CIS-Vendor Risk Management Interview Questions

Exam and interview preparation are both equally crucial. As a result, interview preparation needs far more time, effort, and confidence than studying for any other exam. You only get one chance to make a good first impression, so give it your all. As a result, we’ve done our best to provide you with the most up-to-date and expert-reviewed interview questions to help you prepare for the CIS-Vendor Risk Management interview. Furthermore, we have covered every CIS-Vendor Risk Management Interview Questions, from beginner to advanced. As a result, we strongly encourage applicants to prepare to the best of their abilities in order to get the best potential outcomes.

Advanced Interview Questions

What is the process for vendor risk management?

Vendor risk management is a process that helps organizations identify and manage risks associated with third-party vendors. The process typically includes the following steps:

Identification: This step involves identifying all third-party vendors that have access to the organization’s sensitive data or systems.
Assessment: In this step, the organization assesses the potential risks associated with each vendor. This includes evaluating the vendor’s security controls, incident response capabilities, and compliance with relevant regulations and industry standards.
Mitigation: Once risks have been identified and assessed, the organization develops and implements strategies to mitigate those risks. This may include implementing security controls, setting up incident response procedures, or renegotiating vendor agreements.
Monitoring: The organization continuously monitors and assesses the ongoing risk posed by vendors. This includes regularly reviewing vendor security controls, incident response plans, and compliance with relevant regulations and industry standards.
Reporting: The organization tracks and reports on vendor-related risks and incidents to senior management and the board of directors.
Review: Periodically, the organization review its vendors and assess the ongoing risks they pose and decide whether to continue the relationship or terminate it.

The vendor risk management process may vary depending on the organization’s size, industry, and regulatory requirements.

How do you assess the potential risks associated with a new vendor before engaging with them?

When assessing the potential risks associated with a new vendor before engaging with them, organizations typically take several steps, including:

Conducting due diligence: This includes reviewing the vendor’s financial stability, business practices, and legal compliance history.
Reviewing the vendor’s security controls: The organization may ask the vendor to provide information about their security policies, procedures and technical controls to understand the vendor’s security posture.
Conducting on-site assessments: An organization may send a representative to visit the vendor’s facility to conduct an on-site assessment of the vendor’s security controls, incident response capabilities, and compliance with relevant regulations and industry standards.
Asking for references: The organization may contact other organizations that have used the vendor’s services to ask about their experiences and any issues they encountered.
Reviewing vendor’s incident response plan: The organization may ask the vendor to provide an incident response plan or test it in case of any incident happen.
Reviewing the vendor’s insurance coverage: The organization may ask the vendor to provide information about their insurance coverage to understand the vendor’s financial capability to cover the damages in case of an incident.
Reviewing vendor’s subcontractors: If the vendor is using any subcontractors, the organization may review them as well.

The level of assessment will depend on the level of risk the vendor poses and the type of services they provide. High-risk vendors, such as those that handle sensitive data or have access to critical systems, will typically be subject to a more in-depth assessment process.

What are the steps involved in the incident response plan for a vendor-related incident?

Incident involving vendors can take many forms, such as a data breach, unauthorized access to sensitive information, or a service disruption. The way an organization handles a vendor incident will depend on the specific incident and the organization’s incident response plan.

Generally, the incident response plan for a vendor-related incident would include the following steps:

Identification: The incident is identified, and key stakeholders are notified.
Containment: The organization takes immediate steps to contain the incident and prevent further damage.
Investigation: The organization investigates the incident to determine the cause and extent of the damage.
Notification: The organization notifies affected parties, such as customers, employees, and regulators, as required by law or company policy.
Remediation: The organization takes steps to remediate the incident, such as restoring systems, providing credit monitoring services, or implementing security controls.
Review: The organization reviews the incident and the response to identify areas for improvement and update the incident response plan.
Communication: The organization communicates the incident and its resolution to the stakeholders and the board of directors.

It’s worth noting that incident response plans may vary depending on the organization’s size, industry, and regulatory requirements. And in some case the organization may terminate the contract with the vendor if the incident is severe and the vendor is not able to resolve the incident or compensate for the damages caused.

How do you ensure compliance with relevant regulations and industry standards related to vendor risk management?

Ensuring compliance with relevant regulations and industry standards related to vendor risk management can be a complex task. Here are a few steps organizations can take to ensure compliance:

Review and understand the relevant regulations and industry standards: Organizations should familiarize themselves with the regulations and standards that apply to their industry, such as HIPAA, SOC 2, PCI DSS, and ISO 27001.
Develop a compliance plan: Organizations should develop a compliance plan that outlines the specific actions that need to be taken to meet the requirements of each regulation and standard.
Assess vendor compliance: Organizations should assess the compliance of their vendors with relevant regulations and standards. This may include reviewing vendor policies and procedures, conducting on-site assessments, or requesting compliance certifications.
Implement security controls: Organizations should implement security controls that are compliant with relevant regulations and standards. This may include encryption, firewalls, access controls, and incident response procedures.
Continuous monitoring: Organizations should continuously monitor vendor compliance and their own security controls to ensure they remain compliant with relevant regulations and standards.
Reporting: Organizations should keep track of the compliance with the regulations and standards and report them to the relevant authorities as required by the regulations.
Training: Organizations should train their employees and vendors on the relevant regulations and standards and how to comply with them.

It’s worth noting that compliance requirements may vary depending on the organization’s size, industry, and the type of data that the vendor handles. Organizations should work with legal and compliance experts to understand the specific requirements that apply to them.

Can you explain how your organization monitors and assesses the ongoing risk posed by existing vendors?

In general, organizations typically take the following steps to monitor and assess the ongoing risk posed by existing vendors:

Regularly review vendor security controls: Organizations should regularly review the security controls of their vendors to ensure they remain effective and are updated as necessary.
Review vendor incident response plans: Organizations should review the incident response plans of their vendors to ensure they are up-to-date and effective.
Conduct regular risk assessments: Organizations should conduct regular risk assessments of their vendors to identify any new or emerging risks.
Monitor vendor compliance: Organizations should monitor the compliance of their vendors with relevant regulations and industry standards.
Collect and analyze data: Organizations should collect and analyze data on vendor-related incidents and risks to identify trends and areas for improvement.
Communicate with vendors: Organizations should communicate with their vendors about any concerns or issues that arise and work with them to resolve them.
Review the vendor relationship: Organizations should periodically review the vendor relationship and assess the ongoing risks they pose and decide whether to continue the relationship or terminate it.

It’s worth noting that the process for ongoing vendor risk management may vary depending on the organization’s size, industry, and the type of data that the vendor handles. Organizations should work with experts to develop a risk management program that is tailored to their specific needs.

How do you handle vendor incidents, including data breaches or other security incidents?

Handling vendor incidents, including data breaches or other security incidents, is a critical part of vendor risk management. Here are a few steps organizations can take to handle vendor incidents:

Identification: The incident is identified, and key stakeholders are notified.
Containment: The organization takes immediate steps to contain the incident and prevent further damage.
Investigation: The organization investigates the incident to determine the cause and extent of the damage.
Notification: The organization notifies affected parties, such as customers, employees, and regulators, as required by law or company policy.
Remediation: The organization takes steps to remediate the incident, such as restoring systems, providing credit monitoring services, or implementing security controls.
Review: The organization reviews the incident and the response to identify areas for improvement and update the incident response plan.
Communication: The organization communicates the incident and its resolution to the stakeholders, the board of directors, and the relevant authorities.
Evaluate the vendor relationship: After the incident, the organization evaluates the vendor relationship, and assess the vendor’s incident response plan, the security controls, and their compliance with relevant regulations and standards. Depending on the incident and the vendor’s response, the organization may decide to terminate the contract with the vendor.

It’s worth noting that incident response plans may vary depending on the organization’s size, industry, and regulatory requirements. Organizations should work with experts to develop an incident response plan that is tailored to their specific needs.

How do you ensure that vendors are meeting their security and compliance obligations to your organization?

Organizations can take several steps to ensure that vendors are meeting their security and compliance obligations, including:

Reviewing vendor agreements: Organizations should review vendor agreements to ensure that they include specific security and compliance requirements and that vendors are held accountable for meeting these requirements.
Conducting regular vendor assessments: Organizations should conduct regular assessments of their vendors to evaluate their security controls, incident response capabilities, and compliance with relevant regulations and industry standards.
Implementing security controls: Organizations should implement security controls that are compliant with relevant regulations and standards and ensure that vendors comply with them.
Reviewing vendor incident response plans: Organizations should review the incident response plans of their vendors to ensure they are up-to-date and effective.
Communicating with vendors: Organizations should communicate with vendors about any concerns or issues that arise and work with them to resolve them.
Auditing vendors: Organizations should perform regular audits to ensure that vendors are adhering to their security and compliance obligations.
Keeping records: Organizations should keep records of vendor assessments, security controls, incident response plans and audits for future reference.
Reviewing the vendor relationship: Organizations should periodically review the vendor relationship and assess the ongoing risks they pose and decide whether to continue the relationship or terminate it.

It’s worth noting that compliance and security requirements may vary depending on the organization’s size, industry, and the type of data that the vendor handles. Organizations should work with legal and compliance experts to understand the specific requirements that apply to them.

Can you explain your organization’s incident response plan for vendor-related incidents?

An incident response plan for vendor-related incidents includes the following steps:

Identification: The incident is identified, and key stakeholders are notified.
Containment: The organization takes immediate steps to contain the incident and prevent further damage.
Investigation: The organization investigates the incident to determine the cause and extent of the damage.
Notification: The organization notifies affected parties, such as customers, employees, and regulators, as required by law or company policy.
Remediation: The organization takes steps to remediate the incident, such as restoring systems, providing credit monitoring services, or implementing security controls.
Review: The organization reviews the incident and the response to identify areas for improvement and update the incident response plan.
Communication: The organization communicates the incident and its resolution to the stakeholders and the board of directors.
Evaluate the vendor relationship: After the incident, the organization evaluates the vendor relationship, and assess the vendor’s incident response plan, the security controls, and their compliance with relevant regulations and standards. Depending on the incident and the vendor’s response, the organization may decide to terminate the contract with the vendor.

How do you evaluate the effectiveness of your vendor risk management program?

There are several ways to evaluate the effectiveness of a vendor risk management program:

Perform regular risk assessments to identify and evaluate potential risks associated with each vendor.
Implement control measures to mitigate identified risks and monitor their effectiveness.
Use metrics such as the number and severity of incidents, compliance with regulatory requirements, and the effectiveness of incident response plans to measure the overall effectiveness of the program.
Regularly review and update the program to ensure it remains effective and adapts to changing risks.
Conducting third party audits of the program can also be used to validate its effectiveness
Communicate with the vendor and gather their feedback on the program and its effectiveness to enhance the program.

How does your organization handle termination of a vendor relationship?

The process for terminating a vendor relationship will vary depending on the specific organization and the nature of the vendor relationship. However, in general, the following steps are often involved in terminating a vendor relationship:

Communicate the decision to terminate the relationship to the vendor in writing, providing a clear explanation of the reasons for the termination and a timeline for the transition.
Develop a plan for transitioning the work or services currently being provided by the vendor to an alternative vendor or in-house resources.
Ensure that all legal and contractual obligations are met, such as providing notice periods, returning or destroying any confidential or proprietary information, and settling any outstanding invoices or debts.
Conduct a final review of the vendor’s performance, including their compliance with security and data protection requirements, and identify any areas that need to be addressed before the relationship is terminated.
Document the termination process and the outcome, including any lessons learned, to inform future vendor management decisions.
Ensure that all internal processes and systems are updated to reflect the termination of the vendor relationship.
Conduct a final risk assessment and mitigate any risks that may arise from the termination of the vendor relationship.
Communicate the termination of the vendor relationship to the relevant internal stakeholders and any external parties that may be affected.

Basic Interview Questions

1.What is a risk matrix, exactly? What is the significance of this?

A risk matrix is a mechanism for mapping the results of a risk assessment process so that they can be properly handled. For “Extreme” and “High” risks, an organization’s management often implements risk treatment. To determine “medium” risks, the organization’s risk appetite is frequently used.

2. Have you worked on any security standards?

This is a common question in compliance interviews, so make sure you have a response prepared. If requested, go over the domains of these standards to use as keywords, and make sure to highlight the ones specifically listed in the Job Description. The most basic standard for information security and risk management profiles is ISO 27001. It will also be beneficial to understand the basics of 22301, COBEC, and GDPR.

3. What exactly do you mean when you say “gap analysis”?

A security gap analysis finds the gaps between your organization’s existing state of information security implementation (as-is) and its ideal state of information security implementation (as-is) (to-be). The analysis results reveal areas in which the company can improve in order to achieve the desired target state, and organizations may create the appropriate budget and action plan to achieve that goal.

4. What is the difference between a process, a set of guidelines, and a set of policies?

A policy is a high-level document that outlines senior management’s security goals.
Procedure: A step-by-step list of tasks that must be accomplished in order to obtain the intended result (SOP).
A list of recommendations/best practises that are optional to follow is referred to as a “guideline.”

5. In CIS-Vendor Risk Management, how do you reduce risk?

The ideal technique is to prioritize risk control and reduce those that can have a substantial influence on a business. Preventing disasters and creating methods to lessen their repercussions are all part of risk reduction. Risk mitigation takes into account the needs of corporate employees. Furthermore, risk mitigation requires identifying potential business risks, analyzing each risk’s impact, and prioritizing risks depending on their business impact.

6. How can risk monitoring and management be ensure?

Tracking recognized hazards, establishing reaction plans, refining risk management systems, and effectively responding to emerging threats are all part of risk monitoring and control.

7. What does it mean to have a risk breakdown structure?

A risk breakdown structure, or RBS, is a type of hierarchical risk representation. An RBS begins with higher-level risks and progresses to lower-level risks. When there are distinct levels of risk, it is easier to simplify them. Furthermore, focusing on specific risk categories makes it easier to categorize risks.

8. Describe the risk management process in a few words.

Although the risk management process is described in a variety of ways, the following are the main steps:

Risk identification is the process of identifying and describing prospective business risks.
The risk manager examines each identified risk to evaluate the magnitude of its influence on the organization’s objectives.
Risk appraisal is the practise of ranking hazards according to their negative impact on an organisation.
Risk management entails developing preventive, contingency, and risk-mitigation methods. You will react in accordance with the dangers that pose a high risk to the company.
At this stage, risk monitoring comprises tracking and reviewing hazards.

9. How do you distinguish between risk likelihood and risk impact?

The effect or result of a risk occurrence on project objectives is referred to as a risk impact. Impacts on a project’s goals can be helpful or destructive. While the impact scale may differ, a five-point scale ranging from very low to very high is often used to signify risk. Risk probability is the probability of a risk event occurring. This possibility can be quantified as well as qualitatively conveyed. Words like rare, feasible, and frequent are used to describe risk probability. In the numerical statement, frequencies, percentages, and scores are used.

10. What are risk matrices, exactly?

In the vast majority of cases, risk matrices will not be required. They can, however, be utilized to assist you in determining the level of risk connected with a particular problem. They do so by categorizing the possibility of danger and the severity of the potential injury. After then, it’s expressed as a matrix (please see below for an example). Which issues should be handled initially depends on the risk level. A matrix can assist you in prioritizing your risk-control efforts. It’s suitable for a wide range of tests, but it shines in more difficult ones. Expertise and experience, on the other hand, are required to appropriately assess the risk of injury.

11. What are the most significant dangers in CIS-Vendor Risk Management?

Significant risks are those that are not insignificant in nature and pose true harm to one’s health and safety, which any reasonable person would identify and avoid. Depending on the conditions, what is considered “insignificant” will vary from site to site and activity to activity.

12. What is a risk assessment at each stage of the life cycle in CIS-Vendor Risk Management?

The major purpose of RA is to identify and quantify the dangers associated with chemical releases into the environment, as well as human and ecosystem exposure.

LCA’s main purpose is to measure a product’s health and environmental implications across its full life cycle.

13. In CIS-Vendor Risk Management, define the Risk Lifecycle in CIS-Vendor Risk Management.

Systems and methods for identifying, assessing, managing, monitoring, and reporting risks from beginning to end. If such a thing exists, this is the “bread and butter” of risk management. It is the fulcrum around which a company strives to comprehend and manage its risks.

14. Describe the Risk Scoring System.

The method of calculating a score that shows you how serious a risk is based on multiple elements is known as risk scoring. Risk and security teams would struggle to communicate internally about how to deploy resources correctly to reduce costs and business impact without a defined model for risk rating. There are two sorts of data to evaluate when risk scoring: quantitative and qualitative. The difference between these two types is immediately discernible based on whether the data is numerical or not. Quantitative data can be measured, whereas qualitative data is more descriptive. While it is a broad summary, let us delve deeper into the details.

15. What exactly do you mean when you say GRC Entities Architecture?

GRC stands for governance, risk management, and compliance, and it is a management strategy for an organization’s overall governance, risk management, and regulatory compliance. GRC is a systematic method to align IT with business goals while effectively managing risk and complying with regulations. Better decision-making, more effective IT investments, the elimination of silos, and less fragmentation among divisions and departments are just a few of the benefits of a well-planned GRC strategy.

16. What does GRC mean in the context of CIS-Risk and Compliance Management?

GRC (for governance, risk, and compliance) is an approach for managing governance, risk, and regulatory compliance inside a business. GRC can also refer to a set of software tools for implementing and maintaining a GRC program in an organization. An organized method to aligning IT with business goals is provided by the GRC collection of practices and processes. GRC aids firms in successfully managing IT and security risks, lowering expenses, and complying with regulations. It also improves decision-making and performance by offering a comprehensive picture of a company’s risk management.

17. What does it mean to have a derived role in GRC?

Derived roles are roles that have previously been created. They’re commonly thought of as a menu structure with specific functions for providing services like transactions, reports, and Weblinks. An existing role, on the other hand, can only inherit as a menu or function provided transaction codes have never been assigned to it before. They have a very good system in place for sustaining roles, and those roles no longer differ in terms of functionality, such as the menus and functions they give. They just exhibit various behaviors when they interact with people at different levels of the organization.

18. What is the role of Composite in GRC?

A composite role is a container that holds multiple separate roles together. It’s also referred to as a role. These jobs don’t deal with permission data any longer. To modify the authorizations represented by composite roles, we just need to maintain each role independently for data maintenance, which takes time.

19. Describe how GRC risk management is used.

GRC Risk Management is utilized to manage and control any form of risk that exists now or in the future. GRC Risk Management has a wide range of uses. Listed below are a few examples:

Risk Management is primarily concerned with organisational alignment in terms of hazards that demand urgent attention, risk mitigation, and associated thresholds.
Risk management systems assess hazards qualitatively and quantitatively in order to identify the level of risk and whether the company should accept it.
Further, it also contains a number of risk-reduction techniques.
It then determines a company’s risks.
It makes use of both preventive and investigative mitigation control techniques.

20. What are the major activities in GRC that Process control and Access control share?

In order to manage risk in a business, risk control is essential as part of compliance and regulation practise.
Clearly defining roles, managing role provisioning, and managing access for the superuser are all important aspects of risk management in a company.

21. What is the Audit Risk Rating (ARR) and how does it work?

Audit Risk Rating is used to determine an organization’s criteria so that risk ratings can be found and risk ratings may be ranked. Based on management feedback, each audible entity is assigned an Audit Risk Rating (ARR). The following tasks can be completed with ARR:

The set of audible entities as well as the risk factor can be determined.
The risk score for each auditable entity for each risk element can be defined and evaluated.
The risk score of an auditable entity can be used to rate it.
Users can use Audit Risk Rating to create an audit plan by comparing risk scores for different auditable entities (ARR).

22. What does Internal Audit Management entail? (IAM).

Internal Audit Management allows a user to process data from risk management and process control so that it may be used in audit planning. Audit proposals can be sent to audit management for processing as appropriate, and audit items can be used to produce issues for reporting. Users can complete audit planning, generate audit items, establish the audit universe, and produce and examine audit reports and audit issues in Internal Audit Management.

23. Describe the Report and Analytics Work Center in GRC and how to use it.

Process control, risk management, and access control all share the Reports and Analytics Work center. The Risk and Analytics Work Center’s key areas of concentration include access dashboards, access risk analytics reports, security reports, role management reports, audit reports, and superuser management reports. Before presenting a report to the board for analysis, this segment completes a certain set of activities. This section provides a central location for showing reports and dashboards, such as user analysis and other reports.

24. What are some of the benefits of GRC?

GRC has a wide range of uses and benefits, including:

Activities can be readily handled because GRC is less complex.
It helps with risk identification, risk assessment, and risk management.
It aids corporate management and policymaking by contributing to the formulation of planning strategies.
Measures taken to guarantee that laws, policies, and organisational formalities are followed.
GRC is more of a collection of activities than a single activity aimed at achieving high standards.

25. What is UME and how does it function?

The abbreviation for the user management system is UME. When a person tries to open a tab that they do not have access to, the tab does not appear. If a UME action has been assigned to a tab for that user, that user can only access that function. The Admin user’s tab “Assigned Actions” contains all of the accessible basic UME actions for CC tabs.

26. Define Preventive Mitigation Controls.

Preventive risk mitigation control procedures are employed to lessen the impact of risk before it arises. Configuration, user exits, security, workflow definition, and custom objects are all part of this procedure. The deployment of release plans and authorization constraints is aided by preventive mitigation.

27. Describe the Report and Analytics Work Center in GRC and how to use it.

28. What does Detective Mitigation Controls mean to you?

When a risk warning has already been created, i.e. when the risk occurs, Detective Mitigation Controls are employed. Various actions are required for this process, including activity reports, alert information, budget reviews, and comparisons between plans and reviews generated. Detective Mitigation Controls assist in identifying and analyzing various risks.

29. What is an Audit Universe, exactly in CIS-Vendor Risk Management?

The Audit Universe is the location where audit entities including corporate units, lobbies, and departments can be found. Audit entities create audit planning methods that can be linked to process control and risk management to identify risks, controls, and other issues.

30. Define Preventive Mitigation Controls.

CIS-Vendor Risk Management free practice test