Systems and methods for proactively responding to vendor security assessments

A method of responding to a security questionnaire, the method comprising:

• identifying a set of latent topics present in a corpus of security questionnaires;
• determining a distribution of latent topics throughout questions, controls, and sections within the corpus of security questionnaires, wherein the distribution scores the questions, controls, and sections based on a presence or absence of each latent topic within the set of latent topics;
• scoring a new text based on the presence or absence of each latent topic within the set of latent topics;
• comparing a score of the new text to the distribution of latent topics throughout the questions, controls, and sections within the corpus of security questionnaires;
• identifying a question, control, or section that is scored within the distribution that is nearest the score of the new text;
• and
• associating the new text and the identified question, control, or section.

A system for responding to security questionnaires, the system comprising:

• a memory to store a corpus of security questionnaires;
• and
• a processor to:
• identify a set of latent topics present in the corpus of security questionnaires;
• determine a distribution of latent topics throughout questions, controls, and sections within the corpus of security questionnaires, wherein the distribution scores the questions, controls, and sections based on a presence or absence of each topic within the set of latent topics;
• score a new text based on the presence or absence of each topic within the set of latent topics;
• compare a score of the new text to the distribution of latent topics throughout the questions, controls, and sections within the corpus of security questionnaires;
• identify a question, control, or section that is scored within the distribution that is nearest the score of the new text;
• and
• populate an unanswered question field associated with the new text with an answer variable associated with the identified question, control, or section.