Truvantis Blog

The Seven Essential Qualities of a vCISO

Written by John MacInnis | Apr 21, 2022 12:33:55 AM

Not every business can internally support the staffing and resources necessary to independently develop robust cybersecurity and privacy programs. Fortunately, you can partially or fully outsource to trusted partners the jobs of CISO and IT security teams. Here are a few things we think are essential to look for when considering a virtual CISO service.

1. Experience

There will be times when you encounter problems you’ve never dealt with before. An experienced virtual CISO (vCISO) has dealt with various cyber-threat and regulatory cases and knows how to adapt your organization according to industry best practices. vCISO services can bring the power of an entire specialized team of experts to your organization without the cost of maintaining an in-house staff or a full-time CISO.

The Truvantis vCISO service gives you the same high level of expertise, services, and benefits of a seasoned, highly certified CISO, but at a fraction of the cost. Look for a vCISO cybersecurity team with decades of experience in tech security and business risk management.

We have deployed our vCISO service across multiple organizations in various markets. We are uniquely positioned to understand industry trends and changes in best practices.

Compliance

Most organizations are subject to multiple laws, regulations, and standards regarding cybersecurity and privacy best practices. Truvantis can help your organization build a

centralized cybersecurity and privacy program to help maintain compliance with minimal business disruption.

The Truvantis vCISO service can support these compliance programs and more:

  • SOC 2
  • ISO27001
  • PCI DSS
  • CIS
  • HIPAA
  • CPRA
  • PIPEDA
  • GDPR

2.  A Bench of Staff with a Range of Expertise

A quality vCISO service brings a team of diversified risk management, cybersecurity, data privacy, and compliance specialists better than a single individual. vCISO squads are diversified, adaptable, and elastic. Depending on your ongoing projects and threat landscape, you may need different skills at different times.

Our team has extensive experience including penetration testing experience, from vulnerability scanning to pen testing and comprehensive red team exercises. We can support administrative tasks such as compliance, risk assessments, and training through hands-on aspects like threat modeling, vulnerability triage, and incident response. We do not try and sell you a one-size-fits-all solution. Instead, we work with you to deploy a customized solution balancing your budget with your organization’s risk appetite.

3. Flexible

Your business situation and cybersecurity requirements are unique. At Truvantis, our vCISO service is not a one-size-fits-all solution. We take a personalized approach to your business situation and cybersecurity requirements.

Customized Services for Your Organization

We don’t try and lock you into an unfavorable commitment. Instead, we work with you and provide flexible arrangements and pricing. Keep us because you love us, not because you are locked into a contract.

Balance your security budget with your organizations’ conservative or aggressive risk appetite. Every organization has unique cybersecurity and privacy requirements at different times in its business lifecycle. The Truvantis team works with you to design a program customized to your requirements. Depending on what you need, we can provide a range of services, from a single vulnerability scan to a full-on compliance program.

Scalable

Truvantis vCISO services can be customized to fit all-size organizations, from SMBs to large corporations. We work with you to customize the scope of your service depending on your needs. From a single pen test to centralized cybersecurity and privacy best practices.

4. Methodologies Based on Industry Best Practices

The Truvantis practitioners are active in industry bodies such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Center for Internet Security (CIS), the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), and the Payment Card Industry Data Standard (PCI DSS).

For example, the NIST Cybersecurity Framework is guidance based on existing standards, guidelines, and practices for organizations to better manage and reduce cybersecurity risk. In addition to helping organizations manage and reduce risks, it was designed to foster risk and cybersecurity management communications amongst internal and external organizational stakeholders. At Truvantis we are passionate advocates for leveraging consensus-based, peer-reviewed standards such as this to help you gain a business advantage.

5. Sets Clear Planning and Scheduling

We work with you during the planning phase to define the scope of testing, schedule/roadmap, and goals. Then we commit and perform to the established roadmap with no expensive surprises at the end. We work with you to select a service level agreement for business-as-usual operations and supporting your sales team, and we stick to it.

The last thing you want is a vCISO who will sit around waiting for you to ask for something or to respond to a breach. We start on day 1 building a plan for business-as-usual operations and identifying candidate projects for maturity development.

6. People Skills

Communication is critical for any cybersecurity or privacy program to be effective. The Truvantis team translates cybersecurity techie-talk to the business domain, providing business-based guidance for C-Suite and the Board and partnering with IT and R&D to achieve common goals rather than appear as the security enforcement function.

Another vital area is effective communication with the blue team so that they can respond to vulnerabilities and unmitigated risks. We understand that effective Red Teaming requires active communication and coordination with the Blue Team. Beyond just proving they can break in, the true goal of Red Teaming is to assist Blue Teams in fine-tuning the detection thresholds and security response mechanisms of defense in depth strategies until the desired performance metrics are satisfied.

7. Actionable Reporting

During a Truvantis vCISO engagement, your company will receive actionable data and insights about system organizational controls protecting information systems’ security, privacy, confidentiality, and integrity. Regular status updates, review performance metrics, track progress toward your goals, and remove roadblocks. Set up quarterly strategy sessions to define new benchmarks and goals. We provide remediation roadmaps actionable at a technical and business process level to close compliance gaps when you need them.

We understand that this is a business process, not an IT geek fest. We translate IT geek speak into the language of business risk needed by top-level decision-makers. Armed with the correct data, leadership can make informed decisions regarding acceptable risks and the security program budget.

But just reporting on risk and identifying problems is not enough. You need remediation options, recommendations, and a framework for making choices. Expect us to be part of the solution – not a barrier to business growth.

Why Truvantis®

Not every business can internally support the staffing and resources necessary to independently develop robust cybersecurity and privacy programs. Fortunately, you can partially or fully outsource to trusted partners the jobs of CISO and IT security teams. At Truvantis, our vCISO service is not a one-size-fits-all solution. We take a personalized approach to your business situation, cybersecurity, privacy, and incident response requirements.

Truvantis is a cybersecurity consulting organization providing best-in-class cybersecurity services to secure your organization's infrastructure, data, operations, and products. We specialize in helping our customers improve their cybersecurity posture by implementing testing, auditing, and operating information security programs.