Third-Party Risk Program-in-a-Box

A process tells people what to do. A program tells them why, on whose authority, to what standard, and how anyone will know it is working. This kit gives a growing organization both, without an enterprise third-party risk platform.

The governance set includes a program charter with roles and authority, a third-party security policy, a vendor classification standard with explicit tier rules, and a metrics and reporting standard with a quarterly leadership report template. Four procedures cover due diligence, ongoing monitoring, annual review and offboarding. The due diligence procedure includes public-source research organized around the five components in NIST SP 1326.

Vendor-facing instruments include a 54-question security questionnaire across ten domains, split into core and extended questions by tier and delivered in Word and Excel, and contract security requirements with example clause language for each tier and a contract review checklist. The workbook adds program metrics, metric history for trends and questionnaire scoring to the full toolkit.

Everything is editable Word and Excel. Bracketed fields mark every substitution point. The implementation guide includes a ninety-day rollout, a responsibility matrix, a governance calendar and a crosswalk to NIST CSF 2.0, CIS Controls v8.1 and ISO/IEC 27001:2022.

What is included

1. Program Implementation Guide and Workbook Implementation Guide (PDF).

2. Program Charter, Third-Party Security Policy, Vendor Classification Standard, Metrics and Reporting Standard, Quarterly Third-Party Risk Report template (Word).

3. Due Diligence, Ongoing Monitoring, Annual Review and Offboarding procedures (Word).

4. Vendor Security Questionnaire (Word and Excel), Contract Security Requirements, Evidence Request template (Word).

5. Third-Party Security Management Workbook, program edition (Excel): the nine toolkit tabs plus Metrics, Metric History and Questionnaire Scoring.

6. Intake form, review checklist, SOC 2 review worksheet, risk acceptance form, offboarding checklist (Word).

Who it is for

IT managers and directors, security engineers and analysts, compliance and risk managers, operations leaders and MSP teams at organizations of roughly 25 to 500 people that depend on outside providers but do not have a dedicated third-party risk function.

Formats

12 Word documents, 5 Word forms, 2 Excel workbooks, 2 PDF guides.

License

License. Your purchase grants one organization a perpetual, non-exclusive license to use, copy, and modify these materials for its own internal security program, including sharing completed questionnaires and contract exhibits with its own vendors. You may not resell, sublicense, or redistribute the templates themselves, in original or modified form, as a product. Consultants and managed service providers who want to use the materials across multiple client organizations need a practitioner license; contact cyberauctoritas.com.

Disclaimer

This material is provided for general information and internal program building. It is not legal advice and does not certify compliance with any law, regulation, or framework. Contract language must be reviewed by qualified counsel before use. Adapt every document to your organization, your risk tolerance, and your obligations.