Compliance-Focused Vendor Risk Assessment: Audit, Monitor, and Govern Third-Party Risk
Your vendors tell you they are secure. ShadowMap shows you what is actually exposed. Security Brigade bridges the gap between questionnaire answers and observable reality with structured, regulator-aligned vendor risk assessments.
Trusted by India's leading enterprises
Assess
Security Brigade evaluates your critical vendors against the regulatory framework that applies to you — RBI outsourcing directions, SEBI CSCRF, NPCI third-party requirements, DPDP processor obligations, or your own board-level risk criteria. ShadowMap simultaneously scans each vendor's external attack surface for exposed services, leaked credentials, and shadow assets.
Remediate
Every vendor gap is documented with risk rating, evidence, and actionable remediation guidance. Lemon tracks each finding through a structured workflow — open, in-progress, closed, revalidated — so nothing stays unresolved in a spreadsheet. Vendors can be onboarded into ShadowMap for real-time visibility into remediation progress.
Govern
You receive a regulator-ready vendor risk assessment report, a master gap matrix across all vendors, and a board-level summary of critical third-party risks. For ongoing governance, ShadowMap continuously monitors vendor attack surfaces, credential leaks, and compliance drift — turning a point-in-time audit into an always-on program.
What Is a Compliance-Focused Vendor Risk Assessment?
A compliance-focused vendor risk assessment is a structured audit of your third-party and supplier security controls, aligned to a specific regulatory mandate such as RBI, SEBI CSCRF, NPCI, or DPDP. It evaluates whether vendors handling your data, infrastructure, or payment flows meet the security and governance standards your regulator expects you to enforce.
Who Needs a Vendor Risk Assessment and Why?
Regulatory mandates across India now make structured vendor risk governance a board-level obligation, not optional due diligence.
RBI-Regulated Entities
Banks, NBFCs, and fintechs must audit outsourced IT vendors per RBI outsourcing directions, retaining responsibility for vendor data security and preserving audit rights.
SEBI-Regulated Entities
Market infrastructure institutions, brokers, and intermediaries must assess vendor and cloud stacks for SEBI CSCRF alignment covering cyber resilience, SOC, incident handling, and vulnerability management.
NPCI Ecosystem Participants
PSPs are responsible for ensuring TPAP systems are audited. Annual compliance reports with no open findings are expected by December 31 each year.
DPDP Data Fiduciaries
Organizations processing personal data through third-party processors must validate security safeguards, breach notification readiness, sub-processor controls, and contractual obligations.
Board or Risk-Committee Driven
Enterprises governing critical vendors proactively — evaluating concentration risk, fourth-party exposure, breach history, attack surface, and contractual gaps for board-level reporting.
M&A and Customer Questionnaires
Transaction-driven or assurance-driven assessments mapping vendor controls to ISO 27001, SOC 2, DPDP, GDPR, cloud security, and incident response requirements.
Methodology
3 stages. Audit-ready results.
Every engagement follows this process through Lemon, our proprietary audit management platform.
This is the core gap in every vendor risk program: vendors fill questionnaires saying they are compliant, patched, and secure. But questionnaire answers are self-reported and point-in-time. ShadowMap's Vendor Risk Management module continuously scans the external attack surface of every vendor in your ecosystem and surfaces the truth — exposed services, leaked credentials, misconfigured cloud assets, expired certificates, and shadow infrastructure that never appeared on any questionnaire. Security Brigade bridges both sides. We perform the consulting-led audit that gives you the structured, regulator-ready assessment. ShadowMap gives you the continuous, evidence-based monitoring that keeps vendor risk visible between audits. Together, you move from periodic trust to continuous verification.
TPRM Questionnaire (What They Say)
Self-reported answers, annual or onboarding only, no external validation, compliance on paper.
ShadowMap VRM (What We Observe)
Continuous external scanning, leaked credential detection, exposed service discovery, attack surface evidence that validates or contradicts questionnaire answers.
Security Brigade Audit (The Bridge)
Consulting-led assessment that combines questionnaire review, technical validation, ShadowMap intelligence, and regulator-specific control mapping into a single defensible report.
"I've bought penetration tests from five firms over the last decade. The difference with Security Brigade is that quality isn't dependent on who walks through the door. Their platform enforces the methodology, their senior reviewers catch what juniors miss, and the final report is something you can hand to an enterprise customer's security team without embarrassment. That's rare."
The Platform
Powered by Lemon
Most firms rely on individual tester skill. We built a platform that makes quality structural — informed by 6,700+ previous assessments.
Platform Only — ShadowMap VRM
Continuous vendor attack surface monitoring, leaked credential alerts, TPRM questionnaire workflow, risk scoring, and fourth-party visibility. Your team runs the program; ShadowMap provides the intelligence. Best for organizations with mature GRC teams who need the monitoring layer.
Service Only — Consulting-Led Audit
Security Brigade performs a structured vendor risk assessment against your regulatory mandate. You receive vendor-wise assessment reports, a master gap matrix, remediation tracker, and a board-level summary. Best for organizations that need a regulator-ready deliverable or do not have internal capacity to run assessments.
Hybrid — Audit Plus Continuous Monitoring
Security Brigade performs the initial assessment, then onboards your vendors into ShadowMap for ongoing monitoring. Findings from the audit feed directly into the ShadowMap dashboard. You get the defensible report and the always-on governance layer. This is the model most enterprise BFSI clients choose.
Compliance-Ready
Audit-ready reporting for every framework
As a CERT-In empanelled firm, our reports are accepted by Indian regulators and meet global framework requirements.
Industries
700+ clients across verticals
Every type of application architecture and business logic pattern — tested.
Quality Assurance
Three-Layer Review for Every Vendor Assessment
Every vendor assessment passes through Security Brigade's L1, L2, and L3 review process before delivery.
Vendor risk assessments are only as defensible as their review process. A single-reviewer model introduces inconsistency and gaps — especially when regulators or auditors scrutinize the report. Security Brigade's structured three-layer review ensures every finding is validated, every risk rating is justified, and every report is regulator-ready before it reaches your desk.
L1 — Security Auditor
Performs the vendor assessment, documents findings with evidence, maps controls to the applicable regulatory framework, and produces the initial vendor-wise report.
L2 — Senior Security Consultant
Reviews the assessment scope, validates evidence quality, identifies gaps in vendor control coverage, and ensures remediation guidance is actionable and specific.
L3 — Security Architect
Final validation of risk ratings, regulatory alignment, report accuracy, and overall assessment quality. Signs off on the deliverable before it is released to the client.
Deliverables
What you get
Reports for two audiences — executives who need the risk picture, and developers who need to fix the issues. With code-level guidance, not vague advice.
Vendor-Wise Assessment Report
Individual report per vendor covering controls, evidence, gaps, risk ratings, and remediation guidance aligned to your regulatory mandate.
Master Gap Matrix
Consolidated view across all assessed vendors showing systemic control gaps, concentration risks, and common weaknesses.
Risk-Ranked Remediation Tracker
Every finding tracked with owner, severity, target closure date, and revalidation status. Managed in Lemon for structured follow-through.
Board and Management Summary
Executive-level pack summarizing critical third-party risks, unresolved exceptions, concentration risks, and recommended actions for board or risk committee presentation.
Regulator-Aligned Control Checklist
For regulator-driven engagements: control checklist with evidence references, observation status, closure requirements, and residual risk — formatted for submission.
ShadowMap VRM Scan Summary (Optional)
External attack surface intelligence for each assessed vendor — exposed services, leaked credentials, shadow assets, and risk score. Included in hybrid engagements.
Audit + Platform
What does the vendor say? vs. What does ShadowMap observe?
TPRM tells you what vendors claim, submit, and attest. VRM tells you what ShadowMap observes independently across attack surface, credential exposure, and dark-web footprint. Together they close the gap between self-attestation and real exposure.
What is a vendor risk assessment and why do Indian companies need one?
What is the difference between TPRM and VRM?
Is a CERT-In empanelled auditor required for vendor risk assessments?
How is this different from a generic VAPT engagement?
Can Security Brigade assess vendors we have already onboarded?
How does ShadowMap help with ongoing vendor risk monitoring?
What regulatory mandates require a vendor risk assessment in India?
What does a vendor risk assessment cost?
How long does a vendor risk assessment take?
Can the assessment cover fourth-party and sub-processor risk?
Start Governing Your Vendor Risk Today
Whether you need a one-time regulator-ready audit, continuous vendor monitoring through ShadowMap, or a hybrid program that combines both — the first step is a 30-minute scoping call.
Typically responds within 1 business day · No commitment required