Data Security Questions to Ask Before You Hire a Software Vendor
Most business owners hiring a software developer focus on features, timeline and cost — and rarely ask about security until something goes wrong. You don't need to understand encryption algorithms to have this conversation. A few plain questions, and honest answers to them, tell you a lot about how seriously a vendor treats your data.
Where will the data actually live?
Ask which cloud provider or hosting environment your data and backups will be stored on, and in which region. This matters for two reasons: reliability (established providers have far better uptime and redundancy than a developer's own server), and, if you handle customer data from a specific country, some data-residency or compliance requirements may depend on where it's physically stored.
Who has access to production data, and how is that limited?
In a small team, it's tempting for every developer to have full access to everything, including real customer records, all the time. A vendor who separates development/staging data from live production data, and limits who can touch real customer information, is thinking about this correctly. If the answer is "everyone on the team has access to everything," that's worth pushing back on.
How are passwords and sensitive fields stored?
You don't need the technical details, but you should hear the word "hashed" (not "encrypted" or, worse, "stored as-is") when asking how user passwords are kept. Passwords should never be stored in a way that lets anyone, including the vendor, read them back in plain text. The same applies to anything like payment details — those should go through a payment provider's own secure system, not sit in your database at all.
What happens if something breaks or gets compromised?
Ask what the backup schedule looks like, and how quickly data could realistically be restored if something failed. Then ask what the plan is if there's ever a security incident: who gets notified, and how fast. A vendor who has a clear, calm answer to this has thought about it before. A vendor who seems surprised by the question probably hasn't.
Is the software kept up to date after launch?
A lot of real-world security problems come from outdated dependencies and unpatched software, not dramatic hacking attempts. Ask whether updates and security patches are part of your ongoing agreement, or whether the software is handed over and left to age. Software that nobody maintains becomes a liability over time, regardless of how well it was built on day one.
Can you get your own data out?
This isn't strictly a security question, but it's related: ask whether you can export your own data on request, in a usable format, without depending entirely on that vendor. A business that can't get its own customer or operational data out of a system it paid for is in a vulnerable position, regardless of how secure that system is from outside attackers.
You don't need to be an expert to ask these
None of these questions require a technical background — they require a vendor willing to give you straight, specific answers instead of reassurance. If the answers are vague, generic, or dismissive ("don't worry about it, it's all secure"), that's more telling than any of the individual answers themselves.
Our approach
We build on established cloud infrastructure rather than self-managed servers, separate development access from production data, hash sensitive fields rather than storing them in plain text, and treat updates and patching as part of an ongoing relationship rather than a one-time handoff. If you ask us any of the questions above, we'd rather give you a specific answer than a reassuring one.
Related Services
Have an Idea? Let's Build It.
Tell us what you want to build, what problem you're trying to solve, or what process you want to automate. We'll help turn your idea into a practical technology solution.
Have an Idea? Let's Build It.
Share a few details about your project and our team will get back to you.