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IT Security Assessment Questionnaire for Outsourcing – free template

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Do you want to ensure that a potential software development partner meets required security standards? You’ve come to the right place.

What is a Security Assessment Questionnaire for IT Outsourcing?

A Security Assessment Questionnaire for IT Outsourcing (also known as a risk assessment questionnaire or information security questionnaire) is a set of questions to help you evaluate potential suppliers of technology services from the information security standpoint.

Such information security assessment helps you manage third party risk by identifying vulnerabilities of potential IT outsourcing providers which could create a risk of data leakage or breach for your own organisation.

What questions should a Security Assessment Questionnaire include?

A Security Assessment Questionnaire dedicated to such services as outsourced software development should cover questions in a number of topics. The Security Assessment template we prepared for you, investigates the following areas:

  • Accreditation
  • GDPR
  • Information Security
  • Security controls
  • Data Governance
  • Physical Security
  • Security Audits
  • Security Incident management
  • Risk management

Depending on the specifics of your sector or organisations, these areas may of course be broader.

Creating an Information Security Assessment from scratch usually takes a while, so you’re welcome to use the ready-made security questionnaire template we created.

7 reasons to use our Security Assessment Questionnaire:

  1. It will help you manage third-party risk
  2. It will support your due diligence processes
  3. It was made with software development outsourcing in mind
  4. It covers 9 areas and 55 questions worth asking your potential partners
  5. It is a Word document. You can edit it, you can delete bits, you can do anything you want with it!
  6. It will save you time and paperwork.
  7. It’s ready to be downloaded and used for your own purposes!

Here’s a little snapshot of what you can expect:

Security Incident Management
42 How are potential information security incidents or breaches managed? ….
43 Have you had any cyberattacks, or information security issues or breaches in the past <X> months? If yes, please explain what happened and how it was dealt with? ….
44 Have you previously worked live in a recovery environment? ….
45 Do you have controls that minimise the risk of staff shortages (e.g. due to lack of skills, sickness, strike) in place? ….
46 Do you have communication procedures for notifying your clients of significant power outages in place? ….

So, download it, complete it and send it to your shortlist of tech partners.

Security Assessment Questionnaire as part of a Due Diligence process

In the context of outsourcing relationships, due diligence is a process helping organisations learn more about the other party to ensure adequate standards have been met thus reducing business risk. When conducted by a buyer on a supplier, its aim is to give confidence to the investor in their choice of an outsourcing partner.

A tool which is often used for this purpose is a Due Diligence Questionnaire (DDQ) and a Security Assessment should form a part of the due diligence process. Apart from questions concerning information security, a due diligence questionnaire should cover additional areas. These include the following:

  • Basic company information (contact details, company registration number, tax number, etc.)
  • Financial information (financial statements for the last few years)
  • Insurance information (details of what’s covered in the supplier’s insurance policy)
  • Risk Management (plans and procedures in place for the times of crisis)
  • Human Resources (employee recruitment, onboarding and training, etc.)
  • Suppliers (areas concerning third party contractors and suppliers)
  • CSR issues (environmental, charitable and equal opportunities issues, etc.)

Security Assessment Questionnaire or a Due Diligence Questionnaire?

Security Assessment questionnaire is a great tool to help you assess potential partners from the information security standpoint reducing the risk of data leak or breach for your organisation. However, if you are thinking of a broader check including other areas (finance, insurance, HR, CSR, etc.), then a Due Diligence Questionnaire (DDQ) will be worth doing. Check out this Due Diligence Questionnaire for software development.

Managing third-party risk – other useful resources

Whether you’re a Procurement or Technology Professional, browsing, shortlisting and comparing offers from technology providers is not an easy or quick task.

Which is why you may like these tools:

Are you looking for a software development partner? Browse our offer or speak to us directly.