BP-07 · Industry Blueprint · Financial Services

Financial services depend on trusted connections. Not all need to stay open.

BP-07 Financial Services Control Blueprint icon

Payment, trading and banking services rely on tightly managed connections between internal systems, counterparties and suppliers. Control may add physical boundaries to selected paths, with access decisions shaped around operational and regulatory requirements.

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A payment-platform supplier needs an approved administrative session, not standing access to the transaction environment. Review the named support and cross-zone boundaries; operationally required links are not assumed disconnectable.
Reference design for adaptation with the service owner, not a validated deployment. Confirm complete boundary coverage, operational dependencies and the consequences of opening or closing each selected path.
3 matching Control Plans. Offline Secure Storage® is separate.
It does not replace network security, transaction controls, market supervision, incident response or regulatory obligations. Changing connectivity does not establish a safe process state, stop local execution or guarantee service restoration.

The industry reality

Financial Services: the connections your operation relies on.

Payment, trading and customer services depend on multiple network paths, including connections to SWIFT environments, market data providers, payment processors and fintech suppliers. A compromised or misused path may affect availability, integrity or confidentiality.

Transaction continuityUnavailable connections may affect payment processing, settlement or access to customer services.

Path exposurePersistent supplier, correspondent or administrator routes may create access beyond an approved work period.

Transaction confidenceCompromise of systems supporting payments or trading may challenge confidence in transaction instructions.

AccountabilityTeams need to understand which paths are controlled and how decisions align with operational responsibilities.

What needs protecting

The service, systems and people behind the connections.

A payment-platform supplier needs an approved administrative session, not standing access to the transaction environment. Review the named support and cross-zone boundaries; operationally required links are not assumed disconnectable.

Standing accessWhich supplier, fintech and correspondent routes remain available outside approved activity?

Shared dependenciesWhich systems or links are shared across payment, trading and customer services?

Critical availabilityWhich paths must remain available for settlement, market operations or customer service?

Threats and failure scenarios

Situations to plan for, before the next incident.

A payment-platform supplier needs an approved administrative session, not standing access to the transaction environment. Control acts on selected physical connections, not every connection in the environment.

Scoped support for Financial ServicesA payment-platform supplier needs an approved administrative session, not standing access to the transaction environment. The owner authorises the selected route and its closing conditions.

Review an affected boundaryAssess an affected administrative route with the payment service owner; settlement and transaction continuity must be assessed separately.

CP-02: agree the connection and authorityAssess an affected administrative route with the payment service owner; settlement and transaction continuity must be assessed separately. Use CP-02 only where its scope and approval requirements fit this connection.

Industry architecture

Illustrative sector connections.

Illustrative sector connection

Stage

Without Control: the selected routes remain open.

Modules in this Blueprint

Shown when the agreed Control response is selected.

An illustrative ransomware event starts in a connected system and follows the open routes shown here. This is a connection model, not a prediction of a real attack.The open connections allow movement in this simplified model. Actual exposure depends on your environment and existing defences.

Selected connection states

Supplier support to payment administrationAlways connected
Corporate IT to payment administration boundaryAlways connected
Payment processor to settlement servicesAlways connected
Trading support to market-data administrationAlways connected
Recovery access (OSS)Disconnected

!Illustrative threat starts at · Corporate IT
+Modelled movement to · Suppliers, Identity
+Modelled movement to · Approved access, Payment systems
+Modelled movement to · Supporting service, Processing / settlement, SWIFT environment
+Modelled movement to · Protected service, Trading systems

This model only shows the selected routes. An interrupted route does not remove an existing compromise or protect unmodelled paths. Your security tools detect the event; the agreed Control design governs the response. Offline Secure Storage® holds copies separately; it is not a Control module.

Recommended industry Blueprint

Our recommended Blueprint for Financial Services.

Start with these connections: Supplier support to payment administration; Corporate IT to payment administration boundary
Agree how access works: Open only for the authorised support task; close under agreed completion conditions
Plan the response: Change only the selected boundary after the service owner approves the impact

Refine this recommendation with payment service owners, platform engineering and security leads. Offline Secure Storage® can hold recovery copies separately; it is not a Control module.

As featured in

Operational scenarios

Who decides, what changes, and what is checked.

Agree responsibility and service dependencies before relying on a controlled connection.

Normal operation
Payment, trading and banking services rely on tightly managed connections between internal systems, counterparties and suppliers. Control may add physical boundaries to selected paths, with access decisions shaped around operational and regulatory requirements.
Approved work
A payment-platform supplier needs an approved administrative session, not standing access to the transaction environment. The owner authorises the selected route and its closing conditions.
Incident response
A payment-platform supplier needs an approved administrative session, not standing access to the transaction environment. Control acts on selected physical connections, not every connection in the environment.
Reconnection
The owner reviews service dependencies and security checks, authorises reconnection and verifies the observed result. Evidence is retained only through the specified supporting systems.

It does not replace network security, transaction controls, market supervision, incident response or regulatory obligations. Changing connectivity does not establish a safe process state, stop local execution or guarantee service restoration.

Resilience and recovery

Offline Secure Storage®

OSS protects stored business data, recovery copies and retained evidence through physical disconnection. It is a separate storage service, not a Control module or a network containment function.

Control by Firevault governs selected physical connections. Existing detection tools and authorised operators decide when to act. OSS does not detect incidents, command Control or replace operational safety procedures.

Offline Secure Storage (OSS) is separate from Control. If selected, it can hold retained copies of configurations, records or recovery material. Collection, completeness and recovery readiness depend on the supporting tools, retention design and tested recovery procedures.

Explore Offline Secure Storage

Standards and governance

Support your obligations. Keep the boundaries clear.

Alignment may be assessed against DORA, UK operational resilience requirements and PCI DSS where relevant; no certification or compliance outcome is implied. Any assessment needs deployment-specific scope and evidence; this Blueprint provides no certification, complete audit trail or guaranteed response time.

What this addressesA payment-platform supplier needs an approved administrative session, not standing access to the transaction environment. Control acts on selected physical connections, not every connection in the environment.

What it does not replaceIt does not replace network security, transaction controls, market supervision, incident response or regulatory obligations. Changing connectivity does not establish a safe process state, stop local execution or guarantee service restoration.

Evidence agreed for the deploymentSpecify the requests, approvals, commands, observed states and test results to retain. Logging capability and retention depend on the selected design.

Detection and the decision to act belong to the operational owner and supporting security systems. Identity, approval workflow, session expiry and evidence collection require specified integrations. Execute initiates an approved action; Fracture physically disconnects the selected path through Firebreak hardware. Confirm the observed connection state separately. Anchor keeps critical assets within defined physical connection boundaries; it does not collect or retain records. Transfer governs a designated exchange path, not content inspection or de-identification.

Deployment and proof of concept

Start with one boundary. Test it. Then expand.

Review the first selected connection with payment service owners, platform engineering and security leads, agree who can authorise a change and test the service impact.

Map the complete boundary
Confirm cabling, redundant links and alternate routes. A selected physical cut does not remove paths outside its scope.
Agree an independent command route
Confirm the available command methods for the selected hardware. Command delivery can be affected by coverage, roaming and handshakes.
Test the effect, not just the command
Verify the observed link state, service dependencies and failure behaviour in an agreed test window.

Plan your first route

Start with the route you would close first.

Review the first selected connection with payment service owners, platform engineering and security leads, agree who can authorise a change and test the service impact.

Outcomes

What changes, and how you will verify it.

Judge the Blueprint on agreed, observed outcomes.

Supplier support to payment administrationOpen only for the authorised support task; close under agreed completion conditions. Agree identity checks, approval, session closure and observed-state checks

Corporate IT to payment administration boundaryChange only the selected boundary after the service owner approves the impact. Map alternate routes and preserve services outside the selected scope

Payment processor to settlement servicesNot assumed disconnectable. Safety and continuity owners must assess this dependency separately

Questions worth asking

Before you rely on BP-07.

Practical questions for the people who own these connections.

Not by assumption. Map dependencies and agree the acceptable service impact with the operational owner before selecting a path.

Review the first selected connection with payment service owners, platform engineering and security leads, agree who can authorise a change and test the service impact.

Your next step

Take the next step with financial services.

Review the first selected connection with payment service owners, platform engineering and security leads, agree who can authorise a change and test the service impact.

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