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TPRM Resources

Quick reference for compliance standards, risk management frameworks, and due diligence fundamentals.

Deep Dive Guides

TPRM Fundamentals

What Is Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM)?

Third-party risk management (TPRM) is the process of identifying, assessing, monitoring, and mitigating the risks that arise when organizations rely on external...

Assessment Guide

Vendor Due Diligence Checklist

Before you onboard a vendor that touches sensitive data, here is everything you need to check — and what to document. This checklist is organized by assessment ...

Risk Framework

Vendor Risk Assessment Template

A vendor risk assessment is a structured evaluation that scores and classifies vendors by risk level based on the type of data they access, their security postu...

Compliance Deep Dive

SOC 2 Vendor Assessment Guide

SOC 2 (System and Organization Controls 2) is the most widely requested vendor assurance report in the technology industry. Developed by the AICPA, SOC 2 evalua...

VRM Fundamentals

What Is Vendor Risk Management (VRM)?

Vendor risk management (VRM) is the discipline of identifying, evaluating, and controlling risks associated with third-party vendors and suppliers. While closel...

Compliance

Sanctions Screening for Vendor Due Diligence

Sanctions screening is the process of checking whether a vendor, its principals, or its parent entities appear on government-maintained sanctions lists — primar...

Federal Compliance

FedRAMP Vendor Authorization Status

FedRAMP (Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program) is the US government's standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous m...

Buyer's Guide

What Compliance Teams Expect in Vendor Risk Reports

Your auditor just asked for your CC9.2 vendor management evidence. What exactly do they want to see? After reviewing hundreds of vendor risk assessments across ...

Audit Readiness

Present Vendor Due Diligence to Your SOC 2 Auditor

CC9.2 is the control where most SOC 2 audits hit friction. Here is how to walk into fieldwork with your vendor management evidence already accepted....

Assessment Methods

Vendor Risk Assessment Without Questionnaires

Security questionnaires take 4-6 weeks, require vendor cooperation, and produce self-reported data you cannot verify. There is a better way....

Healthcare Compliance

HIPAA Vendor Risk Assessment Requirements

The HIPAA Security Rule requires covered entities to assess the risk of every business associate that touches PHI. Most organizations do this with a spreadsheet...

Federal Compliance

FedRAMP Compliance Check — Verify Vendor Status

Your procurement team just asked whether a vendor is FedRAMP authorized. Here is how to check — and what to do when they are not....

FedRAMP Intelligence

FedRAMP Authorized Vendor List (2026)

FedRAMP (Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program) is the US government's standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous m...

AI Risk Assessment

Vendor AI Data Usage Risk: What Compliance Teams Need to Know

Vendor AI data usage risk is the risk that a third-party vendor uses your organization's data to train artificial intelligence models, shares it with third-part...

TPRM Economics

Cost of Building a TPRM Program in 2026

Every organization that works with vendors needs some form of third-party risk management. But the cost of building that program varies wildly — from a single a...

SOC 2 Compliance

How to Verify Vendor SOC 2 Compliance

A vendor says they're SOC 2 compliant. But how do you actually verify that claim before signing a contract and handing over sensitive data? Unlike FedRAMP or IS...

SOC 2 Deep Dive

How to Read a SOC 2 Report

You've requested a vendor's SOC 2 Type II report and received a 100-page PDF. Now what? Most compliance teams skim the cover letter and file the report away, bu...

FedRAMP Intelligence

FedRAMP Authorized Storage Vendors

If your organization handles federal data or serves government agencies, your cloud storage provider must be FedRAMP authorized. This isn't optional — it's a co...

FedRAMP Intelligence

FedRAMP Authorized Collaboration Tools

Collaboration tools handle some of the most sensitive data in any organization — real-time conversations, shared files, screen recordings, and meeting transcrip...

AI Risk Assessment

AI Vendor Risk Assessment

AI-powered tools have moved from experimental pilots to core business infrastructure in less than three years. Your engineering team uses AI code assistants, yo...

Defense Compliance

CMMC Vendor Requirements for Defense Contractors

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program has transformed vendor management from a best-practice recommendation into a contract-losing liabi...

EU Compliance

DORA Vendor Due Diligence Requirements

The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) represents the European Union's most significant regulatory intervention in ICT third-party risk management for fi...

Compliance Verification

How to Check If a Vendor Is SOC 2 Certified

There is no public database of SOC 2 certified companies. Unlike FedRAMP, which maintains a public marketplace, or PCI DSS, which has a qualified service provid...

AI Risk

AI Vendor Risk Assessment: How to Evaluate ChatGPT, Copilot & AI Tools

AI tools introduce vendor risks that traditional assessment frameworks were not designed to catch. When employees use ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, or Google Gemini,...

Education Compliance

FERPA Vendor Risk Assessment for Schools & Universities

FERPA (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) requires schools and universities to protect student education records — and that obligation extends to ev...

Assessment Strategy

Security Questionnaire Alternatives: Assess Vendors Without Waiting

The vendor security questionnaire is the most universally disliked process in cybersecurity. Vendors hate filling them out — a single enterprise questionnaire c...

Risk Scoring

What Is a Vendor Risk Score? How Scoring Works

A vendor risk score is a standardized measure of the risk a third-party vendor poses to your organization, typically expressed as a numeric rating, letter grade...

Financial Services Compliance

Vendor Due Diligence for Financial Services: OCC & FFIEC Requirements

Financial institutions face the most prescriptive vendor management requirements of any industry. OCC Bulletin 2023-17 (which superseded the influential 2013-29...

Healthcare Compliance

Third-Party Risk Assessment for Healthcare Organizations

Healthcare third-party breaches are not a theoretical risk — they are the dominant breach vector. According to HHS breach data, approximately 40% of healthcare ...

Assessment Checklist

Vendor Risk Assessment Checklist (2026)

This is the vendor risk assessment checklist your team can use immediately. It covers five risk categories — security, compliance, financial, operational, and r...

Government Compliance

StateRAMP Vendor Requirements: What You Need to Know

StateRAMP provides a standardized cybersecurity framework for vendors serving state and local government agencies. Modeled on FedRAMP but adapted for the state ...

SaaS Security

How to Evaluate SaaS Vendor Security: A Practical Guide

Every SaaS application your organization adopts becomes part of your security perimeter. When your team uses Notion for documentation, Asana for project managem...

Compliance Standards

PCI DSS

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard

FinancialRetail

Security standard for organizations that handle credit card data. Covers network security, data protection, vulnerability management, and access control.

Official Documentation →

HIPAA

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act

Healthcare

US federal law requiring protection of patient health information. Covers Privacy Rule, Security Rule, Breach Notification, and Business Associate requirements.

Official Documentation →

SOX

Sarbanes-Oxley Act

Public Companies

US law mandating financial reporting controls for public companies. Covers internal controls over financial reporting, IT general controls, and access management.

Official Documentation →

SOC 2

System and Organization Controls

TechnologySaaS

AICPA framework covering security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. SOC 2 Type II is the most widely requested vendor assurance report.

Official Documentation →

GDPR

General Data Protection Regulation

EU/EEA

EU regulation governing collection, processing, and storage of personal data. Establishes data subject rights and mandatory 72-hour breach notification.

Official Documentation →

CCPA / CPRA

California Consumer Privacy Act

California

California privacy laws granting consumers rights over personal information including rights to know, delete, opt-out, and limit use of sensitive data.

Official Documentation →

Risk Management Frameworks

NIST CSF 2.0

Cybersecurity Framework

Voluntary framework organized around six functions: Govern, Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, Recover.

Official Documentation →

NIST 800-53

Security & Privacy Controls

Comprehensive catalog of 1,000+ controls across 20 families for federal systems, widely adopted in private sector.

Official Documentation →

ISO 27001 / 27002

Information Security Management

International standard specifying ISMS requirements (27001) with 93 implementation controls (27002).

Official Documentation →

COSO ERM

Enterprise Risk Management

Integrated framework covering governance, strategy, performance, review, and communication for enterprise risk.

Official Documentation →

SIG

Standardized Information Gathering

Shared Assessments questionnaire covering 18+ risk domains with 800+ questions for third-party assessment.

Official Documentation →

TPRM Lifecycle

1

Planning & Scoping

Define TPRM strategy, identify vendors requiring assessment, establish risk appetite and criteria.

2

Selection & Due Diligence

Evaluate vendors through risk assessments, security reviews, compliance verification, and financial analysis.

3

Contract Negotiation

Establish SLAs, data protection clauses, right-to-audit, breach notification, and termination clauses.

4

Ongoing Monitoring

Continuous oversight through periodic reassessments, incident monitoring, and risk posture tracking.

5

Termination & Offboarding

Data return/destruction, access revocation, transition planning, and final compliance verification.

6

Continuous Improvement

Program evaluation, metrics analysis, regulatory adaptation, and process optimization.

Due Diligence Activities

Risk-Based AssessmentAutomated
Risk IdentificationAutomated
Risk ReportingAutomated
Third-Party ProfilePartial
Risk TreatmentPartial
Inherent Risk QuestionnaireRoadmap
Ongoing MonitoringRoadmap
Vendor OffboardingManual

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