South Staffs Water
2022- Sector
- Water
- What was reported
- Attackers were inside the network for nearly two years before they were found. Drinking water stayed safe, but customer data was published and the ICO later fined the company.
Control by Firevault / CNI Control
CNI Control.Put essential services first.
Essential services depend on suppliers, remote facilities and operational communications. Physical boundaries must be designed around service continuity and public consequences, not around a generic shutdown.
Which external connection can change without putting an essential service at risk?
Incident
Path exposed
Outcome
Control taken
Approximately 120–150 ms
Management enable/disable operation
Around 2–3 seconds
SMS round-trip operation, good signal
March 2025 test observations, not guaranteed timings.
Why connection control matters
A connection change is a service decision.
Service interruption can affect customers, communities and public safety. A local isolation action is appropriate only where the resulting state and alternative operation are understood.
Standing connections can link enterprise systems, contractors and remote operational assets. A route that appears unnecessary to security may still carry monitoring, emergency or operational traffic.
Reported incidents in related sectors
Ukrainian distribution companies
2015- Sector
- Energy
- What was reported
- Attackers used remote access to open substation breakers, cutting power to around 230,000 customers for several hours.
DSB, Denmark
2022- Sector
- Rail
- What was reported
- Trains across Denmark stopped after a software supplier shut down a safety-critical driver app following a compromise of its test environment.
These incidents show how a connection path can shape what happens next. They are not claims about what any single control would have prevented.
What Control changes
Three things you can control physically.
Control complements your network security, detection, identity management and incident response. It does not replace them. It gives their decisions a physical place to act, on the connections you select.
Control access
Govern when selected connections may exist.
Supplier, engineering and partner routes are connected for approved work, to named systems, for a set window, and disconnected afterwards. Not open by default.
Control Plans
Control third-party connectionsControl connections in two approved stages
Control exposure
Reduce unnecessary standing paths into critical systems.
Each critical system keeps the connections it genuinely needs, inside a defined physical boundary. Paths it does not need are disconnected.
Control Plans
Enforce physical network boundariesProtect critical system connections
Control intervention
Physically disconnect selected connections under an agreed authority.
When your response plan calls for it, the selected path is physically disconnected on a decision by the people or rules you agreed in advance, and stays disconnected until an authorised release.
Control Plans
Contain ransomware spreadContain a live incidentAuthorise emergency disconnection
Where Control applies & Control modules
CNI Control. The Modules that make a difference.
A remote facility has a supplier-maintenance link separate from its service telemetry. The maintenance route is considered for Control; telemetry and local operation are assessed independently.
Where do you need Control?
Selected essential-service boundary held
Govern access to essential-service assets.
Anchor defines the named asset's access scope, Lock governs assessed protected-boundary conditions, and Execute carries out an authorised intervention. Essential-service continuity and safety require local validation.
- Commanded
- Hold the assessed asset-access path under operational authority.
- Reported by the control point
- Illustrative selected access paths withdrawn.
- Independently verified
- Confirm local operation and safety independently; no safe-process guarantee is implied.
Concept illustration. Commanded, reported and independently verified states are shown separately because they are not the same thing, and what can be verified depends on your deployment. Disconnecting a selected path changes what can use that path. On its own, it does not contain an incident across a whole environment, and routes outside the plan, such as wireless or cellular links, need their own controls.
Control Blueprints
Your industry’s connections, mapped and controlled.
How CNI Control applies in the industries where these connections matter most. Each Blueprint maps real systems, suppliers and operating constraints.
Water
Treatment and distribution SCADA.
Read the Water Blueprint
Energy
Electricity network control systems.
Read the Energy Blueprint
Rail
Train and signalling networks.
Read the Rail Blueprint
Telecommunications
Carrier and backbone networks.
Read the Telecommunications BlueprintSee all industry Blueprints
Fourteen Blueprints are published. Each deployment is designed around your own estate.
Firevault, as featured in
How Control works
Decisions made by people. Enforced physically.
Your tools detect, your people and policies decide, and Control changes the connection state of the selected path. Here is what that rests on.
Physical enforcement
Control changes the connection state of a selected path at Layer 1: connected, or physically disconnected. It does not inspect or alter the traffic on it.
An independent command path
Commands reach each control point over a configured command path, kept separate from the network being controlled. How each point behaves if that path is lost is agreed and tested.
Authorised changes
Who can connect, disconnect or release each path is agreed in advance: named people, more than one approval where it matters, or rules and high-confidence alerts you set.
Evidence, as configured
Commands, approvals and reported states can be recorded for your deployment, so you can show what changed, when, and on whose authority.
Before you deploy
Physical control is an operational decision.
Confirm the selected paths, supporting systems and failure behaviour in the actual environment. No generic drawing can substitute for this assessment.
- Operational control centres and essential assetsUse sector Blueprints to examine actual systems, not a one-size-fits-all architecture.
- Remote facilities and telemetry linksIdentify public-service consequences and restoration priorities.
- Supplier access and maintenance crossingsProve local operation and communication dependencies before selecting remote-site isolation.
- Business-network dependencies supporting essential servicesAssess applicable assurance obligations without treating Control as automatic compliance.
Control governs the selected paths in your plan. It does not inspect traffic, and wireless, cellular and other routes outside the plan need their own controls.
Straight answers
No. They detect, filter and investigate. Control adds a physical way to act on the selected paths when your people, or rules you have agreed, decide to.
No. It changes whether a selected path is connected. It does not read or change what travels on it.
It can, which is why the dependencies, safe states and restoration steps for each path are agreed and tested with your operations and safety owners before anything goes live.
It controls selected connectivity. Disconnecting a path removes the connections an AI system was using and gives people an independent way to intervene. It does not necessarily stop a model or process running locally.
No. Control governs connections. Keeping data physically offline is Offline Secure Storage®, a separate Firevault product that can sit alongside Control.
Yes. Start with one connection: a supplier route, an IT–OT crossing, or the path to one critical system.
Your next step
Start with one critical connection.
Begin with one operational connection. Agree its purpose, intervention authority, dependencies and the checks that make restoration acceptable.
Discuss your Control requirements