Event Software Security Checklist: Questions to Ask [+ Free Scorecard]

Can any event truly exist without a reliable event management platform? One central place that holds all your participant information. Names, job titles, emails, maybe even how much they paid, who they met, what they engaged with.

But access to information like this comes with great responsibility. Specifically, responsibility for how all that data is handled.

Does your event platform hold attendee data in one place? Does it control who can see what data? And is it certified against the standards your industry needs?

This event software security checklist exists to help answer all those questions. We’ll cover a set of requirements to cover with your vendor before you sign, with a ready-to-use printable checklist at the end.

What Event Software Security Covers

Event software security impacts the data side of things, like registration records, payment details, attendee identities, and reporting that’s all inside your platform. It also outlines the controls in place that define who has access to what.

Goes without saying, it isn’t the same as “event security,” which includes physical security like guards and bag checks. Important stuff, but not what we’re talking about.

Core Security Features to Look Out For

Before we dive deeper into the questions, let’s go over the essential security features in event management software:

• Independent Proof: Certifications and test results from an established and credible third party, usually including GDPR compliance, ISO certifications, etc.
• Data Location & Encryption: Where the data physically sits, and whether it’s encrypted during transit and at rest.
• Identity & Access: Who can log in, and what each user can access once they do.
• Exports & Audit Trail: How does data leave the platform, and whether anyone is keeping a record.
• Privacy: What personal data is collected, and the legal agreements around it.
• Retention & Exit: What happens to your data over time, and in the case you discontinue using the platform.
• Incident Response: How fast do you find out when something goes wrong?

The rest of this article turns each feature into questions, and then into a scorecard you can score side by side.

The Security Questions to Ask Your Event Software Vendor

If the stakes weren’t so high, usually a demo would’ve been good enough. But since software security is a risky subject, we’d suggest you ask for these answers in writing. Having that paper trail helps just in case things go wrong.

Even then, a written answer isn’t automatically “good.” You still have to look at how long it takes the vendor to come up with an answer and how much information they volunteer.

1. What Certifications & Proof Do They Have

Starting with the basics, ask which security certifications the vendor holds and what each one covers. Defining that scope is important, because a certificate can cover a vendor’s corporate IT but not necessarily the product you’d use.

Next, ask them to share these certifications and reports, with their current audit and expiry dates, if applicable.

Lastly, if you’re in finance, healthcare, government, or any field that handles sensitive attendee data, it’s worth checking whether the vendor runs independent penetration testing at least once a year. If yes, ask to see the summary.

The vendors who have all these bases covered will answer this in one email with attachments.

2. Where Your Data Lives & How It’s Encrypted

Data encryption defines the format your data is stored in when it’s at rest or in transit. If it’s encrypted, i.e., scrambled, then even if someone gets hold of it, they can’t read it. So the damage is limited.

Here’s everything to cover in terms of data storage and encryption:

• What hosting provider do you use, and in which specific regions is our data stored?
• Will you put the location of our data in the contract, or is that not something that’s offered?
• Is data encrypted in transit and at rest, and who manages the keys?
• Are backups encrypted, and where do they live?

3. Who Can Get In & Access Data

Imagine a team member leaves a few months before your flagship conference. But their login still works, so they can access the attendee list, see what everyone paid, and walk it straight to a competitor.

To save yourself from such situations, here’s everything you need to ask upfront:

• Do you support single sign-on (SSO), so logins are managed through our own IT, and on which plans?
• Is multi-factor authentication available?
• Can we set role-based access (RBAC) so each person only sees what they need to?
• Can our own admin change permissions without raising a request with you?

Also, make sure all these features exist for your chosen pricing tier. Many times, a platform fulfills your entire event security checklist, just not for your plan. And you almost always find that out after you’ve already signed on.

4. Who Can Get Data Out

Strong login controls mean nothing if anyone can hit an export button and walk away with the whole list. Getting data in safely is just half the job. You also need to know every way it can get out, and who’s watching when it does.

• Who can export the attendee list, and is that limited by role?
• Is every export logged, showing who did it and when?
• Can our admin see and revoke API keys, and switch an integration off immediately?
• Can we pull the audit log ourselves, in our own format, without putting in a request?

Ideally, you want to be able to pull this record yourself. So next time when compliance asks who downloaded the list for the private customer dinner, you can answer instead of waiting for the vendor.

5. How They Handle an Incident

Even the best event platforms have an incident eventually. Your job is to be realistic and ask the difficult questions upfront, like how fast they will tell you when something goes wrong. Ask for a specific number of hours. 

Also ask if their incident response plan has been tested in the last 12 months. That tells you whether these response times are even reliable.

Lastly, ask about the vendor’s uptime commitment and recovery targets. This’ll help explain how often the platform is likely to go down and how quickly it comes back when it does.

6. What Personal Data Do They Hold & How

Guest lists are personal data. Fields like dietary restrictions and accessibility requirements might count as special-category data, which needs a lawful basis and tighter handling. All this means your data security department will want answers to these questions:

• Can you list every category of personal data the platform stores about an attendee?
• Is a data processing agreement (the contract that makes the vendor legally responsible as your processor) offered as standard?
• Will you share a list of the other companies that touch our data (like analytics tools or cloud providers), and tell us before you add a new one?
• Can you complete an access or deletion request within a stated timeframe?

For payment data specifically, ask whether the platform is PCI DSS compliant so card details never end up somewhere they shouldn’t. vFairs, for example, is built to GDPR and CCPA standards, and processes payments under PCI DSS v4.0.1.

7. What Happens When You Leave

Most companies have rules about how long they keep personal data and when they delete it.

The catch is that third-party event platforms sit outside your own systems, so those rules don’t apply to them. Which means when you leave a platform, you also have to confirm that your data is deleted as well.

• Is there a default retention period, and can we configure it to match our policy?
• How quickly can you delete a single attendee’s record on request?
• Can we export everything and get written confirmation that our data was deleted when the contract ends?

If the honest answer to data retention is “indefinitely,” that’s a deal-breaker.

How to Turn the Questions Into a Scorecard

Put these questions in one document and send them to every shortlisted vendor. Score each answer Yes, Partial, or No, and make note of the evidence they provide. For instance, a certificate is evidence. A client’s logo on a website isn’t.

Security’s a big topic, and no one’s well-equipped to handle all of it. IT knows about encryption, legal handles data agreements, and your admin looks after exports.

So hand each question to whoever actually knows the answer. The review goes faster, and your events team isn’t stuck guessing at legal questions.

To make the scoring easier, we built the full event security checklist into a one-page scorecard. Each question comes with examples of what a strong answer and a red flag look like, plus a column to score every platform on your shortlist.

Download the Event Software Security Scorecard

Get the Answers Before You Commit

Event software security doesn’t mean your events team needs to become auditors. All it asks is for a short list of plain questions early, and noticing how willingly a vendor answers them.

Then score every platform on your shortlist the same way, and the right one usually stands out without much debate.

When vFairs is on that list, our team will take your IT and security team through the details behind every row of the scorecard, so you can tick each one off against evidence rather than a promise. Book a vFairs demo to see how it holds up.

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