Virtual CISO Services

Get access to an experienced information security management and compliance professional on-demand

Get the Expertise You Need, When You Need it.

Your Virtual Chief Information Security Officer is a trusted advisor, providing the expertise, knowledge and skills needed to ensure that your business meets its information security governance, risk and compliance objectives.

Build a vCISO Solution that Fits Your Needs

Our unique, cost-effective service lets you customise deliverables by identifying the specific strategic and tactical assistance you need.

The result is a comprehensive and bespoke vCISO service to meet your business’ information risk management appetite and budget.

  • Strategic Planning

  • Board & Steering Committee Briefings

  • Policies & Awareness

  • Asset Classification

  • Tactical Execution

  • Security Testing

  • Technical Control Remediation

  • Compliance Management

Deliverables are customised to meet your specific business requirements but typically your dedicated Virtual CISO will:
Present an overview of the threat landscape
Confirm the risk appetite, tolerance, capacity and strategy
Design a business information security management system
Identify, locate, classify and document information assets
Conduct and document risk and threat assessments
Conduct and document security compliance gap assessments
Produce business remedial recommendations
Draft and update policies, standards and guidelines
Provide threat landscape information to business stakeholders
Manage compliance to information security legislation, regulation or standards (such as ISO 27001, DORA, PCI and SOC 2)

Risk Crew’s 3-Step Process to Instant Deployment

  • Interview stakeholders to identify and confirm the business risk appetite, tolerance, capacity, specific organisational goals and objectives
  • Verify assets and existing resources to confirm information assets, asset owners, sensitivity, location and current capabilities
  • Review information security procedures, policies, KRI’s, controls, control objectives, KPIs, evidence and testing activities
  • Conduct sample (random) staff interviews to benchmark the current information and cyber risk awareness culture
  • Draft a proposed 12-month activity roadmap for implementation in the business
  • Document annual and quarterly goals to include objectives and KPIs to measure performance against targets
  • The roadmap shall specify reporting subjects, frequency and formatting along with any stand-alone deliverables and target dates required by the business
  • Begin implementing the agreed actions; completed and additional added activities shall be regularly confirmed with the business
  • The vCISO will maintain the roadmap throughout the life of the engagement
  • Continually monitor and measure performance to ensure the business obtains a transparent and tangible return on investment; providing a historical maturity record of the programme

Virtual CISO Service Benefits

Trusted Expertise & Experience

Risk Crew accredited vCISOs bring extensive experience across multiple industries, offering a broad perspective on security challenges.

Efficiency

vCISOs expert knowledge enables faster and easier implementation of required action in a practice-oriented way – specific to your business requirements.

Flexibility

The service can be utilised as a short or medium-term fix until you can recruit a permanent qualified and experienced CISO for your business.

Instant deployment

vCISOs require no training, can hit the ground running and make a real difference from the very first day.

See the 3 steps to instant deployment.

Synergy and Integration

Your vCISO seamlessly becomes part of your internal security team, providing leadership and guidance to both executive management and technical security staff.

Cost-effective

The vCISO service may well be more price-effective than long-term costs of deploying your own staff resources.

Risk Crew’s service was the right decision for our company. Our dedicated vCISO provided us with immediate response, escalated tasks when required and anticipated security issues. We chose the service option of having the CISO on-site initially and then transitioned to remote only. They are a trusted and valued partner.

Compliance Manager

Pharmaceutical Industry

Not only was our consultant thorough, but he also took the time to teach us additional information security best practices. Being a small business, the virtual CISO option provided us with a low-cost solution rather than hiring a full-time employee.

HR Director

Finance Industry

From the beginning of our engagement with Risk Crew, we were provided with a clear roadmap of what our business needed to align with our risk appetite and business requirements. From the initial call for scoping to the onboarding of our consultant – they made it a simple process and clearly defined the service.

Security Officer

Retail Industry

FAQs

vCISO stands for virtual, Chief Information Security Officer and is an outsourced information security governance, risk and compliance management professional providing agreed to services on an as-needed basis in lieu of a permanent hire position.

Some of a vCISO’s responsibilities include overseeing strategic, operational, and budgetary aspects of a business’ information security governance, risk and compliance requirements. vCISO’s work closely with business stakeholders to define, develop and implement information security policies and procedures for the organisation just as would a permanent hire.

Good communication skills and the ability to quickly understand business information security risk appetite, tolerance and capacity in order to implement an applicable cost-effective strategy to meet these requirements.

Industry surveys indicate that most vCISOs services cost between 30% and 40% of a full-time CISO – direct hire role. That’s a 60% to 70% savings. Learn more on virtual CISO pricing: Maximising Security and Efficiency with CISO-as-a-Service.

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