What security questions should I ask an HR software vendor?
Ask an HR software vendor eight security questions before you buy. Cover where your data lives and whose account holds it, how people sign in, how access is enforced and what gets logged. Then ask how data travels, what happens to biometric data and how you get your records out. Every answer should be specific and in writing.
Vendor security pages tend to open with logos. You'll learn more from eight plain questions, asked the same way of every name on your shortlist, with the answers in writing. Here they are, with PeopleMuster's answer after each.
One: where does our data live? A strong answer names a database and a region. PeopleMuster gives each customer a separate database, in the region the customer picks.
Two: whose account holds it? This one gets skipped, and it decides how much control you keep. PeopleMuster sets that database up in your own account, so your records sit with you from day one.
Three: how do people sign in? Listen for how the vendor keeps a leaked password from mattering. PeopleMuster uses a six-digit one-time code sent to the work email, behind Turnstile bot protection, so there are no passwords to leak.
Four: how is access decided, and where is it enforced? A screen that hides a button is weaker than a rule in the database. PeopleMuster builds roles from 64 permissions, with custom roles on top, and enforces access rules in the database itself as well as on screen.
Five: what gets logged? Ask whether the log keeps old and new values or only says a record changed. PeopleMuster's activity log records each create, update and delete with before and after values, the person and the time.
Six: how does data travel, and where are keys kept? PeopleMuster is served over HTTPS only, with strict transport security, a content security policy and framing blocked. Integration keys are stored in your own database and masked once saved.
Seven: what happens to biometric data? If you run fingerprint terminals, this is the question to press hardest. With PeopleMuster, fingerprints stay on the terminal, and the sync stores only the device user, the terminal serial and the punch time.
Eight: how do we get our records out? PeopleMuster exports attendance, leave, the directory, the org chart and the device register to CSV, each from its own screen.
Add the market's usual extras to the same sheet: the hosting region by name, a public status page, and any audit reports the vendor publishes. Ask each vendor for the same items, then compare the written answers side by side.
Related questions
Who should ask the security questions, HR or IT?
Both, on one shared sheet. HR knows which records are sensitive, such as feedback, leave reasons and performance notes. IT knows what a good answer on sign-in and data location sounds like.
Which question matters most for a small company?
Whose account holds the data. It decides who controls the records if you ever change vendors, and it's the question most shortlists skip. PeopleMuster keeps your database in your own account.
How does PeopleMuster keep staff feedback private?
Feedback arrives with identities masked by default. A reviewer reveals a name one item at a time, and only roles granted the feedback permissions reach that screen.