When a vendor has access to your systems — your data, your APIs, your customer records — their security posture is your security posture. This isn't theoretical risk management. The 2024 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report found that 15% of breaches involved a third-party component, up 68% from the prior year. The breaches didn't start inside those organizations. They started inside a vendor.

Most businesses — especially those under $50M in revenue — don't have a dedicated security team evaluating every tool and service provider. That's normal. But it doesn't mean vendor security is something you can ignore until you're bigger. The opposite is true: smaller organizations have less capacity to recover from a breach, which makes the supply chain attack surface disproportionately dangerous.

This article breaks down what vendor security posture actually means, what to ask, how to interpret the answers, and what the red flags look like in practice.

What "security posture" actually means

A vendor's security posture is the sum of their policies, practices, and controls for protecting data and systems. It includes how they handle authentication, how they encrypt data at rest and in transit, how they manage access internally, how they respond to incidents, and whether anyone is actually verifying that those practices hold up over time.

The term gets thrown around in sales conversations as if it's binary — either a vendor is "secure" or they aren't. It's not binary. It's a spectrum, and the questions that matter are specific to what that vendor touches in your environment. A marketing analytics tool with read-only access to your website traffic has a different risk profile than a payroll processor with your employees' Social Security numbers and bank accounts.

The first step is knowing what each vendor actually has access to. Most businesses can't answer this question accurately for more than half their vendor relationships. That gap is where risk lives.

Close-up of interlocking chain links on a brushed steel surface, one link slightly misaligned — Your security is only as strong as the weakest vendor with access to your systems.

The questions that actually matter

You don't need a 300-question security assessment to evaluate a vendor. You need honest answers to a handful of specific questions. Here's what to ask and what the answers mean.

Do you hold a SOC 2 Type II report?

SOC 2 Type II means an independent auditor examined the vendor's security controls over a period of time (usually 6-12 months) and verified they were operating effectively. Type I is a point-in-time snapshot. Type II is ongoing evidence. The distinction matters. A vendor who passed a Type I audit last March and hasn't been reviewed since is telling you what their security looked like on a single day over a year ago.

If a vendor has a current SOC 2 Type II, ask to see the report. Specifically, look at the "exceptions" section. Every SOC 2 report has one. Zero exceptions is unusual and worth asking about. Multiple exceptions with documented remediation plans are normal. Multiple exceptions with no remediation timeline is a flag.

If a vendor doesn't have SOC 2 at all, that's not automatically disqualifying — the audit is expensive and many smaller vendors genuinely can't afford it yet. But it means you need to ask the remaining questions more carefully and assess their answers with less independent verification.

How do you handle my data?

This question has several layers. Where is the data stored geographically? Is it encrypted at rest? Is it encrypted in transit? Who inside the vendor's organization can access it, and under what conditions? Is it segregated from other customers' data, or is it commingled in a shared database?

The answer you want is specific. "We use AES-256 encryption at rest, TLS 1.2+ in transit, access is role-based with quarterly access reviews, and customer data is logically segregated per tenant." The answer you don't want is vague. "We take security very seriously and use industry-standard encryption." That sentence means nothing. It's marketing language, not a security posture.

What is your breach notification policy?

When a vendor discovers a breach that affects your data, how quickly will they tell you? Some regulations mandate notification timelines — GDPR requires 72 hours, many U.S. state laws specify 30-60 days — but contractual obligations can be tighter than regulatory minimums.

Ask specifically: what is the notification timeline in your contract? Is the breach notification clause in their standard terms of service, or buried in a separate data processing agreement you haven't signed? If the vendor can't point you to a specific clause with a specific timeline, treat that as a gap.

Who are your subprocessors?

Your vendor probably uses other vendors. Your CRM might use a third-party email delivery service. Your payroll provider might use a separate benefits administration platform. Each of those subprocessors has access to some portion of your data, and their security posture matters too.

Ask for a current list of subprocessors. Any vendor handling sensitive data should maintain one. If they can't produce it, they either don't track their own supply chain or don't want you to see it. Neither answer is reassuring.

Macro photograph of a printed circuit board with branching copper traces radiating outward from a central processor — Every vendor connection is a pathway. Knowing where they lead — and who else is on the path — is the foundation of third-party risk management.

Red flags that don't require technical expertise to spot

You don't need a CISSP to identify warning signs. These are behavioral and organizational signals that correlate with weak security posture:

Resistance to security questions. A vendor who treats your security questions as adversarial or burdensome is telling you something about their internal culture. Companies with mature security programs expect these questions and have prepared answers.
No dedicated security contact. If your security questions get routed to a general sales rep who "will get back to you," the vendor likely doesn't have a security function that's operationally integrated into the business.
Outdated or missing privacy policy. Check the date on their privacy policy. If it references regulations that have been superseded or hasn't been updated in three years, their compliance program may not be active.
No MFA on their own platform. If the vendor's product doesn't support multi-factor authentication — or worse, doesn't enforce it for administrative access — that's a fundamental control gap. This question alone filters out a surprising number of vendors.
Public breach history with no post-incident improvements. Breaches happen. What matters is the response. Search "[vendor name] data breach" and look at what they said publicly. Did they disclose promptly? Did they describe what they changed? Or did they issue a vague statement and move on?

How to assess vendors without a security team

If you don't have a CISO or a dedicated security function, you can still evaluate vendor risk with a structured approach.

Use a simple vendor questionnaire. The Shared Assessments SIG Lite is a standardized questionnaire designed for exactly this purpose. It's shorter than a full SIG assessment, covers the essential domains, and gives you a framework so you're not guessing what to ask. Several free vendor risk assessment templates exist from organizations like NIST and SANS as well.

Check public breach databases. The Have I Been Pwned database and the HHS breach portal (for healthcare-adjacent vendors) are free, public, and searchable. A vendor appearing in these databases isn't automatically disqualified — but it gives you a concrete question to ask: "What changed after this incident?"

Tier your vendors by access level. Not every vendor needs the same level of scrutiny. A vendor with access to your production database needs deep evaluation. A vendor whose SaaS tool stores your marketing calendar does not. Create three tiers based on data sensitivity and access scope. Focus your evaluation energy on the top tier.

Review contracts for security clauses. Look for data processing agreements, breach notification terms, liability limitations related to security incidents, and right-to-audit clauses. If a vendor's contract has no mention of security obligations, that's the biggest red flag of all — it means they haven't been asked often enough for it to become standard in their agreements.

The coordination cost of managing multiple vendors compounds here. Each additional vendor is another security relationship to evaluate, monitor, and maintain. Consolidation isn't just an efficiency play — it's a risk reduction strategy.

Before AI / Now with AI

Before AI, supply chain attacks were labor-intensive. An attacker needed to identify a vulnerable vendor, compromise their systems, understand the vendor's relationship to downstream targets, and then exploit that access — all manually. The SolarWinds attack in 2020 was devastating precisely because it was sophisticated and patient. Attackers spent months inside SolarWinds' build environment before distributing compromised updates to 18,000 organizations.

Now with AI, the economics of supply chain attacks have shifted. Attackers use automated scanning tools — increasingly augmented with machine learning — to identify vulnerable vendors at scale. Instead of manually probing one vendor at a time, automated systems can evaluate thousands of vendors' external attack surfaces simultaneously, identifying unpatched systems, misconfigured services, and exposed credentials.

The ENISA Threat Landscape for Supply Chain Attacks documented this shift: attackers are increasingly targeting the supplier rather than the customer because one successful vendor compromise can yield access to hundreds or thousands of downstream organizations. AI accelerates the reconnaissance phase — the part where attackers decide who to target — which means vulnerable vendors get found faster.

For businesses evaluating their vendor relationships, this means the window between a vendor developing a vulnerability and an attacker discovering it has compressed. Annual security reviews of vendors were already insufficient. In a landscape where automated scanning runs continuously, your vendor evaluation needs to account for how quickly a vendor detects, responds to, and communicates about threats — not just whether their controls looked good during last year's audit.

The SolarWinds lesson for SMBs is this: you don't need to be the target. You just need to be a customer of the target. The attack surface isn't just your own systems. It's every system that has a trusted connection to yours.

Mycelium network spreading across dark forest soil, thin white threads connecting clusters of organic matter — Supply chain attacks follow the same pattern as mycelium — finding every connected node through the path of least resistance.

What to do next

Start with an inventory. List every vendor that has access to your systems, your data, or your customers' data. For each one, note what they can access and whether you've ever evaluated their security posture. Most businesses find that fewer than a third of their vendor relationships have been assessed at all.

Then tier that list by risk. Apply the questions above to your top-tier vendors first. You don't need to do this all in a week. One vendor per week, starting with whoever has the most sensitive access, builds a defensible program over a quarter.

If a vendor can't answer your questions — or won't — that's the most important data point of all. The willingness to be transparent about security practices is itself a signal about how seriously a vendor takes the trust you're extending to them.

Your security posture doesn't stop at your own walls. It extends to every system, every vendor, and every subprocessor that connects to yours. Managing that boundary isn't optional. It's the cost of doing business with other businesses.

Fingerprint scanner with hot pink laser — vendor security assessment by Amelia S. Gagne — Your security is only as strong as your weakest vendor. If they get breached, your data is exposed regardless of how good your internal controls are.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is vendor security posture, and why should I care?

Vendor security posture is the sum of a vendor's policies, practices, and controls for protecting data and systems. It matters because when a vendor has access to your systems, their vulnerabilities become your vulnerabilities. The 2024 Verizon DBIR found that 15% of breaches involved third-party components — up 68% year-over-year. You don't need to be the target to be affected.

Do all my vendors need SOC 2 certification?

No. SOC 2 is expensive, and many smaller vendors haven't completed it. The absence of SOC 2 isn't disqualifying — but it means you need to evaluate their security practices through direct questions rather than relying on an independent audit. Tier your vendors by access level: those handling sensitive data or connecting to production systems should either have SOC 2 Type II or provide very specific, verifiable answers about their security controls.

How often should I review vendor security?

Annual reviews are the minimum. For top-tier vendors — those with access to sensitive data or critical systems — quarterly check-ins on any changes to their security practices, subprocessor lists, or incident history are worth the time. Between reviews, monitor for public breach disclosures and changes to their terms of service or data processing agreements.

What's the difference between SOC 2 Type I and Type II?

Type I evaluates whether a vendor's security controls are properly designed at a single point in time. Type II evaluates whether those controls actually operated effectively over a sustained period (usually 6-12 months). Type II is substantially more meaningful because it verifies that security practices are consistent, not just documented. Always ask for Type II if available.

Can I evaluate vendor security without a technical background?

Yes. The most important signals are behavioral, not technical: Does the vendor answer security questions willingly? Can they produce a subprocessor list? Do they have a breach notification clause in their contract? Do they support multi-factor authentication? These questions require no technical expertise and filter effectively. For deeper evaluation, standardized questionnaires like the SIG Lite provide structure without requiring you to design the assessment from scratch.

What should I do if a current vendor fails my security evaluation?

Document the specific gaps you identified and share them with the vendor. Give them a reasonable timeline to address the issues — 30-90 days depending on severity. If the gaps involve fundamental controls (no encryption, no breach notification policy, no access controls), begin evaluating alternatives immediately while working with the current vendor on remediation. Switching vendors has its own risks and costs, so replacement should be a parallel track, not a first reaction.

Vendor Risk

What Your Vendors' Security Posture Actually Means for You