A 200-question security questionnaire just landed in your inbox. The deal closes Friday.

COMMON QUESTIONS

Security questionnaire questions

• How do I answer an enterprise security questionnaire?

  The short version: read the buyer's cover email for deadline + return format; upload the questionnaire to a system that maps each question to your existing controls and drafts responses; review the auto-drafts for anything that stopped being true or over-claims; answer the flagged gaps specifically (and save each new answer for next time); attach signed evidence to every response that cites a policy or artifact; export in the buyer's format ahead of their deadline. For the full hour-by-hour walkthrough with the specific decisions that make the difference, see the worked example.

• Which questionnaire formats does this handle?

  All the standard enterprise formats — SIG Lite, SIG Core, CAIQ Lite, CAIQ, HECVAT, VSAQ, and the district-authored variants school and healthcare buyers hand out. For a definitional walkthrough of what each format actually proves (and what it doesn't) once you've filled it out, start with our SIG Lite explainer or CAIQ Lite explainer.

• Can I automate a SIG questionnaire response?

  Yes. Upload the SIG Lite or full SIG spreadsheet and vCISO Lite auto-drafts responses from your existing controls and evidence library — mapping each of the ~150 SIG Lite questions or the 1,600+ full SIG questions to the underlying policy or artifact that supports it. You review the auto-drafts, fill any flagged gaps once, and the platform learns for the next SIG questionnaire that lands. A 200-question SIG that took a week manually typically completes in a few hours with review and evidence attachment included. See our SIG Lite explainer for what each section is actually testing for.

• How do I complete a CAIQ questionnaire?

  The CAIQ questionnaire is Cloud Security Alliance's standard vendor security assessment — CAIQ Lite has ~70 questions across the CSA Cloud Controls Matrix, and full CAIQ has ~260. Upload either version and vCISO Lite pre-populates responses from your compliance evidence (SOC 2, ISO 27001, and framework controls all cross-map to the CCM domain structure), attaches supporting evidence per response, and exports back in CSA's format. If you're new to CAIQ, start with our CAIQ Lite explainer for what each of the 17 CCM domains is actually asking for.

• Can vCISO Lite generate vendor security questionnaire responses for SIG Lite, CAIQ, and ASD Essential 8?

  Yes — SIG Lite, full SIG, CAIQ Lite, full CAIQ, HECVAT, VSAQ, ASD Essential 8 mappings, custom Fortune 500 spreadsheets, and district-specific school and healthcare formats all run through the same underlying knowledge base. Because every question maps back to your control library rather than to the questionnaire's own text, you answer once (per underlying control) and the same evidence flows through every questionnaire format a buyer sends. Cross-format consistency also means a buyer that follows up with a second, different questionnaire gets consistent answers, not contradictions.

• Where can I download a SIG Lite questionnaire?

  The SIG Lite questionnaire is maintained by Shared Assessments (sharedassessments.org) and access requires paid membership — the questionnaire spreadsheet isn't freely distributed to protect its structure. Once you have the SIG Lite template (either from your own Shared Assessments membership or the specific version a buyer sent you), upload it to vCISO Lite and the platform auto-populates responses from your evidence library. Our SIG Lite explainer walks through what each of the ~150 questions is actually testing for so you can prepare evidence in advance.

• What's the difference between SIG Lite and the full SIG questionnaire?

  SIG Lite is a ~150-question subset of the full Shared Assessments Standardized Information Gathering (SIG) questionnaire, which has 1,600+ questions across 22 risk domains. SIG Lite is typically used for standard vendor onboarding; full SIG is used for critical Tier-1 vendors, regulated-industry procurement (banks, healthcare, federal), and vendors handling large volumes of sensitive data. A buyer that sends full SIG expects more evidence per response than SIG Lite would require. vCISO Lite handles both — same underlying knowledge base, different question set, same auto-draft + evidence attachment flow.

• How long does answering a typical enterprise questionnaire take with vCISO Lite?

  The 200-question questionnaire that would take a week of scrambling to answer manually typically completes in a few hours — including review and evidence attachment. Answers pre-populate from the compliance evidence you've already collected for SOC 2, ISO 27001, and other frameworks, so you're not answering the same underlying control three different ways. First questionnaires are slower; the platform gets faster as the knowledge base grows.

• What if a question isn't in our knowledge base?

  The platform flags gaps rather than fabricating an answer. You review those specific questions once, provide the response, and the knowledge base learns from it — the next questionnaire that asks the same thing gets a defensible answer without extra work.

• Can we handle custom (non-standardized) enterprise questionnaires?

  Yes. Upload the spreadsheet, PDF, or portal link. The platform maps custom questions to the closest matching control in your knowledge base and drafts answers you can review. Custom questionnaires from Fortune 500 procurement teams work the same way as SIG Lite or CAIQ Lite — no special handling required.

• Do answers include supporting evidence?

  Yes. Every answer can attach the underlying policy, audit report, or evidence artifact that supports it. Enterprise buyers commonly ask for evidence with their questionnaire responses; the export bundle includes both, so the follow-up requests get pre-empted.

• How is this different from a knowledge-base tool like Loopio or SafeBase?

  Loopio and SafeBase are answer-management tools — they store your prior answers and help you find them faster. vCISO Lite is an automation tool: it pre-populates responses from the same evidence base that powers your SOC 2 and ISO 27001 compliance work. If your policies and controls are the source of truth, you answer once and it flows through every questionnaire, without a separate knowledge-base to maintain.