Help & user guide

Getting started

ShieldIQ turns a framework questionnaire into a live GRC programme. The typical flow is assess → understand → remediate → maintain. Use the sidebar to move between modules; press ⌘K (or Ctrl K) anywhere to jump to any page or run a quick action.

• • The Dashboard is your posture at a glance — overall score, GRC counts, trends and due items. The same overall score rides in the top bar as an always-visible posture meter.
• • Everything is multi-tenant and role-aware; invite your team and set workspace security policy from Admin.
• • You must verify your email before signing in — check your inbox after registering, or use the resend link on the login page.
• • Your plan sets which frameworks and limits you get — see Plans & billing.

Navigating ShieldIQ

The left sidebar groups modules into four areas — Assess, GRC, Privacy & Resilience and Organisation.

• • Sections work as an accordion — one open at a time to keep the menu tidy. The area you're currently in opens automatically and its heading is highlighted, so it's always clear where you are.
• • Dashboard, Calendar, Activity and Log out stay pinned and visible at all times.
• • The top bar carries global search / ⌘K, the live posture meter, a live-event pill (turns red while an incident is open), notifications, a light/dark theme toggle and your account menu.
• • Press ? for a keyboard-shortcuts overlay.

Assessments

Assessments are the engine. Choose a framework and how deep to go, answer plain-language questions about how things actually work, and Claude produces per-category scores, narrative analysis and prioritised suggestions.

• • Pick a framework on New assessment. Locked frameworks show an Upgrade button; higher plans unlock more.
• • Choose a depth using the three icons on the framework's card (the top of the page explains them):
  • Quick: the key requirement in each area. A fast overview, typically 10 to 15 minutes.
  • Standard: every category covered. A sound baseline.
  • Comprehensive: every requirement in the framework. Use it to prepare for an audit.
  Each depth includes everything in the one before it. Hover an icon to see its question count and roughly how long it takes. Starter plans run Quick; Standard and Comprehensive show a padlock until you upgrade.
• • CyFun: choose your assurance level (Basic, Important or Essential) as well as a depth.
• • Answering: questions are grouped by domain, and each one asks about a single requirement in plain language. Hover the requirement reference beside a question (for example GV.OC-01) to read the requirement it covers: the official text where we can publish it, or our own summary (ISO standards and CyFun). Some questions are conditional and appear based on earlier answers. Your progress autosaves server-side, so you can resume on any device.
• • Not applicable to us: requirements that only apply to some organisations (service providers, data processors, AI deployers and so on) offer this answer. Those answers are left out of your score instead of counting as gaps.
• • Results: an overall score, a per-function radar, and expandable categories with AI analysis and improvement steps. Re-take any time, at the same depth or a deeper one, to track progress over quarters.

Dashboard

The Dashboard aggregates your whole programme: overall compliance, score by function, GRC summary cards (risks, controls, policies, actions), risk severity, framework coverage and score trends. An onboarding checklist guides first-time setup.

Risk register

Track risks with likelihood × impact scoring on a colour-coded 5×5 matrix whose cells deep-link to the filtered register.

• • Treatment plans — attach structured plans with budgets, target dates and milestones; a progress bar tracks completion.
• • Formal acceptance — when you accept a risk, raise an acceptance request with justification, business case and evidence; an admin (never the requester) signs it off. Revoking reopens the risk.
• • Auto-generation — low-scoring assessment categories and material FRIA harms can create risks automatically; vendor rejections raise a linked third-party risk.

Controls & mapping

The control library tracks implementation status across your frameworks.

• • Framework mappings — map each control to the framework categories it satisfies (feeds compliance coverage).
• • AI gap analysis — pick a source and target framework and Claude estimates your readiness, strong areas and prioritised gaps.
• • Cross-framework Mapping — see how a control or requirement in one framework corresponds to others, so work done for one standard counts toward the rest.
• • Generate remediation actions straight from unimplemented controls.

Policies

Author, version and track acknowledgment of your policies (markdown, rendered to clean HTML).

• • Template gallery — adopt a ready-made policy as an editable draft.
• • AI generator — describe scope + requirements and Claude drafts a tailored policy you can review and save.
• • Versioning & acknowledgment — edits create a new version automatically; staff acknowledge and you track who has.

Remediation actions

A kanban board (To do → In progress → Done) for remediation. Drag cards or use the no-JS controls; completing an action updates its linked control and risk automatically. One-click generate from open risks, unimplemented controls, or assessment gaps.

Assets

Maintain an asset inventory with type, data classification and criticality. Assets link to risks and vendors so impact ratings stay grounded in what actually matters.

Vendors (TPRM)

Third-party risk management: register vendors with criticality, data access and DPA status.

• • Send questionnaires — start an assessment from a template and send the vendor a secure token link to self-assess.
• • Review → auto-risk — record your decision; a rejection or conditional pass can raise a linked third-party risk.
• • Trust network — search vendors already assessed across ShieldIQ and import their profile.

Incidents

Log and manage security incidents with a timeline, playbooks and regulatory deadline countdowns (NIS2 / GDPR / DORA). AI can draft breach notifications; export a regulator-ready pack.

Evidence

A central evidence library — upload documents (virus-scanned, validated) and attach them to controls, risks and audits. Expiry tracking flags evidence that needs refreshing.

Business continuity & pen testing

• • BCDR — log business-continuity and disaster-recovery exercises with type, outcome and auto-generated reference; upcoming and overdue re-tests are highlighted so nothing lapses.
• • Pen tests — a penetration-test repository tracking findings by severity (critical / high / medium / low), open critical+high counts, status workflow and retest-due dates.

GDPR, AI & CRA — ROPA / DPIA / FRIA

• • ROPA — records of processing activities (Art. 30) with legal basis and special-category flags.
• • DPIA — data protection impact assessments with DPO sign-off, the Art. 36 prior-consultation gate for high residual risk, versioning and scheduled reviews.
• • FRIA — fundamental-rights impact assessments for AI systems (EU AI Act Art. 27), generate-risks from identified harms, and sign-off.
• • AI systems — an inventory of the AI you build or use, with risk classification, feeding your FRIAs.
• • CRA reports — EU Cyber Resilience Act tracking with the 24-hour / 72-hour / 14-day notification stages for products with digital elements.

Scanner & threat intel

• • Scanner — run network/vulnerability scans (quick, standard, deep by plan); results poll in live and feed your risk picture.
• • Threat intel — live CISA KEV (with EPSS), ransomware activity and security news, plus the regulatory horizon and recent enforcement.

Calendar & activity

• • Calendar — a month view of everything with a date: reassessment cadences, policy and DPIA reviews, evidence expiry, incident and CRA deadlines and re-tests. Use it to stay ahead of what's due.
• • Activity — a day-grouped feed of everything that has happened across your workspace, so you can see recent changes and who made them at a glance.

Certificates & scheduling

• • Certificates — generate a shareable compliance certificate from a qualifying assessment; anyone can verify it via its public code.
• • Schedule reassessment cadences and set per-category maturity targets to measure against.

Reports & exports

Every results page has a print-perfect report (browser → Save as PDF) and CSV export (by plan). Higher tiers add an auditor export pack and emailed reports.

Team, roles & admin

Invite colleagues, assign roles and track seat usage from Admin (workspace owners and admins only).

• • Roles — admins manage the workspace; members do the day-to-day; the auditor role gives read-only access for external reviewers.
• • Security policy — enforce MFA across the workspace (with a grace period), set a minimum password length and a session-timeout, so your standards apply to everyone.
• • Audit trail — a detailed log of who did what, when, to which record, with the outcome and source IP — useful for evidence and investigations.
• • Usage meters show seats and per-module counts against your plan.

Account & security

Manage your profile and password, and turn on multi-factor authentication (scan the QR with any authenticator app) from Account. You can review trusted devices and disable MFA with your password.

• • Email verification is required before any account can be used — this protects against someone signing up with an address that isn't theirs.
• • Recent sign-ins lists your logins with a risk rating (device, location, impossible travel, time-of-day and IP reputation). Your workspace admin sets the weighting, alert threshold and notifications under Admin → Security policy.
• • Changing your password signs you out everywhere; password-reset links are single-use and expire after an hour.

Plans & billing

Compare tiers, see exactly what each includes, and upgrade instantly — payment and invoicing are handled securely by Stripe. Change or cancel any time from the customer portal. Starter includes Quick assessments; paid plans add Standard and Comprehensive.

Support

Still stuck? Email info@shieldiqcyber.com — response times depend on your plan. Business and Enterprise plans include priority support and onboarding sessions.