Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Toolkit (HECVAT)
Information technology-based services and solutions must be properly evaluated to manage risks to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of sensitive data and systems. To support this goal, Trinity College has adopted EDUCAUSE’s Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Toolkit (HECVAT) as a standard component of its Architecture and Security Risk Review process.
The HECVAT provides a standardized set of information security and data protection questions tailored to the needs of higher education, promoting consistency and efficiency in vendor assessments.
Benefits of using the HECVAT:
- Ensures that IT services and solutions are assessed against security and privacy requirements, including those unique to higher education.
- Provides a consistent, widely adopted framework that supports the safe and cost-effective use of cloud and third-party services.
- Reduces the effort required from vendors by standardizing security questionnaires across institutions.
Vendors should seriously consider the benefits of hosting their HECVAT on REN-ISAC’s Cloud Broker Index. Once completed, HECVATs can be shared with any higher education institution that uses them.
