→ The Executive Blind Spot 👨‍💼

It started with good intentions, a Friday-night bug fix.
No ticket. No peer review. No rollback plan.
By sunrise, outbound traffic spiked and credentials were bleeding into logs.

The “quick fix” had pulled in a malicious dependency from a public repo.
That’s how one forgotten patch became a seven-figure incident.

→ Why It Matters (Business Impact)

One unreviewed patch can detonate across three layers of assurance:

• Security: malicious code in your own supply chain.

• Compliance: missing approvals and evidence.

• Trust: customers reading about your breach before you do.

SOC 2 (CC8.1) and ISO 27001 (A 8.32) aren’t bureaucracy; they’re brakes before the cliff.
Change management isn’t red tape, it’s change discipline.

→ GRC X Offensive Security (Collaboration Angle)

GRC Engineering builds guardrails.
Offensive Security stress-tests the lane.

• Governance enforces risk scoring, approvals, and documentation.

• Red teams emulate malicious commits, CI/CD hijacks, and insider misuse.

Together they close the gap between policy intent and real-world attack paths.

GRC writes the rulebook. Red Team checks if it survives impact.

→ Compliance Lens: What Auditors Expect

• They won’t ask why it happened.
  They’ll ask, “Show me the proof.”

  • Change request with risk & impact logged

  • Test results or CI/CD build evidence

  • Approval record (via CAB → Change Advisory Board)

  • Post-implementation review notes

  No proof = no control.
  Auditors don’t expect perfection, they expect traceability.

→ Actionable Playbook (Practical Steps)

1️⃣ Standardize the Flow
Every change passes a single pipeline: Request → Assess → Test → Approve → Deploy → Review.
Automate it through Jira, ServiceNow, or Git workflows.

2️⃣ Segregate Duties
No developer should code, approve, and deploy.
Least Privilege = Containment.

3️⃣ Verify Dependencies
Use SCA tools. Treat every third-party package as potential malware.

4️⃣ Enforce Peer Review
Branch protection + two-person approval = no lone-wolf pushes.

5️⃣ Monitor & Rollback
Automated rollback scripts beat panic at 2 a.m.

6️⃣ Document Everything
Change logs are your digital black box in a post-incident review.

→ Leadership Lens (Executive Takeaways)

Executives don’t read code; they read headlines.

When “unauthorized update” hits the front page, they ask one question:

Leadership truths:

• Evidence = assurance.

• CABs balance speed and risk.

• Culture of traceable change outlives any tool.

→ Call-to-Action

Audit your last ten production changes:

• Are risk and testing documented?

• Is approval visible?

• Can you prove who did what, when, and why?

If not, start there.
Because the real exploit isn’t in the code, it’s in your uncontrolled change.

Every control tells a story. Share yours and continue the dialogue with me on LinkedIn.