- Cybersecurity-focused TPRM practices to implement a program-level governance function.
- Includes a TPRM policy template, risk assessment questionnaire & risk assessment template.
- Editable Microsoft Word & Excel templates - enables tailoring for an organization's specific needs.
- Immense time & cost savings - policies & standards require minimal effort to customize.
Don't Write It From Scratch.
Your vendors' security gaps can become your breaches, and regulators and customers increasingly expect proof that you assess and monitor third-party risk. If asked, could you show a documented program for vetting, rating, and re-reviewing your vendors, or is it handled ad hoc per contract? Building that program and the assessment tooling from a blank page is a heavy lift. The Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) Program gives you a running start: an editable, program-level framework with a TPRM policy template, a vendor risk assessment questionnaire, and a risk assessment template, in Microsoft Word and Excel. It gets you roughly 80 to 90 percent of the way there, then you tailor the criteria and risk tiers to your vendor population.
The terms "Third-Party Risk Management" and "Supply Chain Risk Management" are often used interchangeably. In the US Government, it tends to be referred to as variants of SCRM (e.g., C-SCRM or ICT-SCRM). In private industry, it tends to be referred to as TPRM. The term used mainly depends on the industry. Regardless of the terminology used, TPRM / SCRM should be viewed as a slice of a larger risk management pie.
It is a common misunderstanding that an organization can just make up TPRM / SCRM practices in a silo and expect those to keep an organization secure, compliant or resilient. TPRM / SCRM are not functions that are able to stand alone, since they nest within an organization's broader risk management practices that define how risk is to be addressed across the entire organization, not just with third-parties.
For the average person, TPRM and SCRM are synonymous terms. However, when you get into technicalities, TPRM differs from SCRM because it focuses on risks associated with immediate third-parties (e.g., risks associated with external suppliers, external vendors, service providers, etc.), while SCRM focused on the broader view of risks associated with the entire supply chain (e.g., suppliers, vendors service providers, materials sourcing, subcontractors, geopolitical influences, etc.). While it is nuanced, there is a difference.
Vetting suppliers, vendors and other third-parties for cybersecurity risk is no longer optional for most organizations. The reality is every company needs to conduct cybersecurity-focused Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM). However, there is a big issue - most companies do not know where to start. To help solve this issue, ComplianceForge provides an affordable, editable solution that is applicable to organizations of any size or industry.
Organizations tend to face the same challenge with TPRM, where the common options are to:
- Build TPRM documentation and questionnaires from scratch;
- Piece together free resources that lack depth, consistency and legal defensibility; or
- Leverage a “canned” TPRM module in a Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) platform.
Each of these three options introduces unnecessary risk. That’s why it makes sense to invest in expert-derived TPRM documentation from ComplianceForge, an industry leader in cybersecurity documentation solutions - trusted across industries for producing high-quality, professionally-written cybersecurity and compliance-focused documentation.
What Is The TPRM Program?
The TPRM is an editable Microsoft Word document that contains the requirements needed to establish a risk management program. Quite simply, the Cybersecurity Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) Program provides your company with evidence that a documented vendor risk management program exists to address operational risks associated with information and technology.
ComplianceForge’s TPRM Program template is the best solution, since it offers actionable guidance you can follow. This enables you to build a TPRM program since it includes a TPRM policy, a phased approach to managing Third-Party Service Providers (TPSP) across the entire vendor lifecycle and a TPRM questionnaire that you can use to assess TPSP. In other words, ComplianceForge’s TPRM Program offers the entire pie for TPRM, unlike other companies who offer only a single piece of the pie.
Our products are one-time purchases with no software to install - you are buying Microsoft Office-based documentation templates that you can edit for your specific needs. If you can use Microsoft Office or OpenOffice, you can use this product! The TPRM is an editable Microsoft Word document that providers program-level guidance to directly supports your organization's policies and standards for managing cybersecurity risk. Unfortunately, most companies lack a coherent approach to managing risks across the enterprise:
- When you look at getting audit ready, your policies and standards only cover the "why?" and "what?" questions of an audit. This product addresses the “how?” questions for how your company manages risk.
- The TPRM provides clear, concise documentation that provides a "paint by numbers" approach to how risk is managed.
- The TPRM addresses fundamental needs when it comes to what is expected in cybersecurity risk management:
- How risk is defined.
- Who can accept risk.
- How risk is calculated by defining potential the impact and likelihood.
- Necessary steps to reduce risk.
- Risk considerations for vulnerability management.
- The TPRM is based on leading frameworks, such as NIST Risk Management Framework (NIST 800-37 rev2), NIST 800-39, ISO 31010 and COSO 2013.
No Software To Install
The TPRM Program is a one-time purchase of editable Microsoft Office-based documentation templates. There is no software to install, no agent to deploy, no account to provision, and no cloud environment to configure. If the organization can open and edit Microsoft Word and Excel files, the TPRM Program is ready to use.
Microsoft Word & Excel
Delivered as fully editable .docx and .xlsx files. The TPRM policy and lifecycle process are in Word; the TPRM questionnaire is in Excel for easy distribution to vendors and ingest of responses.
Email Delivery
Documentation is delivered via email download link within 1-2 business days of purchase, often the same business day. There is no installer, no license server, and no activation step.
One-Time Purchase
A single-entity license is included with purchase. There is no recurring subscription requirement, although an optional update subscription is available to stay current as frameworks and supply chain risk expectations evolve.
This deployment model is intentional. TPRM documentation benefits from being in the organization's own hands, inside its own GRC platform or document management system, rather than locked inside a vendor's SaaS tool. Once delivered, this product belongs to the buyer and can be distributed to third parties as needed during due diligence.
What Problems Does the TPRM Solve?
Organizations face common third-party risk management challenges that the TPRM Program is designed to address with a defensible, audit-ready vendor lifecycle program.
Lack of In House Security Experience
Writing security documentation is a skill that many good cybersecurity professionals simple are not proficient at and avoid the task at all cost. Tasking your security analysts and engineers to write comprehensive documentation means you are actively taking them away from protecting and defending your network, which is not a wise use of their time. The TPRM is an efficient method to obtain comprehensive risk management documentation for your organization!
Compliance Requirements
Requirements such as PCI DSS, HIPAA, MA 201 CMR 17.00 and NIST 800-171 establish a mandate to formally manage risk. The TPRM addresses these compliance requirements!
Audit Failures
Similar to vulnerability management, most organizations run into trouble in audits when asked HOW risk is managed, since they cannot provide documentation beyond policies and standards. The TPRM addresses the HOW for you!
Vendor Requirements
It is very common for clients and partners to request evidence of a risk management program during their due diligence. The TPRM provides this evidence!
How Does the TPRM Solve These Problems?
The TPRM Program addresses each third-party risk challenge with concrete, measurable outcomes. It is designed to take an organization from no formal TPRM program to a defensible, customizable vendor lifecycle program in weeks rather than months.
Clear Documentation
The TPRM provides the comprehensive documentation to prove that your risk program exists.
Time Savings
The TPRM provides actionable guidance on what steps can be taken to categorize, calculate and manage risk in a sustainable manner.
Alignment With Leading Practices
The TPRM is written to support COSO, COBIT, NIST and ISO frameworks that provide you with significant flexibility.
What Is Included?
The TPRM Program is delivered as editable Microsoft Office documentation. Purchase includes a single-entity license, the first year of product updates, and all three components of a complete TPRM capability: the TPRM policy, the phased TPSP lifecycle, and the framework-aligned TPRM questionnaire.
TPRM Policy Document
Editable Microsoft Word document establishing the organization's third-party risk management policy: scope, roles and responsibilities, risk appetite for vendors, escalation paths, and reporting expectations. Includes a steering committee structure and board-level reporting cadence for high-risk vendors.
Phased TPSP Lifecycle Process
A phased approach to managing Third-Party Service Providers across the entire vendor lifecycle: onboarding, ongoing monitoring, contract renewal, incident escalation, and offboarding. Designed to integrate with procurement and legal review processes.
TPRM Questionnaire (Excel)
Editable Microsoft Excel TPRM questionnaire mapped to NIST 800-53, NIST CSF, ISO 27002, the Secure Controls Framework, and CIS Controls. Designed for distribution to TPSPs and structured to make vendor responses easy to score and compare.
Support & Updates
First year of product updates included. Email delivery within 1-2 business days of purchase. Single-entity license for one legal entity. Optional company logo embedded in delivered files.
More Than Just A Questionnaire
Most TPRM vendors offer only a risk questionnaire. The ComplianceForge TPRM Program offers the entire pie: policy, phased vendor lifecycle process, and the questionnaire — all aligned to authoritative frameworks. This is what regulators, prime contractors, and certified assessors expect to see when they ask whether the organization has a formal TPRM program.
Cost Savings Estimate
When you look at the costs associated with either (1) hiring an external consultant to write cybersecurity documentation for you or (2) tasking your internal staff to write it, the cost comparisons paint a clear picture that buying from ComplianceForge is the logical option. Compared to hiring a consultant, you can save months of wait time and tens of thousands of dollars. Whereas, compared to writing your own documentation, you can potentially save hundreds of work hours and the associated cost of lost productivity. Purchasing the TPRM Program from ComplianceForge offers these fundamental advantages when compared to the other options for obtaining quality cybersecurity documentation:
Internal Staff Cost
For your internal staff to generate comparable documentation, it would take them an estimated 80 internal staff work hours, which equates to a cost of approximately $6,500 in staff-related expenses. This is about 1 to 2 months of development time where your staff would be diverted from other work.
The TPRM Program is approximately 15% of the cost for your internal staff to generate equivalent documentation.
External Consultant Cost
If you hire a consultant to generate this documentation, it would take them an estimated 50 consultant work hours, which equates to a cost of approximately $15,000. This is about 1 to 2 months of development time for a contractor to provide you with the deliverable.
The TPRM Program is approximately 7% of the cost for an external consultant to generate equivalent documentation.
Product Examples
Regardless if your cybersecurity program aligns with NIST, ISO, SCF, CIS or another framework, the TPRM is designed to address the strategic, operational and tactical components of third-party risk management to provide cybersecurity risk management governance. Policies & standards are absolutely necessary to an organization, but they fail to describe HOW risk is actually managed. The TPRM provides this middle ground between high-level policies and the actual procedures of how risk is managed on a day-to-day basis by those individual contributors who execute risk-based controls.
Coverage spans the strategic, operational, and tactical components of third-party risk management, regardless of whether the organization's primary cybersecurity framework is NIST, ISO, SCF, CIS, or another framework.
Below is a PDF example containing a sample of the TPRM Program you would receive upon purchasing the TPRM.
Below is a PDF example containing a sample of the TPRM Questionnaire you would receive upon purchasing the TPRM.
How Much Customization Remains?
Given the difficult nature of writing templated third-party risk management documentation, ComplianceForge aims for approximately an 80% solution because it is impossible to write a 100% cookie-cutter document that can be equally applied across every organization. TPRM depends on the specific vendor ecosystem, the regulatory environment, and the organization's risk appetite, so the remaining work is fine-tuning the TPRM Program with the specific information that only the organization knows.
In practice, customization is filling in the blanks and following the guidance provided to identify the who, what, when, where, why, and how for the specific vendor ecosystem. Typical customization tasks include adding the company name and logo, defining vendor risk tiers, naming the TPRM committee and approvers, tailoring the questionnaire scope by vendor category, and integrating the lifecycle process with the procurement and legal review workflows already in place.
Professional Services
ComplianceForge offers optional professional services to customize purchased documentation. Professional services are not required to customize ComplianceForge documentation. However, some clients want our subject matter expertise to help customize their documentation to meet their specific business needs. If you have any questions about our professional services, please contact us at:
We offer the following professional service bundles:
5-Hour Bundle
This includes five (5) hours of professional services, which may be beneficial for companies that need some guidance on getting started with how to tailor their documentation.
10-Hour Bundle
This includes ten (10) hours of professional services, which may be beneficial for companies that need additional guidance on tailoring their documentation to meet their compliance requirements.
20-Hour Bundle
This includes twenty (20) hours of professional services, which may be beneficial for companies that need robust services, beyond just 10 hours, to assist in tailoring their documentation to meet their compliance requirements.
Purchased professional service hours expire 120 days (4 months) from the time of purchase if unused. Hours are intended to supplement, not replace, your own customization work, since only your organization knows the exact details to tailor your documentation. For questions regarding scoping a professional services engagement or configuring a custom package, contact ComplianceForge directly through the Contact Us page.
Why Third-Party Risk Management Matters
Formal third-party risk management has become a baseline expectation across regulatory, contractual, and customer due-diligence contexts. NY DFS 23 NYCRR 500 Section 500.11 requires covered entities to maintain a third-party service provider security policy. NIST 800-171 and CMMC supply chain expectations require formal vendor risk management. The SEC cybersecurity disclosure rule requires materiality assessment of third-party cyber events. GDPR Article 28 requires data processors (third parties) to maintain adequate security, with documented obligations between controller and processor. PCI DSS 4.0 requires formal third-party service provider management.
Vendor contracts increasingly require recurring third-party risk assessments. Insurance underwriters routinely request evidence of a formal TPRM program when scoping cyber insurance coverage. The TPRM Program provides a complete, defensible vendor lifecycle baseline that can be customized to the organization's vendor ecosystem in weeks rather than months.
TPRM Is More Than Just A Risk Assessment Questionnaire
Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) is more than just a risk assessment questionnaire because in addition to the risk assessment questionnaire being a key component, TPRM also focuses on the entirety of the third-party risk management lifecycle.
With ComplianceForge, you can obtain not just a risk questionnaires that maps directly to authoritative frameworks like NIST, ISO and the Secure Controls Framework (SCF), but you get a process that makes sense to govern the lifecycle of the contract. The TPRM Program documentation provides the basis an organization needs to establish a scalable and dynamic TPRM capability. This provides your organization with a clear line of sight between requirements, controls and vendor due diligence.
The benefit is two-fold:
Aligned With Leading Frameworks
The TPRM is an editable Microsoft Word document that contains the requirements needed to establish a risk management program. Quite simply, the Cybersecurity Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) Program provides your company with evidence that a documented vendor risk management program exists to address operational risks associated with information and technology. The TPRM addresses the due care component of getting an organization to a mature level for managing risk:
The Cybersecurity Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) Program provides best-practices guidance on risk management at the strategic, operational and tactical levels! This is important, since this hybrid or "best of breed" approach to third-party risk management takes advantage of the strengths of each best practice model (e.g., COSO, COBIT, ISO & NIST). This allows you to have a considerable amount of flexibility to conduct risk management operations.
Understanding Layers of Risk
Dependencies are of critical importance when assessing risk, since risk can have a cascading effect. Ideally, a risk assessment at a tactical level (e.g., assessment of a specific application or host) should leverage existing risk assessments that address “upstream” risks. For example, a well-designed and securely-coded application could be compromised if the host system it is running on is insecure. Similarly, the application could be made unavailable if the datacenter lacks measures to ensure uptime against natural or man-made threats.
As part of overall risk management, your company should perform several formal risk assessments, which are meant to be used as references for more detailed project-specific risk assessments. At a minimum, risk assessments should exist for commonly-leveraged aspects of your company's IT environment:
- Datacenters (including infrastructure risks)
- Secure configurations for hosts and major applications (e.g., databases, email, Intranet)
By being able to leverage those existing risk assessments, it will allow for more efficient assessments of applications. The RMP helps build this foundation for efficient risk management by framing risk according to the following concepts:
- Insecure code (developers did not follow secure coding practices)
- Default/weak credentials
- Weak encryption
- Passwords/sensitive data stored in clear text
- Permissions management
- Missing software patches
- Logging/monitoring not being performed
- Lack of system hardening
- Default/weak credentials
- Lack of encryption at rest
- Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
- Missing software patches
- Logging/monitoring not being performed
- Backups not being performed
- Improper equipment (e.g., consumer-grade networking hardware vs business/enterprise-grade)
- Lack of system hardening
- Default/weak credentials
- Lack of encryption in transit
- Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
- Missing software patches
- Logging/monitoring not being performed
- Physical access controls
- Environmental controls
- Redundant utilities
- Trained response personnel (disaster recovery plan)
- Software escrow agreements
- Developer/vendor management
- Trans-border data transfers (international law ramifications)
- Business limitations (e.g., timelines, funding, regulations, politics, etc.)
Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) vs Cybersecurity Risk Management vs Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM)
The relationship between Enterprise Risk Management (ERM), Cybersecurity Risk Management and Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM) is akin to Russian nesting dolls, also referred to as Matryoshka dolls, which contain a series of increasingly smaller wooden figures, each tucked securely within the other.
Comparing risk management to Matryoshka dolls, the TPRM would be the smallest doll, since it deals specifically with third-party risk associated with vendors, suppliers, and partners.
Cybersecurity risk management would be the next layer of Matryoshka dolls, since it deals with risk associated with protecting information, systems, and technology assets.
Finally, ERM is the outermost Matryoshka doll, because in addition to encompassing both cybersecurity risk management and TPRM, it goes beyond and deals with organizational risk, including financial, operational, strategic, reputational, regulatory, and more.
Just like with nesting dolls, you can’t get to the innermost layer without considering the outer ones. If the outermost doll is cracked, every layer inside is exposed to risk. In other words, this means that if the supply chain is compromised, the organization itself will be impacted.
Why You Should Take A Phased Approach To Third-Party Risk Management (TPRM)
A phased approach to governing the TPRM lifecycle is considered a best practice, since business relationships follow a lifecycle, where there is a beginning, middle and an end. This phased approach to TPRM involves:
- Identifying third-parties and criteria they must meet;
- Performing due diligence (e.g., assessing risks and threats);
- Formalizing contracts through procurement activities;
- Performing due care (e.g., ongoing monitoring); and
- Securely offboarding vendors at the end of the contract.
This concept mirrors the lifecycle of a vendor relationship while ensuring that risk is managed consistently, proportionately and in alignment with an organization’s compliance obligations. Each phase plays a distinct role and taken together, they provide a structured, repeatable and defensible framework for vendor due diligence.
