Transform Your Vendor Assessment with a Comprehensive RFI Template

Organizations often rush through or skip the request for information (RFI) stage when buying cybersecurity solutions.

This is a critical mistake.

A strong RFI template helps you gather essential intelligence about vendors' capabilities before making purchasing decisions. Unlike requests for proposals (RFPs) or requests for quotes (RFQs), RFIs allow you to explore available solutions without committing to specific pricing or contracts.

Skipping the RFI step risks:

• Security gaps and increased attack exposure

• Compliance violations and regulatory penalties

• Poor vendor fit and wasted investments

An effective RFI lets you systematically compare vendors against consistent criteria and improve vendor risk management. A well-designed RFI template standardizes your evaluation process, aligns vendors with your security needs, and strengthens communication throughout the selection cycle, improving email communication with potential partners and strengthening cybersecurity due diligence.

Use this RFI template to standardize vendor responses, uncover key capabilities, and strengthen your cybersecurity decision-making process.

Start by gathering key background information about the vendor to assess stability, experience, and customer base:

• Company name, headquarters location, and year founded

• Ownership structure and parent organizations (if applicable)

• Financial stability indicators (funding rounds, profitability, public/private status)

• Number of employees globally and regionally

• Primary security solutions offered

• Notable customers or industry sectors served

Understanding the vendor’s background helps you identify partners with proven success supporting organizations like yours.

Compliance signals a vendor’s commitment to maintaining security and regulatory standards. Request evidence of:

• SOC 2 Type II certification and latest audit reports

• ISO 27001 certification and ISMS practices

• GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, or other applicable compliance

• FedRAMP authorization (if required)

• Third-party security assessments and penetration testing results

• Other relevant industry-specific certifications, like CMMC (Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification) for defense contractors

Vendors that maintain rigorous certifications demonstrate alignment with global security best practices.

Dig into the vendor’s technical capabilities to confirm compatibility with your environment and future growth plans:

• Supported platforms, operating systems, and environments

• Deployment models (cloud-native, on-premises, hybrid)

• Integration methods (APIs, connectors, ecosystem compatibility)

• Scalability details for growing environments

• Average system performance benchmarks and latency rates

• Use of AI and behavioral analysis for anomaly detection

• Methods for identifying sophisticated email threats, including business email compromise (BEC), vendor impersonation, and QR code phishing attacks

Strong technical foundations ensure the solution integrates smoothly into your existing security stack.

Ensure the vendor offers modern defenses against evolving threats:

• Protection against phishing, ransomware, and supply chain attacks, including vendor email compromise and executive impersonation attempts.

• Ability to detect multi-factor authentication bypass attempts

• Threat intelligence sources and update cadences

• Vendor ecosystem anomaly detection using tools like VendorBase

• Transparent false positive rates and tuning options

Solutions that leverage behavioral insights deliver stronger protection against sophisticated attacks.

Clarify what’s required to successfully deploy and maintain the solution:

• Estimated deployment timeline and resource requirements

• Integration details for Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and other systems

• API and automation capabilities for incident detection and response

• Migration and onboarding support options

A smooth deployment process minimizes disruption and accelerates time-to-value.

Review the vendor’s ability to support you during incidents and day-to-day operations:

• Support hours, including 24/7 coverage for emergencies

• SLA details: guaranteed response and resolution times

• Access to incident response teams and technical account managers

• Post-incident reviews and service improvement plans

Reliable support models ensure faster recovery when incidents occur.

Request transparent, full-lifecycle pricing information:

• Licensing models (per user, mailbox, flat rate, etc.)

• Implementation and onboarding fees

• Training and maintenance costs

• Estimated three-year total cost of ownership

• Renewal pricing structures and escalation models

Understanding total investment costs prevents surprise expenses down the line.

Finally, embed these 10 questions to probe deeper into vendor capabilities beyond marketing materials:

• How does your solution prevent attacks that bypass traditional defenses, including MFA bypass?

• Describe your detection and response process for BEC.

• What is your average detection and containment time for critical incidents?

• How does your solution integrate with our existing security tools?

• What measurable ROI can customers expect?

• How do you adapt your detection capabilities to new and evolving threats?

• Which compliance certifications do you maintain and update?

• How do you protect against supply chain threats like vendor email fraud?

• What does your incident support model look like during active breaches?

• What is your documented false positive rate?

These questions help separate marketing claims from real-world capabilities, giving you the information needed to make confident, risk-aligned vendor selections.

A structured scoring methodology ensures you objectively compare cybersecurity vendors based on technical capabilities, risk profiles, and operational resilience, and select the solution that best fits your security needs.

Use these approaches to standardize evaluations and improve decision-making.

Start with a straightforward numerical rating system by assigning scores of one to five for each question or requirement.

• 1 = Needs improvement

• 3 = Meets basic requirements

• 5 = Exceeds requirements with additional value

This method enables quick screening but treats all criteria equally.

For email security vendors, you might rate their ability to detect phishing attacks, remediate threats automatically, and integrate with existing infrastructure.

Weighted scoring accounts for the varying importance of different capabilities:

• Assign higher multipliers to critical features (e.g., 10x for detection accuracy).

• Apply medium weights to secondary features (e.g., 5x for reporting capabilities).

• Use lower multipliers for nice-to-have features (e.g., 2x).

Multiply scores by their assigned weight, then total the results. For example, Abnormal customers have found that heavily weighting detection accuracy and low false positive rates highlighted the platform’s strength in behavioral AI.

Tailor your evaluation scorecards to your organization’s specific needs:

• Include technical capabilities, service levels, compliance adherence, and total cost.

• Standardize formats to simplify comparisons.

• Involve stakeholders across security, IT operations, compliance, and finance to capture diverse perspectives.

For example, when evaluating email security vendors, you might heavily weight the ability to detect socially engineered attacks and Vendor Email Compromise (VEC) in financial services—a critical gap that traditional solutions often miss.

Organizations that adopt multi-stakeholder evaluations often uncover hidden strengths: Abnormal customers, for instance, have reported a three-year ROI of 278% by reducing security incidents and operational costs.

Different cybersecurity tools protect against different risks. To gather the most relevant information during vendor evaluations, customize your RFI template based on the specific type of solution you're assessing.

Here’s how to tailor your RFI for three common cybersecurity categories.

Email remains the most targeted attack vector for threat actors, making it critical to evaluate vendors against modern risks.

Focus your RFI template on:

• Advanced Threat Detection: Capabilities to block phishing, BEC, and socially engineered attacks like RFQ Scams.

• Data Loss Prevention (DLP): Controls to prevent sensitive information leaks and support enterprise email protection.

• Account Takeover Protection: Behavioral detection of compromised accounts.

• Cloud-Native Integration: Seamless API-based connection with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace without requiring infrastructure changes (Enhancing Microsoft Email Security).

• Behavioral Analysis Approach: Focus on baseline behavior deviations, not just signature-based detection.

Use these sample RFI questions:

1. How does your solution detect and remediate social engineering attacks without malicious links or attachments?

2. How do you establish behavioral baselines to identify anomalies like Vendor Email Compromise?

3. What API-based integrations do you offer, and how do they differ from legacy gateway models?

4. How does your solution reduce investigation time for email threats?

With remote work and bring your own device (BYOD) adoption, endpoints have become primary targets. Customize your RFI to highlight:

• Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR): Real-time monitoring, automated response, and threat hunting capabilities.

• Next-Generation Prevention: Protection beyond traditional antivirus, including exploit and fileless malware prevention.

• Behavioral Analytics: Detection of suspicious behaviors rather than relying solely on known signatures.

• Device Management: Inventory control, health monitoring, and policy enforcement.

• Zero Trust Alignment: Continuous verification and least-privilege enforcement across devices.

Use these sample RFI questions:

1. How does your solution detect fileless malware and living-off-the-land attacks?

2. How do you protect disconnected endpoints without continuous cloud access?

3. How does your EDR solution balance minimizing false positives with detecting novel threats?

How do you support endpoint protection in highly regulated environments?

Managed security services require different evaluation criteria.

Focus your RFI template on:

• 24/7 Monitoring: Structure and staffing of Security Operations Centers (SOCs).

• Incident Response Capabilities: Escalation processes, detection speed, and containment strategies.

• Threat Intelligence Integration: How external intelligence is incorporated into monitoring workflows.

• Customization Flexibility: Ability to tailor services to your industry, risks, and maturity.

• Reporting and Metrics: Visibility into performance, incident metrics, and executive summaries.

Here are some questions to use:

1. How do you assess and customize monitoring for our specific threat landscape?

2. What are your average times for detection and response across incident categories?

3. How do you incorporate industry-specific threat intelligence into your operations?

4. How do you triage alerts to reduce false positives and avoid overwhelming internal teams?

Accelerate your vendor evaluation process with our comprehensive cybersecurity RFI template, built to standardize information gathering and improve decision-making.

This ready-to-use template includes:

• Pre-formatted sections for company background, compliance certifications, technical capabilities, deployment details, and support models.

• Embedded smart evaluation questions across email security, endpoint protection, and MDR/MSSP services.

• Customizable scoring frameworks, including simple and weighted scoring methodologies.

• Risk assessment criteria to evaluate vendor security practices and organizational stability.

• Standardized response fields to simplify vendor comparisons and streamline reviews.

You can easily tailor the template to prioritize different cybersecurity solutions by adjusting the technical requirements and evaluation weighting.

A well-structured RFI process helps security teams make smarter, faster cybersecurity investments. By matching vendor capabilities to your specific needs through a detailed RFI template, you ensure the solutions you implement truly strengthen your defenses, not just check boxes.

Security platforms deliver the most value when they integrate seamlessly into your environment. Solutions like Abnormal enhance Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace without disrupting existing workflows, providing advanced protection through behavioral data science and API-based architecture.

Organizations that deploy Abnormal have seen the following results, according to Forrester’s Total Economic ImpactTM Study:

• They saw 278% ROI within three years

• They saved $4 million in potential BEC losses

• Their SOCs saved 5,000 hours annually using automation

As threats evolve, prioritize partners who leverage behavioral AI to detect and remediate sophisticated attacks automatically, improving security outcomes while reducing workload for your team.

Ready to protect against modern threats like Vendor Email Compromise? Learn how Abnormal can help.