---
title: "Cyber Control | Prepare physical incident action | Firevault"
url: https://fire-vault.com/cyber-control
description: "Prepare authorised physical intervention on selected incident paths. Map scope, alternative routes, service dependencies and safe restoration."
lang: en-GB
---

Control by Firevault (https://fire-vault.com/control) / Cyber Control

# Cyber Control. Give your response a physical action.

Detection identifies activity. Incident responders still need an authorised, proportionate action. Control by Firevault can physically disconnect selected registered paths as part of a prepared response.

Discuss your Control requirements: https://fire-vault.com/contact?subject=control
See where Control applies

When an incident is active, which connection can your responders actually withdraw?

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.

Waiting can leave a route available; acting too broadly can stop unaffected operations. The incident owner needs to understand both the isolation boundary and the services that depend on it.

A compromised segment may retain access to core systems while investigators assess the incident. Credentials, policy changes and session revocation remain important, but may not be the intended final enforcement step for a selected path.

Reported incidents in related sectors

### Bangladesh Bank

2016

Sector

Financial Services

What was reported

Attackers used the bank’s own payment messaging access to send fraudulent transfer instructions worth close to US$1 billion; most were blocked.

Payment messaging: https://fire-vault.com/control-blueprint/banking
Wikipedia summary of public reporting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_Bank_robbery

### Synnovis

Sector

Healthcare

What was reported

Ransomware at a pathology supplier disrupted blood tests and transfusions for NHS hospitals in London.

Pathology: https://fire-vault.com/control-blueprint/healthcare
BBC News: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0k5lgd9d3ro

### French supermarket chains

Sector

Retail & Supermarkets

What was reported

A cyber attack was reported to have affected refrigeration equipment at supermarkets in France.

Refrigeration: https://fire-vault.com/control-blueprint/retail
The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/12/cyber-attack-defrosts-refrigerators-france-supermarket-chains-intermarche-cooperative-u

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 connections: https://fire-vault.com/control-module/relay
Control connections in two approved stages: https://fire-vault.com/control-module/unlink

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 boundaries: https://fire-vault.com/control-module/execute
Protect critical system connections: https://fire-vault.com/control-module/validate

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 spread: https://fire-vault.com/control-module/fracture
Contain a live incident: https://fire-vault.com/control-module/isolate
Authorise emergency disconnection: https://fire-vault.com/control-module/fracture#also

Where Control applies & Control modules

## Cyber Control. The Modules that make a difference.

Responders investigate an affected user segment. Its registered uplinks can be withdrawn on the incident owner’s decision, while other segments continue only where the mapped dependencies permit.

Where do you need Control?

**Selected incident route interrupted**

### Interrupt a selected incident path.

Fracture interrupts the selected connection, Execute carries out the authorised intervention, and Isolate defines the boundary in scope. Detection and remediation remain with existing security tools.

Commanded

Apply the incident owner's authorised selected-path intervention.

Reported by the control point

Illustrative selected crossings disconnected.

Independently verified

Await separate link checks; this does not establish whole-environment containment.

Explore Cyber Control (https://fire-vault.com/cyber-control)

Modules in this example

**Fracture**Ransomware and incident containment: https://fire-vault.com/control-module/fracture
**Execute**Authorised physical intervention: https://fire-vault.com/control-module/execute
**Isolate**Physical network segmentation: https://fire-vault.com/control-module/isolate

Explore all nine Modules (https://fire-vault.com/control-modules)Explore adoption approaches (https://fire-vault.com/control-plans)

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 Cyber Control applies in the industries where these connections matter most. Each Blueprint maps real systems, suppliers and operating constraints.

Image: Financial Services Blueprint icon (https://fire-vault.com/__l5e/assets-v1/27d76947-6fa4-448c-92e1-3b32f4487ca2/BP-07_financial-services.png)

### Financial Services

Transaction networks and trading floors.

Read the Financial Services Blueprint (https://fire-vault.com/control-blueprint/banking)

Image: BP-08 Healthcare Control Blueprint icon (https://fire-vault.com/__l5e/assets-v1/fd2d0914-7697-4b80-bb35-a38cf13b461b/BP-08_healthcare.png)

### Healthcare

Clinical networks and connected medical equipment.

Read the Healthcare Blueprint (https://fire-vault.com/control-blueprint/healthcare)

Image: Retail & Supermarkets Blueprint icon (https://fire-vault.com/__l5e/assets-v1/7541675b-e803-4825-b41f-8c7753b16d3b/BP-17_retail.png)

### Retail & Supermarkets

Protect the cold chain. Control the connection.

Read the Retail & Supermarkets Blueprint (https://fire-vault.com/control-blueprint/retail)

See all industry Blueprints (https://fire-vault.com/control-blueprints)

Fourteen Blueprints are published. Each deployment is designed around your own estate.

Firevault, as featured in

- Read about Firevault on TechRadar Pro: https://www.techradar.com/pro/uk-startup-put-physical-disconnect-switch-in-its-cloud-storage-offering-to-mitigate-ransomware-attacks-but-will-that-be-enough
- Read about Firevault on Yahoo Finance: https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/firevault-launches-help-businesses-directors-074500961.html
- Read about Firevault on Channel Insider: https://www.channelinsider.com/security/tools-and-platforms/firevault-security-offline-platform-offering/
- Read about Firevault on Security Buyer: https://securitybuyer.com/uk-cybersecurity-startup-launches-firevault/
- Read about Firevault on SecurityBrief: https://securitybrief.com.au/story/firevault-unveils-offline-digital-vault-to-combat-rising-cyber-risks

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.

1. **User-segment uplinks and remote-access interfaces**Record alternative wireless, cellular and site links; withdrawing one path does not prove containment.
2. **Selected paths between sites and trust zones**Define detection thresholds, decision authority and an escalation route.
3. **Privileged management connections**Separate command delivery, physical switching, observed link loss and service readiness.
4. **Outbound crossings included in the response scope**Test the response runbook with security and service owners, including failed commands.

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 (https://fire-vault.com/contact?subject=control)

Or explore the nine Control Modules first: https://fire-vault.com/control-modules

Discuss requirements: https://fire-vault.com/contact?subject=control
Speak to the team: https://fire-vault.com/contact?subject=control

## Structured data

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