It happens all the time. A client or vendor sends over a security questionnaire and you don’t know where to start. How do you fill this out? What if I make a mistake? What if I can’t answer their questions? These are just a few questions that may come to mind. In today’s world of strict compliance, these security questionnaires are becoming the norm. Being prepared and having answers is critical to ongoing business. Let’s break these down and how to approach them.
A typical security questionnaire is going to cover areas of your business that range from documentation of disaster recovery to physical security mechanisms in your business. On average, these questionnaires can be “hundreds” of questions long! Yes, you read that right and many of these require answers within a few weeks.
Start with the privacy and security documentation that you have written and know that you may need to provide some of this. We recently wrote a blog about the kinds of documentation to have and why is it important. Creating a document and data bank of answers will help you get through these questionnaires faster in the long run.
Understand the “technical” data privacy and security areas of your organization. You may have a department at your company that can help fill out the technical questions. This is great, but make sure you understand the answers in case there is any need for justification.
If this all sounds daunting and you don’t have time for it, let CyberData Pros assist you with these questionnaires. We have over 20 years of filling these out for our clients and we will help you better understand the details. Contact CyberData Pros now to see how we can help your business with this and many other data privacy and security solutions.