Security
Security Questionnaires (SIG, CAIQ and Custom): How to Answer Them Faster
· 6 min read · By the ProposalPilot team
Short answer: To answer security questionnaires faster, keep one reviewed source of truth for your controls, reuse approved answers across SIG, CAIQ and custom forms, route unknowns to the right technical owner, and have a person approve every response.
Why they take so long
Customers send long spreadsheets — SIG, CAIQ or their own — and most questions repeat across them with different wording. The work is not writing, it is finding the accurate answer and confirming it is still true.
Build a source of truth
- Your security policies and architecture overview.
- Penetration test summaries and audit reports you are allowed to share.
- A list of sub-processors and where data is stored.
- Incident response, backup and access-control practices.
Answer precisely and honestly
Answer exactly what was asked. If a control is partial or planned, say so — an overstated answer that a customer later finds untrue costs far more than an honest 'no'.
Route unknowns to owners
When a question needs engineering or legal input, flag it for the right person instead of guessing. A shared project with per-question status and a team chat channel keeps those handoffs visible.
Reuse approvals
Once a security answer is approved, save it to the library. The next questionnaire starts from reviewed language, and your answers stay consistent between customers.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between SIG and CAIQ?
- SIG (Standardized Information Gathering) is a questionnaire from Shared Assessments covering many risk domains; CAIQ is the Cloud Security Alliance's questionnaire for cloud providers. Both assess a vendor's security controls.
- Can AI answer a security questionnaire?
- It can draft answers from your documented controls, but a knowledgeable person must verify each one before it is sent.