alter.
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