CyberGuard dictionary / Core Cybersecurity
Security Control
A safeguard used to protect systems or reduce cybersecurity risk.
In simple terms
A control is something an organization does to prevent, detect, or recover from trouble.
Technical explanation
Controls may be administrative, technical, or physical and can serve preventive, detective, or corrective functions.
A control needs a defined purpose, owner, scope, and way to verify that it works. Preventive controls reduce the chance of an event, detective controls surface it, and corrective controls limit damage or support recovery.
Examples in practice
Requiring MFA for administrator accounts is a technical preventive control.
The company requires MFA, monitors failed administrator sign-ins, and keeps a tested account-recovery procedure. The three controls address different stages of the same account-compromise risk.
Why it matters
Controls turn a risk decision into a concrete protective action.
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Sources and further reading
Published 2026-10-15 · Last updated 2026-10-15 · CyberGuard editorial content. Source links provide context; they do not imply endorsement.