The Compliance Programme
The three regimes that define cybersecurity obligation in Saudi Arabia — and how GovernanceX takes you from gap to evidence.
Our flagship practice. GovernanceX assesses your posture against NCA ECC, SAMA CSF and PDPL, builds a prioritized remediation roadmap, drafts the policy and evidence architecture, and stays engaged as your compliance office until certification and beyond. Governance is not a document set — it is the operating system of your security program.
NCA Essential Cybersecurity Controls (ECC)
The National Cybersecurity Authority's ECC is the baseline every in-scope Saudi organization must meet — spanning governance, defense, resilience, third-party and cloud, and industrial-control domains. Compliance is not a one-time certificate: NCA expects implemented controls, assigned ownership and living evidence.
How GovernanceX helps
- Scoping and applicability analysis for your sector and entity type
- Domain-by-domain gap assessment with maturity scoring
- Bilingual policy and procedure drafting mapped to each control
- Evidence architecture so every control has a living artifact
- Self-assessment and regulator-response support
SAMA Cyber Security Framework (CSF)
Financial institutions regulated by the Saudi Central Bank must demonstrate maturity against the SAMA CSF — from governance and risk management through to advanced threat detection. SAMA reviews look for embedded practice, not paper: maturity levels must be evidenced across people, process and technology.
How GovernanceX helps
- CSF maturity assessment with realistic target-state planning
- Control implementation across all four CSF domains
- Cyber risk quantification your CRO can defend
- Periodic self-assessment preparation and evidence packs
- Board and audit-committee reporting frameworks
Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL)
PDPL, supervised by SDAIA, governs how personal data of individuals in the Kingdom is collected, processed, transferred and protected. It demands lawful bases, records of processing, breach notification, data-subject rights handling and controls on cross-border transfer — with real penalties for non-compliance.
How GovernanceX helps
- Data inventory and records of processing activities (RoPA)
- Privacy notices, consent flows and data-subject rights procedures
- Cross-border transfer assessments and safeguards
- Breach-response runbooks aligned to notification timelines
- Privacy-by-design reviews for new products and AI systems
What you receive
- Full gap assessment against NCA ECC, SAMA CSF and PDPL
- Prioritized remediation roadmap with ownership and effort estimates
- Policy, standard and procedure library drafted in Arabic and English
- Evidence architecture and audit-readiness workbook
- Quarterly compliance posture reviews with board-level reporting
How we engage
- 01
Assess
Interviews, evidence review and control testing across all domains.
- 02
Roadmap
Prioritize gaps by regulatory exposure and business risk.
- 03
Remediate
Implement controls, policies and evidence flows together.
- 04
Sustain
Operate the compliance calendar and keep evidence current.
Frequently asked questions
Typically 3–9 months depending on size and current maturity; the gap assessment gives you a realistic dated roadmap in the first three weeks.
Ready to put governance over your security program?
Speak with a GovernanceX advisor about NCA ECC, SAMA CSF or PDPL readiness — from first gap assessment to sustained, evidenced compliance.
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