Qualys Blog

To comply with GDPR, organizations typically must overhaul and update a number of internal processes and systems, but they can’t ignore a critical area: risk from vendors and other third parties such as contractors, partners, suppliers and service providers.

It’s a point that’s stressed repeatedly throughout the 88-page text of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which goes into effect in May 2018 and requires that organizations worldwide properly identify, track and protect their EU customers’ personally identifiable information (PII).

In GDPR lingo, “data controllers” must vet the “data processors” they share this customer information with, and assume joint responsibility for what happens to it. In other words, you’re liable if one of your third parties gets breached for failing to adhere to GDPR requirements and as a result your customers’ personal data gets compromised.

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As you roll out Security Assessment Questionnaire to your vendors and internal stakeholders, it is necessary to avoid lengthy questionnaires containing many sections with questions that are not relevant to their area of work. It is important that respondents don’t get overwhelmed and spend a lot of time and effort in sifting through all the questions deciding for themselves whether a section or a question is relevant or applicable to them. Invariably, this results in delays in getting their responses back to you.

The latest version of Security Assessment Questionnaire enables you to use a gating mechanism for controlling the flow of your questionnaire. You can now decide which questions or sections a respondent can see, based on his response to a question or a combination of questions. This makes it easier for respondents to see and respond to only relevant sections and questions thereby making the entire exercise more time-efficient for them. It is also easier for you to analyze all the consolidated responses.

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