SIG Lite Explained: A Complete Guide For 2025

You shouldn't be sending 400+ questions to every potential partner.

If you're assessing low-risk vendors or running preliminary checks on new partners, you don't always need a huge security questionnaire. Sometimes you just want to ask super targetted questions that surface any potential risks fast. That’s where the Standardized Information Gathering (SIG) questionnaire comes in.

The SIG Lite strips vendor assessments down to what matters: core security questions that spot gaps without drowning your team (or theirs) in unnecessary detail.

What is the SIG Lite Questionnaire?

SIG Lite is a streamlined third-party risk assessment questionnaire developed by the Shared Assessments Program. It gives businesses a standardized framework to evaluate the security posture, security controls, and risk management practices of third-party vendors.

SIG Lite is the most simplified version of the full SIG (Standardized Information Gathering) questionnaire, which can run to over a thousand questions. However, it still retains the core functionality. It covers 126-128 questions for program-level assessment and is designed for instances where a quick, high-level overview of a vendor and their third-party risk exposure is required.  

Common categories covered in a SIG Lite questionnaire include:

• Cybersecurity incident management
• Application security
• Access control
• Data security and data breaches
• Information security policies
• Network security
• Compliance certifications
• Operational resilience
  

So instead of investing extra time and resources reviewing a full SIG questionnaire from every vendor, you can use SIG Lite to vet companies quicker. If the vendor’s answers raise concerns, you might pursue further due diligence and request a SIG Core or a Custom SIG questionnaire.

When Should I Use SIG Lite?

Here’s where SIG Lite may be the appropriate choice:

1. For low-risk vendor relationships: vendors that don’t have access to sensitive data, like external service providers can fill out an SIG Lite as a preliminary assessment, before proceeding to the full SIG if needed.
2. If you work with a large number of vendors: sending every vendor a full SIG questionnaire can take a lot of time and effort to distribute, collect, and review. SIG Lite helps you collect enough information to make informed decisions without being overwhelmed.
3. For high-level overview of vendors: if you only need a general understanding of a vendor’s security posture, like for initial vendor screenings, a SIG Lite provides a condensed overview.  

SIG Lite vs SIG Core

The SIG Core digs deeper into vendor operations with more comprehensive questions, perfect for partners that may interact with sensitive data or critical systems. SIG Lite keeps it focused on the essentials for lowwe-risk relationships.

Understanding the differences can help you apply the right level of scrutiny and improve your vendor risk management process.

1. Question Count And Scope

SIG Lite tends to be between 126-128 questions and usually takes several hours to complete. SIG Core has up to 855 questions covering 19 different risk domains and can take up days to complete, with input from multiple stakeholders required.

The 19 risk domains covered by SIG Core are:

Here's the reordered list without groupings:

• Security Policy
• Enterprise Risk Management
• Compliance and Operational Risk
• Organizational Security
• Human Resources Security
• Privacy
• Asset and Information Management
• Access Control
• Network Security
• Server Security
• Endpoint Device Security
• Application Security
• Cloud Hosting Services
• IT Operations Management
• Operational Resilience
• Cybersecurity Incident Management
• Threat Management
• Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG)

2. Depth of Questions

The key difference between SIG Core and SIG Lite is depth or response they look for. SIG Lite is looking for whether you have a control in place, whereas SIG Core asks you to explain how the control works and provide evidence or documentation to support it.  

Another way to look at it: SIG Lite checks that the doors are locked. SIG Core inspects the locks, reviews your key management policy, and audits who last opened them.

3. Typical Use Cases

SIG Lite works best for low to medium-risk vendors handling non-sensitive data, whereas SIG Core is built for medium to high-risk vendors processing regulated or sensitive data.

Why Companies Choose SIG Questionnaires

Manual vendor assessments don't scale and custom questionnaires can create chaos, SIG offers a solution to both challenges.

Growing companies can work with hundreds of vendors, with many relationships kicking off each month. Running custom questionnaires for each potential partner would take up a huge amount of engineering and leadership resource. It also makes questionnaire responses hard to compare and track across partners.

The SIG framework gives you standardized questions that help you assess any risks in third-party relationships, flagging any vendors that need immediate attention, where your exposure concentrates, and what controls to implement first.

SIG also maps directly to the numerous frameworks and regulations, including:

• ISO 27001
• PCI DSS
• NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF)
• NIST 800-53

SIG is a single questionnaire that covers multiple compliance requirements. Plus, no explaining why your vendor assessment process differs from industry standards.

While alternatives like CSA CAIQ and ISO 27001 assessments are also valid options, SIG remains the standard because it balances thoroughness with efficiency. Your vendors know how to complete it. Your team knows how to score it. Your auditors accept it as evidence.

Key Features of SIG Lite Questionnaires

SIG Lite is a standardized questionnaire designed for consistency and comparability across your vendor ecosystem. Here are some of its key features:

• Standardized question set: A consistent questions structure across vendors makes it easier for you to compare and make decisions.
• Risk domain coverage: Focused on critical security aspects like privacy management, organizational security, and access control.
• Regulatory alignment: The questions map to common security frameworks and regulations like PCI DSS, GDPR, ISO 27001, and NIST to help you ensure compliance.
• Scoring methodology: Responses are evaluated with repeatable scoring, like binary or weighted. You can then use a control-by-control rubric and an overall risk rating to segment vendor tiering and drive remediation.

Who Updates and Maintains SIG Lite?

Shared Assessments owns the SIG program, including SIG Lite. They maintain SIG Lite through a formal governance structure that incorporates industry feedback, practitioner feedback, and alignment with evolving standards.

Updates to SIG Lite will typically occur once a year to reflect new security regulations, evolving industry standards, threat trends, and best practices. Use current versions of the questionnaire to avoid gaps and improve vendor comparability across your vendor ecosystem.

How Often is SIG Lite Updated?

You should plan for an annual update cycle. Updates commonly include emerging threats, privacy laws, framework alignment tweaks, and clarity improvements.

For version tracking, use the Shared Assessments SIG manager built into MS Excel, which helps you store and compare versioned templates. Request that vendors use the current release, and consider keeping a SIG Lite PDF file or read-only copy file for audit trails.

SIG Lite Challenges and Best Practices

While SIG Lite provides a streamlined version of the more extensive full SIG questionnaire, many businesses and vendors struggle with it. Common issues include:

• Gaps in detailed risk coverage
• Inappropriate for high-risk vendors
• Time burden and long assessment process
• Inconsistent answers
• Respondent fatigue  
• A need for vendor-specific context
• Lack of central documentation.

SIG questionnaires like SIG Lite are often a pain point for revenue leaders. The hidden cost? Time, effort, and missed opportunities. Business deals that could have been closed can get delayed because SIG questionnaires aren’t answered properly in time.

Here are some actionable best practices to consider implementing:

Segment Low Risk and High Risk Vendors

Before you send out SIG Lite to vendors, perform an initial assessment to classify vendors as low or high risk, depending on their operational impact, access to sensitive data, and and business continuity. High risk vendors should be given SIG Core from the beginning—avoid wasting time giving both types of questionnaires if you can avoid it.

Use Automation For Distribution and Scoring

Manual processes can break down quickly and be time consuming for your teams, especially with a large number of SIG questionnaires. Automation and AI systems that automatically pull evidence from completed questionnaires and organize responses free up staff so they can focus on more critical work.

Workstreet is your automated questionnaire solution. Our AI-powered, human-in-the-loop solution handles the entire SIG Lite process to eliminate security bottlenecks forever. ‍

SIG Lite in 2025

In 2025 and beyond, security questionnaires aren’t going away anytime soon. If anything, they’re becoming more critical. Several trends for the future include increasing regulatory pressure with widespread data protection laws, rising buyer expectations, and increasing number of security assessments as companies adopt more SaaS platforms and tools.

Being able to handle more SIG assessments as efficiently and accurately as possible—whether you’re filling them out or sending, collecting, and reviewing the data, remains a top priority.

Eliminate SIG Questionnaire Bottlenecks With Workstreet

Workstreet handles all your SIG questionnaires, including SIG Lite and SIG Core. From initial setup to Slack-based delivery, we help you organize and review your vendor security questionnaires as efficiently as possible, across every format and portal. It’s why hyperscale companies like Clay and Cursor use Workstreet.

Ready to stop thinking about SIG Lite? Schedule a call.

SIG Lite FAQs

How do automated TPRM platforms handle SIG Lite?

Most automated third-party risk management platforms streamline SIG Lite by automating the distribution, collection, and analysis process. This reduces manual back-and-forth between the vendor and business and accelerates vendor onboarding.

Can SIG Lite be adapted to emerging compliance frameworks?

Yes, SIG Lite is updated regularly by Shared Assessments, reflecting evolving regulatory standards. You can tailor it more to specific vendors with custom questions that cover new frameworks or unique requirements.

Can small businesses benefit from using SIG Lite?

Yes, SIG Lite gives smaller and hyperscale organizations a ready-made, standardized assessment framework that’s light on resources but still effective for managing vendor risk.