One lifecycle. Adapted to every standard.
A cloud landing zone, cardholder data, AI systems or a federal cloud offering: the same five phases, the same evidence standard and the same independent review.
Discover. Assess. Remediate. Validate. Sustain.
Select a phase. A penetration test may use two. A full program build uses all five.
Establish what is genuinely in scope.
Most failed assessments are lost at the scoping stage. We trace how data, money and decisions actually move before anyone writes a control test.
- Stakeholder and control-owner interviews
- Asset, data-flow and third-party inventory
- Architecture and network walkthroughs
- Scope statement with data-flow diagrams
- System and provider inventory
- Evidence request list and engagement plan
Decision you can makeWhich systems, entities and frameworks are in scope, and who owns each of them.
Test controls against the requirement and against reality.
A policy that says the right thing is not a control. We sample, observe and test configuration so that every conclusion rests on evidence a skeptic would accept.
- Control walkthroughs and population sampling
- Configuration review and technical testing
- Gap and risk analysis mapped to each requirement
- Requirement-by-requirement assessment matrix
- Findings with severity, evidence and root cause
- Risk register entries with proposed owners
Decision you can makeWhich gaps block validation or certification, and which are improvements to schedule.
Fix causes, not symptoms.
We sequence remediation by risk and dependency, then work beside your engineers until each fix is designed, built and owned.
- Roadmap sequenced by risk, effort and dependency
- Design guidance: segmentation, identity, logging, keys
- Policy and procedure drafting with named owners
- Prioritized roadmap with owners and dates
- Reference patterns and policy set
- Acceptance criteria for every finding
Decision you can makeBuild, buy or compensate, and the dates you can credibly commit to auditors, regulators and customers.
Prove it to a skeptic.
Remediation is complete only when it has been retested. Validation produces an evidence pack that an auditor, regulator or acquiring bank can follow without a guide.
- Retesting and evidence verification
- Pre-assessment and mock audit
- Formal assessment and reporting
- Validation report and indexed evidence pack
- Independent assessment report, such as a SWIFT CSCF attestation
- Audit-ready package for your certification body or CPA firm
Decision you can makeWhether to proceed to certification, attestation or regulatory submission, and the residual risk you accept.
Keep it true between assessments.
Controls decay quietly. A light-touch operating rhythm keeps evidence current, catches scope drift early and makes next year’s assessment unremarkable.
- Evidence calendar and control monitoring cadence
- Change-impact review for scope drift
- Periodic scanning, segmentation and penetration testing
- Compliance calendar with owners
- Quarterly posture report
- Updated risk register and roadmap
Decision you can makeWhere to invest next, and which changes should trigger reassessment.
The rules we never bend.
Changes go through change control, with impact stated.
Interviews inform; evidence decides.
Critical findings are raised the day we find them.
The closing position is a fact, not a promise.
Two safeguards behind every report.
Independence
We separate the people who build a control from the people who test it. When your formal assessment belongs with an accredited assessor or CPA firm, we prepare you for it and never mark our own homework.
Independent quality review
A senior practitioner outside the delivery team checks scope, sampling, evidence and reasoning before issue.
Reports written for the people who use them.
Executive summary
Two pages a board can act on.
Requirement matrix
Status, evidence and rationale for each requirement.
Technical findings
Reproducible detail and specific remediation.
Remediation plan
Owners, sequence and acceptance criteria.
We treat your evidence like the asset it is.
- Least-privilege, time-bound access, revoked at close
- Evidence kept in your repositories wherever possible
- No cardholder or production personal data unless agreed
- Agreed retention and secure deletion
- Testing under signed rules of engagement
See how this applies to your engagement.
Tell us what you are preparing for. A senior practitioner who has done this work will reply within one business day.