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Release: Australia · Updated: 2026-03-12 · Official documentation · View source

Define a third-party risk domain

A risk domain defines the type of risk to assess for a third party. For example, you might want to assess a data-management third party in terms of security risk and a bank in terms of financial risk. Security risk and financial risk are risk domains. Some platform applications refer to risk domains as "risk areas."

Before you begin

Role required: sn_vdr_risk_asmt.vendor_risk_manager

About this task

Note: Risk domains are called "risk areas" in some platform applications.

You can better understand and mitigate the risks that a third party poses to your organization by identifying the domains of their business to assess for risk and quantifying the importance (weight) of each domain.

  • Security risk domain: A third party that handles sensitive personal data in their infrastructure might need to be assessed against their security posture.
  • Reputational risk domain: If that personal data were breached, it could cause damage to your reputation due to negative media attention.
  • Financial risk domain: If a third party fails to deliver on time, you might have to pay fines, settlements, or both resulting in financial loss.

In this procedure, you create a Risk domain definition. In each definition, you specify the criteria that determine which organizations should be assessed for a particular type of risk.

Note: Risk domain definitions are called Risk area definitions on the forms.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to All > Third-party Risk Management > Scoring Setup > Risk Domains.
Image omitted: vendor-risk-area-def.png
Third-party risk area definitions.
  1. Select New, fill in the form, and then select Submit.
FieldDescription
NameName of the risk domain.
DescriptionA description of the risk domain that helps colleagues to understand the intent of the definition. See the example.
Default scoring methodThe default scoring method for third parties in this risk domain. The scoring methods are based on how well a third-party contact answers 100 questions:- Average Risk: A rounded average of the ratings earns an Average Risk (Moderate) for the third party. - Max Risk: A score of 0 indicates that all questions were answered incorrectly and the risk for that third party would be Max Risk (Critical). - Min Risk: A score of 100 indicates that all questions were answered correctly and the risk for that third party would be Min Risk (Minor). Note: Each organization in a particular risk domain inherits the scoring method and weight of the risk area definition. Third-party risk managers can override the values when needed.
Default weightThe default weight for third parties in this risk domain.
Image omitted: vendor-risk-area-def-new.png
Third-party risk area definition — new record.