What is a security questionnaire?
A security questionnaire is a set of questions an organization sends a vendor to assess its security practices. Common standards include SIG and CAIQ. Here is how to answer them efficiently.
A security questionnaire is a structured set of questions an organization sends to a vendor, or a prospective vendor, to assess its security and privacy practices before and during a relationship. Common standardized versions include the Shared Assessments SIG and the Cloud Security Alliance CAIQ, but many companies send their own. Answers are usually supported by evidence such as a SOC 2 report or policies.
- You are trying to get a straight answer before you sit through a sales call
- You need language you can take to a CISO, auditor, or procurement
Common questionnaires
| Questionnaire | From | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| SIG and SIG Lite | Shared Assessments | Broad third-party risk coverage; Lite is shorter |
| CAIQ | Cloud Security Alliance | Aligned to the Cloud Controls Matrix, for cloud providers |
| Custom | Individual customers | Often a spreadsheet mixing standard and specific questions |
Answering efficiently
Most questions repeat across customers. Keeping a library of confirmed answers, each tied to evidence and dated, lets teams reuse them with confidence and focus on genuinely new questions.
When this becomes a buying decision
If inbound questionnaires are a sales problem, you need an answer library tied to evidence, not a faster copy-paste. The test is freshness dates and no invented answers.
If that is the situation you are in, see the product pages linked below, or ask us for a 30-minute demo on one real document.
Questions
What is the difference between SIG and CAIQ?
SIG, from Shared Assessments, covers third-party risk broadly; CAIQ, from the Cloud Security Alliance, focuses on cloud security and maps to the Cloud Controls Matrix.
Related
Answer customer security questionnaires from your own evidence.
→Use casesAnswering customer questionnairesAnswer SIG, CAIQ, and custom questionnaires from your evidence.
→Use casesVendor risk assessmentsTier, assess, and check vendors without drowning in questionnaires.
→See it run on your own data.
Thirty minutes with a GRC expert, not an SDR. Bring one real document (a SOC 2 report, a risk register, a vendor list; redacted is fine) and watch TruOps set up a live program from it, with an assessment already pre-filled.