Vanta Vendor Risk Assessment — Full Report

Recommended Actions

Steps to address findings for Vanta

1. 1

   Obtain Vanta's current SOC 2 Type II audit report: contact their security team at trust.vanta.com or request directly via their sales/legal contact. Ask for the full report (not a summary), including the auditor's name, audit period, and any exceptions noted. This is the single most important verification step.

   SOC 2 Overview (AICPA)
2. 2

   Execute a Data Processing Agreement (DPA) and, if EU consumer data is in scope, a GDPR-compliant DPA with Standard Contractual Clauses. Vanta's privacy page at https://vanta.com/privacy indicates GDPR and CCPA acknowledgment — request the formal DPA template from their legal team before data is shared.

   GDPR Full TextCCPA Overview (CA AG)DPA Template (GDPR Art. 28)
3. 3

   For PCI-DSS compliance: complete a Shared Responsibility Matrix documenting which PCI-DSS 4.0 controls Vanta manages versus your organization, consistent with Requirement 12.8.5. Ask Vanta directly whether they have a published PCI-DSS responsibility summary or a CAIQ (Consensus Assessments Initiative Questionnaire).

   PCI DSS Standards
4. 4

   Clarify the IP abuse finding: contact Vanta's security team and ask for confirmation on whether 198.202.211.1 is a shared CDN IP and whether they have reviewed the 17 abuse reports filed against it. Document their response in your TPSP file.

5. 5

   Review the June 2025 customer data exposure incident: search for the TechCrunch article 'Vanta bug exposed customers' data to other customers' and request Vanta's incident post-mortem or root cause analysis. Evaluate whether the vulnerability class affects your intended use case and whether remediation was completed.

6. 6

   Review Vanta's subprocessor list manually: navigate to https://vanta.com/privacy/subprocessors directly in a browser. Automated parsing was unsuccessful; a manual review of their subprocessors is necessary to assess supply chain risk and ensure any subprocessors handling your data are identified in your GDPR/DPA documentation.

   GDPR Full TextDPA Template (GDPR Art. 28)
7. 7

   Retain this assessment report, the executed DPA, the SOC 2 Type II report, and the completed Shared Responsibility Matrix in your TPSP file. Your QSA will request this documentation as evidence of PCI-DSS 4.0 Requirement 12.8 compliance during assessment fieldwork.

   SOC 2 Overview (AICPA)PCI DSS StandardsDPA Template (GDPR Art. 28)

• Sanctions and watchlist screening was unavailable during this investigation. Manual sanctions screening against OFAC, EU, and UN consolidated lists is recommended before onboarding.
• SSL/TLS deep configuration analysis was unavailable. The domain's surface-level TLS certificate was validated as current and issued by Google Trust Services, but cipher suite and protocol-level security configuration could not be assessed.
• Web archive history was unavailable. Domain registration records independently confirm vanta.com has been active since 2002, providing adequate domain age assurance.
• Subprocessor data: a subprocessor page was located at vanta.com but no structured subprocessor entries could be extracted due to a non-standard page format. The vendor's subprocessor supply chain could not be assessed through automated means.
• No independent verification was possible for any of the eight certifications claimed on Vanta's trust and security pages. All certification claims are treated as vendor-attested and require independent confirmation.
• The Hacker News evidence includes a story titled 'Vanta bug exposed customers' data to other customers' (TechCrunch, June 2025). While this was not flagged as a risk signal by the rule engine, it represents a disclosed security incident that should be reviewed directly with the vendor.