Governance, Risk & Compliance
Compliance that holds up when someone actually asks, not just when nobody does.
Regulations, cyber insurance applications, and client security questionnaires all assume documented governance exists behind the technology. Most businesses have a policy that was written once, and a security posture that was never mapped back to it.
3rd Element Consulting provides governance, risk, and compliance support for frameworks including HIPAA, FTC Safeguards, and client security questionnaires, mapping written policy to the controls actually running in your environment.
The pattern
A WISP in a drawer is not a compliance program.
Most businesses that need to demonstrate compliance, HIPAA, the FTC Safeguards Rule, CJIS, state privacy laws, a client's vendor security questionnaire, have some version of a policy document. Whether it reflects what's actually configured in the environment is a different question, and usually nobody has checked.
The gap shows up at the worst time. An insurance renewal asks about a control the policy claims exists. A client's security questionnaire asks for evidence, not a description. An auditor asks to see the access review that was supposed to happen quarterly. The document says one thing. The environment says another.
Governance, risk, and compliance is not a single technical control. It's the layer that ties your policies, your risk register, your vendor agreements, and your technical controls together into something a regulator, insurer, or client can actually verify.
What we own
What we manage as part of your GRC program.
7 areas, swipe or use arrows
Regulatory framework mapping
HIPAA, FTC Safeguards, CJIS, PCI DSS, and state privacy laws translated into the specific controls your environment needs, not a generic checklist.
Written Information Security Plans (WISP)
A WISP that reflects what's actually configured, reviewed on a schedule, and defensible if a regulator or insurer asks to see it.
Risk assessments
Documented risk assessments that identify where the business is exposed and what it would take to close the gap, updated as the environment changes.
Vendor and third-party risk management
A register of who has access to your systems and data, what they do with it, and whether their controls match the risk.
Policy development and lifecycle
Acceptable use, incident response, data retention, and access control policies written in language your team will follow, reviewed annually or when the business changes.
Audit and evidence readiness
Access logs, control documentation, and evidence organized so an audit or client security review doesn't turn into a fire drill.
Incident response documentation
A written plan for who does what, in what order, and how it maps to your regulatory notification obligations.
HOW THIS FITS WITH YOUR SECURITY BASELINE
The baseline is the floor. GRC is the proof.
Our Standards & Security Baseline is the technical floor every environment we manage is held to. Identity, endpoint, backup, monitoring, documentation. GRC is what sits on top of that: the written policies, risk assessments, vendor documentation, and audit trail that let you prove the baseline is real to a regulator, an insurer, or a client asking hard questions.
You don't need both from us to benefit from one. But most businesses that get serious about one eventually need the other. A baseline without documentation doesn't survive an audit. Documentation without a real baseline underneath it doesn't survive an incident.
HOW WE WORK
We map what regulators and clients are actually asking for, then close the gap.
We start by identifying what frameworks actually apply to your business. HIPAA, FTC Safeguards, CJIS, PCI DSS, a specific client's vendor requirements, or a general best-practices posture aligned to CIS Controls. For how the two most common frameworks fit together, see CIS Controls vs NIST CSF.
From there we review your current policies, risk register, and vendor agreements against what those frameworks require, and against what your environment actually does. Gaps get documented and prioritized, not hidden.
Policies get written in language your team will actually follow, not boilerplate nobody reads. Risk assessments and vendor reviews happen on a schedule, not once and forgotten.
WHAT CHANGES
What looks different once governance has a real owner.
- Policies match reality. What's written down is what's actually configured and practiced, reviewed on a schedule instead of filed away.
- Audits stop being a scramble. Evidence exists before the request arrives. Access logs, risk assessments, vendor reviews, incident response plans.
- Vendor risk is tracked, not assumed. Third parties with access to your systems or data are reviewed against what they actually touch.
- Insurance and client questionnaires get real answers. The same documentation that satisfies a regulator satisfies most cyber insurance applications and client security reviews.
- Leadership can describe the compliance posture in plain language. Not a legal summary nobody remembers, a working understanding of what's required and where you stand.
- Without this, the paperwork and the reality quietly drift apart, and nobody notices until someone official asks to compare them. A policy claims a control nobody built. A vendor nobody reviewed still has the access it was given years ago. A risk assessment that was due last year stays undone. Usually it's an audit, a breach, or a renewal that forces the comparison, not a schedule anyone chose.
Who we work best with
Built for companies that want IT held to a standard.
Something brought you here. If you're with an organization of about 10 to 250 employees, headquartered in or operating across Central PA, that depends on its technology to operate and is ready to hold its IT to a written standard, you've probably outgrown whoever was managing IT before or something specific made the gap visible.
A strong fit
- Businesses in regulated or quasi-regulated industries. Healthcare, legal, financial services, government contractors
- Companies that keep getting client security questionnaires or vendor risk assessments from their own customers
- Leadership that has a WISP or compliance policy that hasn't been reviewed against reality in over a year
- Businesses preparing for an audit, a certification, or a transaction that requires documented governance
How we work
- We price for the outcome, not the lowest monthly rate. If price is the only deciding factor, we're probably not the best match.
- We'll tell you when something needs attention, even if you didn't ask.
- Every client runs to a security baseline: MFA, patching, and tested backups. We don't make exceptions, because we're accountable for the result.
Documentation you can put to work
Take something with you.
Both of these map directly to what an auditor or underwriter will ask for: proof of a documented incident response plan, and a renewal-ready view of your current controls.
Compliance resources
Take something with you.
A working document for the risk analysis HIPAA requires, useful if healthcare is one of the frameworks your business has to answer to.
Common questions
Questions leadership usually asks first.
What's the difference between your Security Baseline and GRC?
Do we need a formal GRC program if we're a small business?
Can you help write our Written Information Security Plan?
How is this different from an outside compliance consultant?
Can you help with cyber insurance questions?
What is an IT Environment Review?
Continue reading
Related work and reading.
Client Story: Building a WISP That Would Hold Up
A WISP, risk assessment, and breach procedure built with the internal IT team, not around it.
Read more: Client Story: Building a WISP That Would Hold UpStandards & Security Baseline
The technical floor GRC documents and proves. You need one for the other to mean anything.
Read more: Standards & Security BaselineCyber Insurance Readiness
The same policies, controls, and evidence GRC produces answer most cyber insurance applications.
Read more: Cyber Insurance ReadinessCybersecurity Services
The technical controls that back up what your policies and risk register claim.
Read more: Cybersecurity ServicesWhat the FTC Safeguards Rule means for your business.
Who the rule actually covers, and what it requires in writing.
Read more: What the FTC Safeguards Rule means for your business.HIPAA, CJIS, and CMMC: Making Sense of the Compliance Alphabet Soup
Plain-language explanations of the frameworks businesses get asked about most.
Read more: HIPAA, CJIS, and CMMC: Making Sense of the Compliance Alphabet SoupEmpowering Your Internal IT: How Co-Managed Security Bridges the Governance Gap
Where governance work lands when internal IT is already fully committed.
Read more: Empowering Your Internal IT: How Co-Managed Security Bridges the Governance GapNext step
Get a clearer view of your IT environment.
Find out what is working, where the risks are, and what needs attention next.