A Virtual CISO (or vCISO) is a outsourcing service provider who offers their top-tier security expertise and insights to an organization on a monthly, quarterly, or ongoing per hour basis, and typically done remotely to meet your specific needs. Another common name for vCISO is CISO as a service or even a fractional CISO (fCISO). Either way you look at it, a vCISO is a specialized and certified addition to your security program.
We have decades of experience; building information security programs that work WITH your business objectives and demonstrate measurable improvement to your security posture.
WHAT DOES A vCISO DO?
A vCISO is a resource with experience building and improving information security programs. The process starts with a risk assessment, a vCISO will want an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of an organization’s security program. Based on the results, the vCISO then works with executive leadership teams to understand goals, budget, and bandwidth—allowing them to provide an actionable roadmap to build and strengthen your security program.
With the roadmap in place, a vCISO work with the organization’s internal team to train staff and make the recommended policy, process, and risk management steps.
improving the ability of the organization to protect its sensitive information and increase its operational efficiencies. Over time, they simply become a sounding board for the organization’s staff to bounce questions and challenges off of.
Typical objectives of our vCISO engagements include:
- Governance
- Information security leadership and guidance
- Steering committee leadership or participation
- Security compliance management
- Security policy, process, and procedure development
- Board and executive leadership presentations
- Security Operations
- Security assessment
- Vulnerability assessments
- Investigation and forensics
- Incident response planning
- Security training and awareness
- Application and network penetration testing
- Social engineering
- Security architecture
- Compliance
- Internal audit
- Third Party or Vendor program management
- Security assessment
- Risk Management
- Risk assessments
- Business impact analysis
- Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery planning
- And much, much more.
WHY A vCISO?
I CAN’T AFFORD/DON’T NEED A FULL-TIME CISO
Most small and middle-sized organizations don’t have the money to hire a full fledged CISO or enough work to keep one busy. A typical CISO will cost around $200K to $400K plus salary and benefits.
Hiring a vCISO is a great way to apply verifiable industry experience to clarify your needs and implement scalable bandwidth while obtaining flexibility and only incurring on-demand costs.
I DON’T KNOW WHERE TO START
Most organizations’ appointed “security officers” have very little formal security training and almost all would not count security as their primary job function. This leaves an organization exposed to additional risk because of “what they don’t know”.
Hiring a vCISO will bring access to an expert with a range of specialized and certified expertise to help augment your internal capabilities.
OUR SECURITY PERSON RECENTLY LEFT
The market for security talent is tough and turnover happens a lot in the security profession. One person leaving can put your organization behind on it’s security priorities or eve delay projects.
Hiring a vCISO has the advantage of someone being able to step in an keep the projects or programs moving forward. They bring proven expertise, methodologies, and resources. Whether you decide to hire another full-time security professional or not, a vCISO can help you bridge the gap and make sure that expertise isn’t lost in the transition.
EXTENSIVE INDUSTRY KNOWLEDGE AND SKILL
Does your “security” person wear a ton of hats in the organization? It’s not uncommon for companies to assign security roles as a secondary function of an employee’s primary role. Because of this, they’re often not true experts.
A vCISO is highly skilled and a certified expert with years of information security experience. A virtual CISO is going to be able to enhance the internal capabilities of your employees tasked with handling security through the techniques they’ve learned.
OUR METHODOLOGY
EXPERTISE
With have over 15 years experience in Information Security for both large and small organizations. When it comes to growing a security program through a vCISO, you have the benefit of experience in your corner.
MISSION
Our mission at Mathom Solutions is to fix the broken information security industry. Not only do we help your security governance, but we also solve as many weaknesses as we can in your security environment. Being with organizations before, during, and after a breach is the only way we can truly improve their security and protect the sensitive information entrusted to them.
APPROACH
Our approach isn’t “cookie cutter.” We recognize that each and every organization is unique. We also know that every security program is at a different stage of maturity. We get to know your security program, use an information security risk assessment to help us understand what your strengths and weaknesses are, and then apply industry best practices to provide a roadmap that’ll help you make improvements in your security posture.
FOCUS
Information security is at the core of all that we do. We don’t do manage IT, sell hardware, or provide telco services. We only do information security. Because of this, we provide unbiased recommendations that actually make a lasting impact to the way you do security. We work hard to be a partner—collaborating with and educating your team every step of the way.
Whatever your security challenge, it never hurts to talk to an expert. If we can’t address your need directly, we’ll at least get you pointed in the right direction.