Full Update Log – Winter 2025 Release

Here’s a detailed look at what’s new and enhanced in this release.

From expanded dashboard visibility to more efficient assurance execution, every update is designed to help teams manage risk with greater clarity, consistency, and confidence.

Dashboards

Dashboard capabilities have been expanded to support deeper exploration and more informative reporting across risks, controls, and frameworks.

Drill-down views now provide greater visibility into control coverage, outstanding framework items, and alignment status. Cyber posture views now highlight the criticality of outstanding items and align directly to the primary categories of the NIST CSF 2.0 framework. Control Effectiveness, Assurance Status, and risk views now work together more cohesively. 

Benefit: Clearer insight into control coverage and framework alignment, with dashboards that support real decision-making and confident reporting.

Self-Assessment Questionnaires (SAQ)

The SAQ experience has been further enhanced to provide clearer context, smoother workflows, and more efficient review from launch through submission.

Additional context is now visible in the control list at launch, including the last assessed date and control testing frequency. Workflow clarity has been improved to support intuitive progression. Notification and delegation emails now include direct links to user control assessments. Requests for control evidence only appear when applicable, and the administrative response view has been refined to improve readability and provide more room for control owner comments.

Benefit: Faster assessment execution, clearer ownership, and more efficient review with less follow-up overhead.

Frameworks

Framework alignment views have been enhanced to surface clearer insight into scoped items, control linkage, and outstanding alignment activity.

Framework metrics now reflect meaningful alignment based on scoped items, gap identification and criticality, supporting a more informed view of readiness.

Benefit: Stronger visibility into framework coverage and clearer prioritization of alignment efforts.

Out-of-the-Box Ready

Introduced a pre-built system of IT processes, risks and controls available from day one that we connect to chosen frameworks. 

Benefit: Get operational in days, not months, with a structured starting point instead of rebuilding from scratch.

General Enhancements

Across the platform, UI consistency, formatting, and validation behaviours have been refined to reduce friction and improve reliability.

Benefit: A smoother experience overall, especially during high-pressure assessment and reporting periods.

Full Update Log – Fall 2025 Release

Here’s a detailed look at what’s new and improved in this release.

From tighter assurance workflows to smarter reporting, every change is designed to make BACKSTOP faster, clearer, and more connected.

Assurance Model

We’ve launched BACKSTOP’s new Dual Assurance Model, combining full assurance and self-assessment into one flexible framework.

Benefit: Choose your approach based on timing and rigor — run independent assurance for audit-grade validation or self-assessments for speed and efficiency.

Controls

Control management just got smarter. New fields for Control Self-Assessment, Evidence Required, and Control Objectives connect assurance results, evidence, and intent in one view.

Benefit: Streamlined traceability, consistent documentation, and stronger accountability across every control owner.

Risks

Risk records now include a Financial Impact field and a full history log that captures the reason behind every change.

Benefit: Greater accountability, better visibility into how risk ratings evolve, and more reliable audit trails.

Frameworks

Framework management has been upgraded with a Framework Item Criticality field and enhanced scoping and testing views.

Benefit: Focus your efforts where they matter most — prioritize critical framework items and track testing progress with confidence.

Reporting

New reports have been added to make performance monitoring easier than ever:

• Process-Risk-Control (PRC) Report: See how processes, risks, and controls connect.

• Control Testing Status Report: Track control test progress and results in real time.

Benefit: Improved visibility and communication of control effectiveness across teams.

General Enhancements

BACKSTOP's core architecture continues to evolve with tighter integrations between modules — including assurance, controls, frameworks, and dashboards.

Benefit: Smoother workflows, reduced duplication, and a more cohesive user experience overall.