https://cipherwire.biz Plain-English guides to SOC 2, ISO 27001, vendor risk, and the tools that get you compliant without the consultant markup. Written by practitioners, for the people who actually have to ship it. Wed, 24 Jun 2026 05:45:53 GMT https://cipherwire.biz/vendor-risk/dpa-vs-baa/https://cipherwire.biz/vendor-risk/dpa-vs-baa/A DPA is about privacy law. A BAA is about health data. Confusing them is how you end up out of compliance with both. https://cipherwire.biz/tools/secureframe-vs-thoropass/https://cipherwire.biz/tools/secureframe-vs-thoropass/Two platforms that bundle more hand-holding than the rest. Here's where each fits, and the tradeoff of getting your software and your audit from one vendor. https://cipherwire.biz/vendor-risk/security-questionnaires/https://cipherwire.biz/vendor-risk/security-questionnaires/What the big standardized questionnaires actually are, when to use which, and how to answer them once instead of fifty times. https://cipherwire.biz/tools/vanta-vs-drata-vs-sprinto/https://cipherwire.biz/tools/vanta-vs-drata-vs-sprinto/I've sat through demos and real implementations of all three. Here's how they actually differ once the sales engineer logs off. https://cipherwire.biz/frameworks/iso-27001-explained/https://cipherwire.biz/frameworks/iso-27001-explained/The international security standard, minus the jargon: what an ISMS is, what the 2022 controls cover, and how certification actually works. https://cipherwire.biz/vendor-risk/vendor-risk-assessment-checklist/https://cipherwire.biz/vendor-risk/vendor-risk-assessment-checklist/A tiered checklist that matches the depth of review to how risky the vendor actually is. https://cipherwire.biz/soc-2/readiness-checklist/https://cipherwire.biz/soc-2/readiness-checklist/The gap-assessment checklist we walk every client through before they spend a dollar on an auditor. https://cipherwire.biz/frameworks/soc-2-vs-iso-27001/https://cipherwire.biz/frameworks/soc-2-vs-iso-27001/They prove similar things to different audiences. Here's how to pick the first one, and why the second is far cheaper than the first. https://cipherwire.biz/vendor-risk/https://cipherwire.biz/vendor-risk/How to run real third-party risk management when "the team" is you and a spreadsheet, without grinding every deal to a halt. https://cipherwire.biz/soc-2/https://cipherwire.biz/soc-2/What a SOC 2 report actually proves, what it doesn't, and the order I'd tackle it in if I were starting from zero today. https://cipherwire.biz/tools/https://cipherwire.biz/tools/What these platforms do, what they don't, and the questions that actually separate them, so you buy for fit instead of for the logo. https://cipherwire.biz/frameworks/https://cipherwire.biz/frameworks/Which framework your buyers actually want, how they overlap, and what to tackle first so you're not certifying the same controls twice. https://cipherwire.biz/soc-2/cost/https://cipherwire.biz/soc-2/cost/The audit fee is the part everyone budgets for. The bigger cost is the one nobody warns you about. https://cipherwire.biz/soc-2/type-1-vs-type-2/https://cipherwire.biz/soc-2/type-1-vs-type-2/One is a snapshot, the other is a track record. Here's which buyers accept, what each costs in time, and the order I recommend.