SEO-friendly subheading here . . .
The Bullwinkle Heading Here!
Another one of those Dan’s New Leaf Posts, meant to inspire thought about IT Governance . . . .
Text with links to other blog article s if you can manage it. And don’t be afraid to quote people and such, like this:
“Quoting People Makes Your Article Interesting!”
– Person You’re Quoting
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People would rather read bullet points than text.
- What should I expect?
- Where are you NOT meeting those expectations?
- What can we do to fix that?
Allow me to appeal to your sense of curiosity, and hopefully encourage you to spend some of your valuable time learning the answer to Question #1. For if you do not know what controls to expect for a particular service, the quest to answer that question is EXACTLY what auditors and examiners are asking for out of your vendor due diligence process. And it’s okay to not know. It is a good thing, to admit that you do not know. Get that out of the way. Shout it out to the entire world (or at least your committee). Say it aloud now, as you read these words: “I don’t know.” It’s the not-knowing that is driving the need for the process in the first place. You don’t have to try to hide that you do not know . . . . that’s fighting the need. Instead, you have to find out . . . Five Ways to Learn What to Expect: So . . . . ways to learn what controls to expect for a particular vendor:
- Ask your auditor. Say, “hey I”m reviewing xyz as a vendor, what controls would you expect them to have in place?” You’ll be happy you got the answer!
- Good old Google. (I really need to buy stock in Google.) By Google-ing the product, service, etc. you can learn which types of controls to expect.
- Where are the assets stored? What controls would YOU have to have in place if you were providing this service yourself? (This is also a great exercise in “why-are-we-outsourcing-in-the-first-place?”
- What are you seeing in other SOC2 reports? And why are you not seeing these controls in this vendor’s report?
- Sure, ask your vendor. But also ask your vendor’s competitor. Many of the questions we get from our Clients often arise when they are talking to our competitors.
To summarize: you can not escape the fundamental nature of vendor due diligence. Regardless of the size of your organization, who your regulator is, whether you use an application or are still slugging it out the spreadsheet-way . . . . you must answer the three above questions!
Original article by Dan Hadaway CRISC CISA CISM. Founder and Managing Partner, infotex
Dans New Leaf is a fun blog to inspire thought in the area of IT Governance.
