What is the SIG questionnaire?
Photo: Unsplash
The SIG (Standardized Information Gathering) questionnaire is a widely used vendor assessment library maintained by shared assessments community practices. Enterprise buyers send SIG to evaluate security, privacy, and resilience consistently.
GIF via GIPHY
Related guides:
- Trust collection
- Best trust center software in 2026
- How a trust center turns compliance into advantage
- Build a high-conversion trust center in 5 steps
Key takeaways
- SIG reduces bespoke question sprawl.
- Comes in core and full depth variants.
- Answers should map to evidence artifacts.
- Maintain a golden response set with version control.
- Reuse across customers with tailored supplements.
What SIG covers
Domains include enterprise risk, security policy, access control, application security, BCP, privacy, and cloud.
Depth scales with SIG Lite vs Core vs Full profiles.
Document decisions in your GRC or TPRM system of record so audits replay the same narrative months later—not reconstructed from email.
When residual risk exceeds appetite, capture risk acceptance with approver, expiry date, and compensating controls rather than informal verbal sign-off.
Who uses SIG
Financial services, healthcare, and large SaaS buyers often require SIG or accept it in lieu of custom spreadsheets.
Document decisions in your GRC or TPRM system of record so audits replay the same narrative months later—not reconstructed from email.
When residual risk exceeds appetite, capture risk acceptance with approver, expiry date, and compensating controls rather than informal verbal sign-off.
How vendors should respond
Assign owners per domain; link each answer to policies, SOC sections, or tickets.
Flag not-applicable with justification—auditors dislike empty cells without context.
Document decisions in your GRC or TPRM system of record so audits replay the same narrative months later—not reconstructed from email.
When residual risk exceeds appetite, capture risk acceptance with approver, expiry date, and compensating controls rather than informal verbal sign-off.
Quality controls
Legal and engineering review high-risk answers; schedule quarterly refresh when controls change.
Document decisions in your GRC or TPRM system of record so audits replay the same narrative months later—not reconstructed from email.
When residual risk exceeds appetite, capture risk acceptance with approver, expiry date, and compensating controls rather than informal verbal sign-off.
Tooling
GRC and trust platforms store SIG mappings to controls and automate evidence attachments.
Document decisions in your GRC or TPRM system of record so audits replay the same narrative months later—not reconstructed from email.
When residual risk exceeds appetite, capture risk acceptance with approver, expiry date, and compensating controls rather than informal verbal sign-off.
Common mistakes to avoid
Treating questionnaires as the program—without inventory, tiering, monitoring, and exit discipline—creates audit findings even when PDFs are polished.
Letting business teams provision production access before security approval reverses your control story and forces painful revocations.
Ignoring fourth parties (subprocessors) until a customer asks creates emergency contract amendments and delays deals.
- Stale SOC reports kept as “current” after scope changes
- Unowned vendors discovered only during incidents
- Risk acceptances without expiry or executive approval
- Duplicate inventories across procurement, finance, and security
Getting started this quarter
Programs fail when they aim for perfection before visibility. Start with an authoritative vendor inventory tied to business owners, then layer tiering and evidence requirements.
Automate reminders for expiring SOC reports, pen tests, and questionnaires before enterprise customers or auditors discover gaps first.
Review open high-risk findings weekly for critical tiers; monthly for the broader population. Escalate patterns—repeat findings, overdue remediations, concentration in one provider—to leadership with clear asks.
- SIG reduces bespoke question sprawl.
- Comes in core and full depth variants.
- Answers should map to evidence artifacts.
- Maintain a golden response set with version control.
- Reuse across customers with tailored supplements.
Prove trust continuously with SecureSlate
SecureSlate combines compliance evidence, trust centers, and vendor assurance so security reviews move from weeks of email to self-serve proof—with controls that stay current.
FAQ
SIG vs CAIQ?
SIG is broad enterprise risk; CAIQ focuses on cloud control matrix alignment—many vendors maintain both.
How long does a mature Trust program take to build?
Many organizations reach defensible operations in two to three quarters: inventory and critical vendor coverage first, then automation and continuous monitoring. Maturity continues to deepen with each audit and customer review cycle.
How does SecureSlate support this workflow?
SecureSlate connects controls, policies, evidence collection, and vendor workflows on one platform—so assessments, remediation, and customer-facing trust artifacts stay aligned instead of living in disconnected spreadsheets.
Disclaimer (legal note)
SecureSlate is not a law firm, and this article does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship. Regulatory and contractual obligations depend on your entity type, data flows, and jurisdictions—confirm requirements with qualified counsel and your customers as applicable.
Need compliance without the complexity?
SecureSlate automates ISO 27001, SOC 2, GDPR, HIPAA, and more. Built for growing teams. See it in action.
No credit card required
