Many companies are trying to do more with less these days, while there is also a need to have skilled resources available to support their Cybersecurity program. The need for compliance has increased over the years. Just to renew a cyber insurance policy requires companies to have vulnerability management programs, drafted policies and segregation of duties. This makes starting that new business a challenge and scaling the SMB’s to larger customers ever more challenging.
When it comes to your Cybersecurity program, having certified, experienced and knowledgeable staff is a must. A virtual CISO, or CISO-as-a-Service, may be a good model to adopt until your organization is large enough to support a full-time headcount. Below are some tips for finding the right CISO for your organization.
Benefits of Engaging a vCISO:
- Just-in-Time-Leadership: Gain executive-level cybersecurity leadership from people who have 20+ years of experience, and can communicate at the technical and business levels.
- Cost-Effective: Engage with a monthly fixed retainer that fits your budget, without incurring high salary and overhead costs.
- Compliance Support: Meet the requirements of HIPAA, ISO-27001, PCI DSS, and SOC2, as well as being able to support frameworks like NIST 800-53, 800-171, NIST CSF, CIS-18, and the Trust Services Criteria.
What to Look For in a vCISO:
- Experience – Ensure the vCISO you are engaging has multiple years of experience across similar industries. Ask them to tell stories of business compromises and system resilience in order to learn more about their response strategies.
- Qualification and Certification – The CISSP certificate is the ‘golden cert’ for the cybersecurity leader. This certificate covers all the security domains and requires years of experience before being able to test. Be sure to engage a vCISO who has had their CISSP for more than three years, to ensure they are committed to the industry and keep up on their training. CISO’s with a technical degree or MBA are usually better at understanding new technologies and imparting the risks for your business.
- Leadership and Culture Fit – Having a cybersecurity leader that can communicate with your executive team, especially in the times of crisis, is more important than knowing all the ins-an-outs of particular technologies. Be sure they can communicate at all levels and can pace themselves to the speed and finances of your organization.
- Flexibility and Business Alignment – Just as your business changes, so must your cybersecurity program. A leader who understands your business and can rapidly adapt the controls to meet the business demands is very important. A resource who can also learn new concepts quickly can be especially valuable to your business when taking on new challenges and emerging threats.
How ACSM helps with its CISO-as-a-Service Offering:
- Low Learning Hurdle
- Strategic Alignment and Communications
- Risk Quantification and Mitigation
- Standards, Policy and Process Improvement
- 3rd Party Support
- Product and Cloud Agnostic
- IRP Support w/Forensics
- Sales Support
- Strategic Partnership
ACSM has been helping businesses protect their assets and improve their security and privacy posture since 2006. Our skilled team can help your business understand its cyber weaknesses and potential threats as well as improve your security, privacy, and compliance postures. Our services include penetration testing, maturity assessments, cyber security, and privacy implementation assistance, CISO-as-a-Service, and DPO-as-a-Service, MSP, and MSSP services, to mention a few.
To learn more about how ACSM can support your cyber defense needs, please visit our contact page at https://www.americancsm.com/contact-us/ and schedule a free consultation call today.