.png)
You need someone to manage your business’ security program, and while this is a necessity, you have options for how you choose to protect your assets.
For most companies, they either hire a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) to manage an internal security team, or they hire an experienced CISO as a Service vendor to handle their cybersecurity. Ultimately, both are viable options for managing your security, but which is best for your business?
In many cases, hiring an external vCISO partner is the smartest choice— and in this post, we’re here to explain why. Here are five big advantages to using a vCISO vs. maintaining an in-house security team:
1. With a vCISO, you don’t have to worry about hiring or retaining staff.
If you don’t already have a Chief Information Security Officer, it can be costly and time-consuming to find the right security leader— not to mention building a whole department to help to achieve their initiatives. Depending on the size of your company, this could consume a great deal of your HR department’s time, and pull time away from your already busy staff when it comes to training new recruits.
Let’s not forget that in the cybersecurity field, turnover rates are high for start-ups. It can become quite expensive to frequently scout, train and support new staff, only to have them leave a few months after settling in. Fortunately, if you hire a vCISO, these troubles become your vendors’ concerns, not yours. Your security partner will manage their (your) team and ensure you have experienced help ready-to-go, at all times.
2. vCISO vendors know the expertise you need– and they know it well.
Need another reason to trust a vCISO instead of building the team yourself? It’s often difficult to hire people if you’re not an expert in the domain to which you’re hiring. Your HR team or security staff might not know what to truly look for in a CISO, and you could be wasting time screening the wrong candidates or bringing on the wrong person for the job.
Putting a CISO in front of your customers that’s not qualified reflects poorly on your company and can drastically affect your sales team. When partnering with a vCISO, they will know exactly which staff they need— because this is their specialization: hiring the right team to support their customer’s vast security needs.
3. When using a vCISO, you can easily adapt to fluctuations in scale.
Consider too your true need for a full team of security experts at all times. It may seem exciting to grow and hire a larger security unit, but with this expansion comes its own set of drawbacks. If your business experiences varying lulls and peaks throughout the year, you may be stuck with more staff than you need during recurring seasons.
With a vCISO, you don’t have to worry about acquiring the budget and headcount to scale up in-house, nor about laying people off or paying costly salaries when business is slow. Using a vendor grants you flexibility in supply when you have the demand and to scale back when you don’t.
4. In-house security staff often have limited skillsets, while vCISO vendors offer dedicated specializations.
When building a full security staff, it’s common for companies to hire a robust team of employees with broad cybersecurity knowledge. This staff knows a little bit of everything— and while their wide range of understanding is helpful, there’s something to be said of specialization.
You often can’t afford to hire full-time talent with highly niche concentrations, but vCISO companies can, and do. Not only are these unique experts there for the technical problems that your internal team can’t solve, but they’re available only when needed without the added cost of paying high in-house salaries for specialists.
5. In-house CISOs can get bored, especially if you’re a start-up.
Some companies are indeed big and busy enough to justify hiring an internal CISO, but oftentimes there are restrictions that lead to high-turnover for heads of your security. Chief Information Security Officers want to succeed, but some businesses don’t always have the means to give them what they need— especially in the start-up world.
If you cannot meet at CISO’s budget requirements, help them reach their security goals, or limit their ability to build a better security program in any way, these highly-qualified managers are likely to move onto another company that can.
Another common problem is that you may only be a stepping stone for a CISO and not a long-term career. When hiring a vCISO, management turnover is not your problem and is handled by your vendor.
The vCISO You’ve Been Looking For
These are only a few ways that hiring a vCISO vendor over an in-house CISO can benefit your business. These security partners can also offer enhanced tracking and reporting as well as better controls. Read more about what you can expect when hiring a CISO as a Service here.
Here at Truvantis®, we have the experienced staff you need to protect and grow your business.
You do what you do well and focus on your mission— and let us do what we do well: cybersecurity. Learn more about vCISO here or contact us today.
