# Establish a Security Council A Security Council is essential for smart contract-based projects, providing a dedicated group to safeguard the protocol and respond to security incidents. In decentralized systems, where trust in code is critical, the council ensures rapid and organized action during emergencies, such as pausing contracts, deploying patches, or activating circuit breakers to prevent losses. Composed of trusted experts, the council supports security and stability while aligning decisions with community interests. Many leading protocols rely on Security Councils or emergency multisigs, including **Optimism** and **Arbitrum** (12-member councils that can rapidly deploy upgrades), **Polygon** (multisig used to patch critical vulnerabilities), **MakerDAO** (emergency shutdown process), and **ENS** (root keyholders with upgrade authority). These examples show that structured, transparent security governance is a proven best practice. ## Responsibilities of the Security Council * **Emergency Actions:** Pause contracts, deploy patches, or implement circuit breakers during crises. * **Vulnerability Management:** Assess, prioritize, and address security vulnerabilities as they arise. * **Governance Oversight:** Ensure protocol decisions and upgrades adhere to security best practices. * **Regulatory Compliance:** Align security measures with legal and regulatory requirements. * **Periodic Security Reviews:** Conduct regular assessments to evaluate contract safety and recommend immutability where appropriate. * **Incident Response:** Lead investigations and coordinate actions in response to security breaches. * **Community Transparency:** Engage stakeholders and communicate actions to maintain trust. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.optimumsec.xyz/ongoing-operations/security-council.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.