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.
Control by Firevault / IT Control
IT Control.Govern the connections that matter.
Enterprise networks connect staff, suppliers, applications and management systems. Control by Firevault governs selected crossings without replacing identity, endpoint or network security.
Does administrator access need a permanent route into your infrastructure?
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.
An incident can disrupt shared applications, identity services and the teams that depend on them. A broad disconnection can also remove the access engineers need to investigate.
An authorised account can still have more network reach than the task requires. Supplier gateways and administrator routes may remain available between jobs, while redundant links bypass an intended boundary.
Reported incidents in related sectors
CloudNordic
2023- Sector
- Data Centres
- What was reported
- Ransomware reached the hosting company’s management and backup systems through an internal network. Most customers lost all their data.
British Library
2023- Sector
- Public Sector
- What was reported
- Ransomware took down the library’s catalogue, website and systems for months, and stolen data was published.
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
IT Control. The Modules that make a difference.
A supplier maintains a business application through an access broker. The selected broker-to-application connection is available for the approved job, not for the entire working week.
Where do you need Control?
Selected IT access governed
Govern the routes into business systems.
Isolate defines permitted boundaries, Relay makes a supplier route available for authorised work, and Unlink reduces unnecessary standing connectivity. Existing identity and security systems retain their roles.
- Commanded
- Withdraw the selected supplier route outside approved work.
- Reported by the control point
- Illustrative supplier path disconnected; permitted business crossing connected.
- Independently verified
- Assess alternative routes and independently check state where configured.
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 IT Control applies in the industries where these connections matter most. Each Blueprint maps real systems, suppliers and operating constraints.
Financial Services
Transaction networks and trading floors.
Read the Financial Services Blueprint
Data Centres
Tenant isolation and cross-connect governance.
Read the Data Centres Blueprint
Public Sector
Government services and administrative access.
Read the Public Sector 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.
- Enterprise applications and shared servicesMap DNS, identity, monitoring and backup dependencies before selecting a boundary.
- Administrator and privileged access routesAccount for redundant links, remote-access services and alternative supplier routes.
- Supplier gateways and access brokersKeep emergency administration possible through an agreed recovery procedure.
- Connections between offices and server environmentsTest expiry, command-path loss and reconnection with the application owner.
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