Risk scoring

Every vendor gets a risk posture: an aggregate score, a breakdown across five trust domains, an integration-depth adjustment, and a recommendation. This page explains exactly how each is produced, so you can read — and defend — the numbers.

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Two steps: evidence, then a deterministic rollup

Scores are produced in two stages:

1. Research-backed domain points are gathered from public sources for each of five trust domains by agent-based research, with the evidence cited so you can trace any figure to its source.
2. A deterministic rollup in our systems sums those points, applies the integration-depth adjustment, and runs guardrail (“floor”) rules to arrive at a recommendation. Because the rollup is deterministic, the same evidence always yields the same score.

The headline number on the assessment is the aggregate — the sum of the domain points. Higher is better: it measures strength of posture, not “risk level.”

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1. The aggregate score (0–100)

The aggregate is the sum of points from five domains, each capped at its own maximum: Each domain row on the vendor’s GRC Posture tab shows its share of the total, along with an evidence badge (for example, Strong evidence or Moderate evidence). Badges describe the model’s confidence in the evidence — they are not a separate risk score.

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2. Integration depth

Integration depth describes how deeply the vendor sits in your environment. It doesn’t change the aggregate score, but it does feed the recommendation — deeper integration means the same public evidence warrants stricter guidance.

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3. Recommendation and floor rules

After domain scoring, floor rules may tighten the guidance when specific signals appear — for example, a weak score in a critical domain, a serious breach-history signal, deep integration combined with a low overall posture, or an active CISA KEV match. Floor rules affect the recommendation only; they do not change the aggregate total. The recommendation summarizes the outcome after those rules and reflects the score, the integration depth, and any escalations:

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Score history

VendexLabs snapshots each vendor’s aggregate monthly, so the Monthly Score Trend on the vendor page — and the portfolio trend on your dashboard — show how posture moves over time rather than just where it stands today.