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"inLanguage": "en-GB", "articleSection": "Guides", "wordCount": 903, "isAccessibleForFree": true, "copyrightHolder": { "@id": "https://fire-vault.com/#organization" }, "copyrightYear": 2026 } ] --- Recent Breaches Breaches [2026 PowerSchool 62.4M records ](https://www.bleepingcomputer.com)[2026 DISA Global Solutions 3.3M records ](https://techcrunch.com)[2026 Globe Life 850K records ](https://www.securityweek.com)[2026 Lidl GB Customer contact data ](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jun/11/lidl-gb-third-party-data-breach)[2026 Asahi Group Production systems disrupted ](https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/asahi-says-cyberattack-disrupted-operations-japan-2025-09-29/)[2026 Kido International 8K records ](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c623d7v0e5xo)[2026 Collins Aerospace (RTX) Check-in and boarding disruptio... ](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c789e7l1z7po)[2026 Jaguar Land Rover Production and IT systems disru... ](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2gx8p3rzeo)[2026 Peter Green Chilled Order and logistics data ](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0k7yy8n3g5o)[2026 Adidas UK Customer contact details ](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c78jkev1el2o)[2026 PowerSchool 62.4M records ](https://www.bleepingcomputer.com)[2026 DISA Global Solutions 3.3M records ](https://techcrunch.com)[2026 Globe Life 850K records ](https://www.securityweek.com)[2026 Lidl GB Customer contact data ](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jun/11/lidl-gb-third-party-data-breach)[2026 Asahi Group Production systems disrupted ](https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/asahi-says-cyberattack-disrupted-operations-japan-2025-09-29/)[2026 Kido International 8K records ](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c623d7v0e5xo)[2026 Collins Aerospace (RTX) Check-in and boarding disruptio... ](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c789e7l1z7po)[2026 Jaguar Land Rover Production and IT systems disru... ](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2gx8p3rzeo)[2026 Peter Green Chilled Order and logistics data ](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0k7yy8n3g5o)[2026 Adidas UK Customer contact details ](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c78jkev1el2o) [View All →](/learn/breaches) [![Firevault - offline secure storage, physically disconnected from the internet](/assets/logo-color-DBVl0KCg.png)](/) Products Solutions [Why OSS](/why-oss) More [Help](/help)[Get started](/get-started) Overview Who this guide is forWhat the risk and compliance fun…The decisions you own, and what …Existence, design and effectivenessThird-party assuranceThe questions to askThe evidence checklistWhat happens when preventative c…Deciding what you actually needThe Control Blueprints most rele…Where to go nextSources and further readingAbout this guideMore [Guides](/learn/knowledge?filter=guides) Guides · 28 August 2026 # Cyber Risk & Compliance Guide: Controls, Evidence and Resilience for GRC Leaders How risk and compliance leaders can move from control existence to control effectiveness: risk treatment, evidence, third-party assurance, exceptions and remediation that survive audit. ![Mark Fermor](/assets/mark-fermor-aWtKNSv7.jpg) Mark Fermor Director & Co-Founder, Firevault 5 min read Share [](https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffire-vault.com%2Flearn%2Fguides%2Fcyber-risk-and-compliance-guide)[](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffire-vault.com%2Flearn%2Fguides%2Fcyber-risk-and-compliance-guide&text=Cyber%20Risk%20%26%20Compliance%20Guide%3A%20Controls%2C%20Evidence%20and%20Resilience%20for%20GRC%20Leaders%0A%0AHow%20risk%20and%20compliance%20leaders%20can%20move%20from%20control%20existence%20to%20control%20effectiveness%3A%20risk%20treatment%2C%20evidence%2C%20third-party%20assurance%2C%20exceptions%20and%20remediation%20that%20survive%20audit.)[](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ffire-vault.com%2Flearn%2Fguides%2Fcyber-risk-and-compliance-guide)[](mailto:?subject=Cyber%20Risk%20%26%20Compliance%20Guide%3A%20Controls%2C%20Evidence%20and%20Resilience%20for%20GRC%20Leaders&body=How%20risk%20and%20compliance%20leaders%20can%20move%20from%20control%20existence%20to%20control%20effectiveness%3A%20risk%20treatment%2C%20evidence%2C%20third-party%20assurance%2C%20exceptions%20and%20remediation%20that%20survive%20audit.%0A%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Ffire-vault.com%2Flearn%2Fguides%2Fcyber-risk-and-compliance-guide) ![Cyber Risk & Compliance Guide: Controls, Evidence and Resilience for GRC Leaders](https://zomvctmqpgirvjnvawlz.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/article-images/guides%2Fcyber-risk-and-compliance-guide.jpg) Guides Why it matters ## What this means for organisations holding critical data How risk and compliance leaders can move from control existence to control effectiveness: risk treatment, evidence, third-party assurance, exceptions and remediation that survive audit. **On this page**[Who this guide is for](#section-0)[What the risk and compliance fun…](#section-1)[The decisions you own, and what …](#section-2)[Existence, design and effectiveness](#section-3)[Third-party assurance](#section-4)[The questions to ask](#section-5)[The evidence checklist](#section-6)[What happens when preventative c…](#section-7)[Deciding what you actually need](#section-8)[The Control Blueprints most rele…](#section-9)[Where to go next](#section-10)[Sources and further reading](#section-11)[About this guide](#section-12) On this page 1. [Who this guide is for](#section-0) 2. [What the risk and compliance function is actually responsible for](#section-1) 3. [The decisions you own, and what you can delegate](#section-2) 4. [Existence, design and effectiveness](#section-3) 5. [Third-party assurance](#section-4) 6. [The questions to ask](#section-5) 7. [The evidence checklist](#section-6) 8. [What happens when preventative controls fail](#section-7) 9. [Deciding what you actually need](#section-8) 10. [The Control Blueprints most relevant to this role](#section-9) 11. [Where to go next](#section-10) 12. [Sources and further reading](#section-11) 13. [About this guide](#section-12) ## Who this guide is for This guide is written for risk, compliance, governance and internal audit leaders who must evidence that controls work, not merely that they exist. ## What the risk and compliance function is actually responsible for - Translating threats into risks with owners, treatment decisions and review dates. - Defining control objectives that can be tested, rather than described. - Collecting evidence of control effectiveness on a defensible cycle. - [Third-party risk](/threats/third-party): obligations, access rights and assurance over supplier controls. - Managing exceptions and remediation so that accepted risk is genuinely accepted, not forgotten. ## The decisions you own, and what you can delegate - **Own** the control objectives, the evidence standard, and whether an exception is acceptable. - **Own** the assurance plan and the escalation of overdue remediation. - **Delegate** control operation and technical implementation. - **Delegate** evidence generation, but define the format and the frequency. ## Existence, design and effectiveness Three questions separate a mature programme from a documented one. 1. Does the control exist and is it applied everywhere in scope? 2. Is the design capable of preventing or detecting the failure it claims to address? 3. Has it operated effectively over the period, with evidence that was not produced by the control owner alone? Physical controls are attractive here because their state is observable. A path that is electrically broken is either broken or it is not, and the record of when it was opened is not a configuration setting that can be quietly changed. ## Third-party assurance - Map which suppliers hold live access, not just which hold data. - Require evidence of access review, not a policy statement. - Test whether supplier access can be revoked immediately, and by whom. - Record the regulatory obligations that flow through to each supplier. ## The questions to ask 1. For each principal control, what evidence would satisfy an external auditor without further explanation? 2. Which controls have never been tested independently? 3. How many exceptions are overdue, and who accepted them? 4. Can we produce an access record for third-party maintenance sessions over the last quarter? 5. If a regulator asked how we know our recovery works, what would we hand over? ## The evidence checklist - Risk register entries with owners, treatment decisions and dates. - Control test results with sample sizes and exceptions. - Independent assurance reports, internal or external. - Immutable or offline evidence records for privileged and third-party access. - Remediation tracking with agreed dates and escalation history. ## What happens when preventative controls fail Prevention buys time. It does not remove the need to answer a simple question: if an attacker holds your identity platform and your management console tonight, what still works tomorrow morning? Most organisations discover that their backup catalogue, their recovery credentials and their runbooks all depend on the systems that have just been taken. That is the dependency worth removing first. No control removes the possibility of a serious incident. The realistic goal is a smaller blast radius, a recovery path that does not depend on the compromised estate, and evidence that both were tested. ## Deciding what you actually need Compliance frameworks set objectives. They do not, by themselves, deliver resilience, and no product creates regulatory compliance on its own. What a control can do is make the evidence easier to produce and harder to dispute. Firevault is the company. It provides three distinct things, and the honest answer is often that you need one of them rather than all of them. - **[Offline Secure Storage®](/offline-secure-storage)** holds a defined set of critical records and clean recovery data physically disconnected from the live estate. It is a protected set, not a replacement for your backup infrastructure. - **[Control Modules](/control)** are a suite of nine purpose-built tools and techniques that give you physical control over the paths into and across your estate. Introduce only the modules that map to the risk you are treating. - **[Control Blueprints](/control-blueprints)** are proven combinations of those modules assembled for a named outcome, such as containing a live breach or governing third-party access. If your existing controls already deliver a tested recovery path that survives the compromise of your identity and management planes, and you can evidence it, you may not need any of this. Test that assumption before you buy anything. If you are unsure which of the three applies, the [Firevault Concierge](/find-my-oss) walks through the question set without a sales conversation. ## The Control Blueprints most relevant to this role Two blueprints do most of the work in a GRC context. Control by Firevault is a set of nine Control Modules, grouped into the FIRE layer (Firebreak, Isolate, Relay, Execute) and the VAULT layer (Validate, Archive, Unlink, Lock, Transfer). Seven Control Blueprints combine those modules for a specific outcome. You do not need all nine modules, and most organisations start with one blueprint. - **[CP-03 Control Third-Party Access](/control-blueprints/cp-03)** uses Validate, Relay, Lock. Read the [control third-party access guide](/learn/guides/controlling-third-party-access-control-blueprint). - **[CP-06 Prove Compliance Through Control](/control-blueprints/cp-06)** uses Validate, Lock, Archive. Read the [prove compliance through control guide](/learn/guides/proving-compliance-through-control-blueprint). The full set is on the [Control overview](/control) and the [Control Blueprints index](/control-blueprints). CP-06 supports compliance evidence. It does not create compliance. Regulatory outcomes depend on scope, process and governance well beyond any single control. ## Where to go next For the board reporting view, read [cyber security for boards](/learn/guides/cyber-security-for-boards). For the regulatory detail, see our [NIS2 briefing](/solutions/oss/compliance/nis2) and [ISO/IEC 27001 mapping](/solutions/oss/compliance/iso-27001). ## Sources and further reading - [ISO/IEC 27001](https://www.iso.org/standard/27001) - [NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0](https://www.nist.gov/cyberframework) - [ICO guidance for organisations](https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/) - [NIS2 and the UK equivalent regime explained](/solutions/oss/compliance/nis2) - [NCSC Cyber Security Board Toolkit](https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/collection/board-toolkit) ## About this guide **Author** Mark Fermor, Firevault. **Reviewed by** Firevault compliance review. **Last reviewed** 28 August 2026. This guide draws on primary regulatory and technical sources together with Firevault's own field work on physical isolation and offline recovery. It is guidance, not legal advice. Where a legal or regulatory duty is in question, take advice on your own circumstances. Other guides in this series are listed on the [role guide hub](/learn/guides/by-role). About the author ![Mark Fermor](/assets/mark-fermor-aWtKNSv7.jpg) ### Mark Fermor [](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mfermor) Director & Co-Founder Co-founder of Firevault, focused on offline secure storage and protecting individuals and businesses from fraud, fines, loss and damage. Speaker, owner and advisor. The Firevault view**Control by Firevault governs the physical paths into your systems.**[Explore Control →](/solutions/control) Keep a clean copy**Offline Secure Storage® holds a copy no attacker can reach.**[Why #OSS →](/why-oss) Get started**Get started, or talk to a member of the team.**[Get started →](/get-started) How Firevault would handle this ## A recovery copy an attacker cannot reach Offline Secure Storage® keeps a clean copy of your data on hardware that is physically disconnected, so backup and recovery do not depend on systems an intruder can touch. [Get started](/get-started)[Talk to the team](/demo) **Hardware**Your copy sits on dedicated encrypted hardware **Disconnect**Offline by default, connected only when you say so **Recovery**A known-clean copy to rebuild from, on your timetable **Location**Held in a secure Firevault Bunker ## Continue learning - [ ### Security Architecture Guide: Physical Isolation, Segmentation and Cyber Resilience The deepest guide in the series: trust boundaries, attack paths, failure domains, Layer 1 isolation versus logical segmentation, control and management planes, Zero Trust, the Purdue Model and IEC 62443. Read guide ](/learn/guides/security-architecture-guide) - [ ### IT Director's Guide to Ransomware Recovery, Backups and Infrastructure Resilience The practical recovery guide: immutable versus offline, Active Directory rebuild, management plane compromise, clean recovery environments, restore testing and realistic RTO and RPO. Read guide ](/learn/guides/it-director-guide-ransomware-recovery) - [ ### CISO Guide to Cyber Resilience: Risk, Recovery and Physical Control Threat modelling, attack paths, blast radius and recovery from the CISO seat, and an honest read of where Offline Secure Storage, Control Modules and Control Blueprints do and do not help. Read guide ](/learn/guides/ciso-guide-cyber-resilience) - [ ### The CIO & CTO Guide to Cyber Resilience, Architecture and Recovery A technology leader's view of resilience: dependency mapping, recovery architecture, identity and cloud concentration, IT and OT convergence, and where physical controls earn their place. Read guide ](/learn/guides/cio-cto-guide-cyber-resilience) Related Reading ## You may also find these useful [ ![Protecting Students, Peers and Partners: A Practical Education Data Briefing](/__l5e/assets-v1/6ecf6bfc-3d28-40a7-8a6a-2d42fe36a21a/safeguarding-education-data-2026-v2-2x.jpg) Guides ### Protecting Students, Peers and Partners: A Practical Education Data Briefing A practical, forward-looking briefing to help schools, colleges and universities protect students, staff and partner data after the Department for Education breach. 29 Jul 2026 13 min ](/news/guide-safeguarding-education-data)[ ![Urgent Briefing and Advice: Protecting Personal Data for High-Profile Figures in the Public Eye](/__l5e/assets-v1/084c38b8-253b-4cc2-9056-c78a2fbd36c3/urgent-warning-triangle-20260714-2x.jpg) Guides ### Urgent Briefing and Advice: Protecting Personal Data for High-Profile Figures in the Public Eye Practical steps for serving and former politicians, councillors, campaigners, journalists, executives, broadcasters and anyone in the public eye, covering email security, device hygiene, threat handling and offline secure storage. 14 Jul 2026 22 min ](/news/urgent-guide-protecting-personal-data-high-profile-public-eye)[ ![500,000 Volunteers Breached Through Authorised Access: A Controlled Access Buyer's Guide](https://zomvctmqpgirvjnvawlz.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/article-images/news%2Fcontrolled-access-buyers-guide.jpg) Guides ### 500,000 Volunteers Breached Through Authorised Access: A Controlled Access Buyer's Guide In April 2026, approved researchers exfiltrated the health records, genetic data, and medical histories of 500,000 UK Biobank volunteers through authorised access channels, then listed the data for sale on Alibaba. The breach was not caused by a hack. It was caused by a model that assumes licence agreements can prevent data theft. This guide covers why that model fails and what physical controls replace it. 23 Apr 2026 18 min ](/news/controlled-access-buyers-guide-offline-secure-storage) ![Mark Fermor](/assets/mark-fermor-aWtKNSv7.jpg) ![David Bailey](/assets/david-bailey-Dgqj8eaE.jpg) ![Kenny Phipps](/assets/kenny-phipps-CVyooRsR.jpg) Online Now Concierge ## Put this guide into practice Ready to apply what you have learned? Explore how Control by Firevault governs the physical paths into your systems. Takes about 2 minutes. No account needed. Find Out Free 2 mins No sign-up