The Industry Organizations Collaboration Effort
The NATF and other industry organizations are working together to provide a streamlined, effective, and efficient industry-accepted approach for entities to assess supplier cyber security practices. The model, if applied widely, will reduce the burden on suppliers so their efforts with purchasers can be prioritized and entities can be provided with more information effectively and efficiently. The industry organizations collaboration effort is focused on improving cyber security, and assisting registered entities with compliance to regulatory requirements.
Each of the industry organizations and many individual entities are working on solutions for various stages of the supply chain cyber security risk assessment lifecycle. These solutions are brought together in this effort to provide a cohesive approach. This approach may change over time as it matures but staying cohesive will be key to maintaining streamlined effective and efficient cyber security.
This website provides information on the approach (also referred to as the “model”), projects/activities that have been accomplished, and projects/activities in progress, upcoming presentations, links and contact information, and recent news.
Resources (View All)
NATF CIP-013 Implementation Guidance-Independent Assessments of Vendors (ERO Endorsed)
NATF CIP-013 Implementation Guidance-Supply Chain Risk Management Plans (ERO Endorsed)
NATF Industry Collaboration: Using Solution Providers for Third-Party Risk Management
Click "View All" above to access additional documents, presentations, supply-chain sites, and support products and services.
Supplier Sharing Calls
The intention of the Supplier Sharing Calls calls is to encourage conversation between suppliers and with the end-users of their products and services, provide a forum to share forefront security concerns and how to address them, and to discuss general security practices. These calls will be applicable to suppliers of all sizes and security maturity.
Upcoming Meetings and Activities
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Announcements (View All)
October 10, 2025
Annual Supply Chain Criteria and Questionnaire Revision Process Underway
The annual revision process for the NATF Supply Chain Security Criteria (Criteria) and the Energy Sector Supply Chain Risk Questionnaire (Questionnaire) is now underway. As a reminder, the Criteria and Questionnaire are simple tools that entities can use when performing risk assessments on suppliers, and are intended to reduce the need for multiple, bespoke questionnaires or other data collection tools. The revision process, Criteria, and Questionnaire are posted on the NATF’s public Supply Chain Industry Coordination website. The process is open to industry, suppliers, regulators, and other stakeholders to provide the opportunity for input.
Input on the criteria and questionnaire can be submitted to supplychain@natf.net until close of business January 30, 2026, for consideration in the 2025 review cycle.
Both the Criteria and the Questionnaire are incorporated into the ERO Enterprise-endorsed implementation guidance documents for CIP-013 (available on the NERC website and the NATF public website):
- NATF CIP-013 Implementation Guidance: Using Independent Assessments of Vendors
- NATF CIP-013 Implementation Guidance: Supply Chain Risk Management Plans
These documents support using the Criteria and Questionnaire in a risk-based manner, where the entity determines which criteria or questions apply for procurement. The criteria and questionnaire are useful for supply chain risk management as well as ensuring potential threat vectors are identified via these industry-developed and adopted tools.
As the Criteria and Questionnaire are mechanisms to drive convergence on the information needed to conduct supplier risk assessments, it is important that the information you need to conduct risk analyses is included.
As a reminder: The Criteria and Questionnaire capture supplier information important to the energy sector for conducting risk assessments while keeping the amount of data received to a manageable level. The Criteria and Questionnaire are also verifiable via mappings to several industry frameworks. Note that while there is not a single security framework that addresses all criteria or questions, most can be verified by obtaining a combination of certifications and/or assessments.
May 30, 2025
NATF Criteria and Questionnaire version 6.0 and updated Revision Process posted for industry use
The 2025 annual revision process has been completed with NATF approval of the final documents on May 20, 2025. The NATF Supply Chain Security Criteria and Energy Sector Supply Chain Risk Questionnaire version 6.0 documents have been posted for industry use on the Supply Chain Industry Coordination page of the NATF public website. The Version History link on that site includes prior versions and redlines. In addition, the NATF Criteria and Questionnaire Revision Process (formerly known as the Revision Process for the Energy Sector Supply Chain Risk Questionnaire and NATF Supply Chain Security Criteria) has also been updated.
Revisions to the NATF Criteria and Questionnaire include updated mappings for NIST’s Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) 2.0, the addition of Artificial Intelligence to several items, and wording edits for enhanced clarity. The layout has been slightly updated to facilitate navigation and readability, with a new “Area of Focus” drop-down box added to the Questionnaire to conserve space and improve specificity when using the optional scoring feature. Updates to the Revision Process include the removal of an unused committee, clarifying participation requirements for revision team members, and dropping an unneeded consulting step before publication.
These updates were reviewed and accepted by the ERO Enterprise to ensure its continued endorsement of the two NATF CIP-013 Implementation Guidance documents: NATF CIP-013 Implementation Guidance: Using Independent Assessments of Vendors and NATF CIP-013 Implementation Guidance: Supply Chain Risk Management Plans.