Who should read the Leaders' Playbook?

It is written for boards, non-executive directors, founders, general counsel, family-office principals and estate planners. It deliberately avoids technical jargon and focuses on the governance decisions leaders own.

How long is the playbook?

28 pages. Most leaders read it in about 18 minutes; it is designed to be worked through in a single board-prep sitting.

Does the playbook sell a product?

No. It sets out a control philosophy, Firevault's Offline Secure Storage doctrine, and gives leaders a framework for evaluating any provider, including us. It is a briefing, not a brochure.

How is it different from a generic cyber report?

It concentrates on the assets that matter to succession, continuity and sovereignty, and on the physical, custodial controls that decide whether they survive an incident. It is a governance document, not a threat report.

Is my email address kept private?

Yes. The playbook is emailed to you and access is tied to that address. We do not share your details with third parties. See our privacy charter.

Can I share the playbook with my board?

The access link is personal, but you can forward the PDF to your board once you have downloaded it. If several colleagues would like their own copy, please point them at this page.

Firevault Leadership Briefing

The Leaders' Playbook
Protecting what matters.

A 28-page board-level briefing on sovereign data, succession resilience and the physical protection of what a family, firm or institution cannot afford to lose.

28 pages

18 min read

Boards and non-executive directors

Get the playbook

Emailed to you within a minute

Foreword

Every board eventually asks a variant of the same question: if the worst happens, what actually survives? The Leaders' Playbook is a plain-English brief for the people who carry that question. It moves the conversation past generic cyber posture and into the physical, custodial and legal decisions that decide whether a firm's most important data, the client records, the succession instructions, the crown jewels, outlasts a bad day. Written by Mark Fermor and grounded in Firevault's Offline Secure Storage doctrine, it gives directors a common language for asking the questions that matter and a checklist for the answers they should expect back.

Mark Fermor · Co-Founder, Firevault

What's inside

5 parts. Written for the people who own the decision.

Each chapter opens with the decision it exists to help you make, and closes with the evidence you should expect back.

The five things worth protecting

A leadership-friendly definition of the assets that carry a firm through a crisis: identity, obligation, evidence, continuity and instruction.

Not all data deserves the same protection budget
Physical separation is a director-level control, not an IT feature

Why data has become the last unprotected asset

How three decades of connectivity have quietly moved the assets that matter most into environments the board never chose.

Cloud dependency is now a governance issue
Cyber insurance is retreating from the risks boards assumed it covered

Sovereign data and succession

What sovereignty actually means for a UK board, and how succession planning breaks when the digital estate cannot be handed over.

Access to data is inheritance; encryption is not
Third-party custody is not the same as ownership

Ownership, custody and continuity

A framework for deciding what the firm owns, who is trusted to hold it, and how continuity is proven, not assumed.

Custody should be separable from operations
Continuity is a rehearsed process, not a document

The board's checklist

A one-page checklist directors can use to test whether their firm is actually protecting what matters, before the next incident forces the question.

Ten questions the board should ask its CTO this quarter
How to evidence physical separation for auditors and insurers

Who it's for

Read it if you're accountable for the decision.

Boards and non-executive directors
Founders and family-office principals
General counsel and company secretaries
Estate and succession planners

Sectors we hear from

Financial servicesLegal & professional servicesFamily officesGovernment & defence

A look inside

Real pages from the playbook.

A short preview of what lands in your inbox.

The Leaders' Playbook preview, The five things worth protecting

The five things worth protecting Full page in playbook

The Leaders' Playbook preview, Why data has become the last unprotected asset

Why data has become the last unprotected asset Full page in playbook

The Leaders' Playbook preview, Sovereign data and succession

Sovereign data and succession Full page in playbook

The Leaders' Playbook preview, Ownership, custody and continuity

Ownership, custody and continuity Full page in playbook

Frequently asked

Questions leaders ask before requesting.

Something else on your mind? Reply to any Firevault email or write to mark@fire-vault.com.

More Firevault playbooks

Board-level control blueprints.

Each playbook is written for the people who own the decision, practical, UK-grounded and free to request.

Ready to read it?

Request The Leaders' Playbook. It lands in your inbox within a minute, tied to your email address. No download, no fuss.

Get the playbook Talk to Mark