VCRI Learn · How VCRI works
How the Beacon Collector works
From a vendor’s own tools to a score a buyer can check, without the evidence ever leaving the vendor’s machines.
Joshua Marpet and Cairn Viktor
Why do I care
One idea, three audiences
A questionnaire tells you what a vendor says. Evidence tells you what its systems say.
If you buy
You get a score built from what a vendor’s systems recorded, and a fingerprint that lets you check it.
Not another questionnaire answer.
If you sell
Show your posture from the tools you already run.
Your scan data and exports stay on your own machines.
If you are learning
A working, open-source example of hashing, digital signatures and open scoring.
You can read every line.
The whole picture
Evidence stays put. Methods flow in.
Step 1
What a vendor runs
Observe, never alter: in the container it reads your disk read-only, opens no network ports, and only connects outward.
Install
On a machine that can reach your tools. Python, or a signed container.
→
Point it
At what you already have: a scan, an export, an SBOM, your AI agents’ configuration.
→
Seal
The collector writes the evidence package and its fingerprint.
→
Open results
A page in your browser: the score, the evidence, the gaps.
Step 2
What evidence it reads
Systems
Vulnerability scanner results.
Email and TLS settings on your own domain.
Software
SBOMs, and OpenSSF Scorecard results for open-source projects.
OSCAL documents (a machine-readable compliance format).
People and access
Identity-provider exports: who has accounts, and MFA.
Training and phishing-simulation records.
AI agents
Every model, plugin, MCP server, prompt and memory store an agent depends on, as an AI bill of materials.
Step 2, continued
Not all evidence is equal
Each item is labeled by how strong it is. The label sets the highest maturity level it can earn, on a 1 to 5 scale.
4
Observed
A tool saw it on the system, like a scanner result.
3
Recorded
A system wrote it at the time, like training completions.
2
Attested
A third party’s report, like an audit, sealed as is.
1
Stated
The vendor’s own claim, sealed but unverified.
Level 5 is never awarded by the free scorer.
Step 3
The sealed evidence package
Step 4
Scored against open rubrics
Verify first
A package that fails verification gets no score.
Its results page says REFUSED.
Open arithmetic
Published rubrics, one per PPTDF-AI asset class: People, Processes, Technology, Data, Facilities, AI.
Same math as the BeaconScore questionnaire.
Two numbers, always together
Comparable: missing evidence counts as zero.
Covered: scored over the evidence present, with the coverage percentage.
Nothing averaged away
When observed and attested evidence disagree, the page shows the contradiction.
Evidence with no place in a rubric is listed as a gap.
Beta scores use a draft method and are labeled that way on the page.
Step 5
What a buyer sees
| On the results page | What it tells the buyer |
|---|
| Verified or REFUSED | Whether the seal held. A broken package shows no score. |
| Package fingerprint | The exact package this page was built from. |
| Grade and score per rubric | Where the vendor stands, area by area. |
| The evidence behind every number | Which item, and which class, produced each level. |
| Contradictions and gaps | Where sources disagree, and what is missing. |
The page says it is “a position on the evidence, not a certification.”
The design choice
Why the evidence never leaves
Nothing to hand over
VCRI never holds vendor evidence.
No central pile of every vendor’s scan results to collect, store or lose.
Trust the math, not the custodian
The fingerprint and signature make any copy checkable, so nobody has to take a holder’s word for it.
Show one item, not all
The package format can prove one item is inside the seal without revealing the others.
Coming later
Public timestamps on the fingerprint, so buyers you choose can confirm a score and when it was made, without a questionnaire.
What to do Monday
Try it, then break it
- Sign up for the Beacon beta at valuechainrisk.org/beta.
- Seal one thing you already have: an SBOM or a scanner result. Open the results page.
- Change one byte of the package and run verify again. Watch it fail.
- Buying? Next time, ask a vendor for evidence and a fingerprint, not another form.
- Take the two-minute Security Tools Poll at valuechainrisk.org/tools-poll, so the collector learns your tools first.
Free to use, teach and share.
This deck is part of the VCRI Learn series. Use it in your class, your team meeting or your chapter, with credit to The Value Chain Risk Institute.
valuechainrisk.org/learn