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In today's cyber-risky environment, most experts agree that the role of a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) is a business necessity. According to a Deloitte 2021 survey, companies listed security, privacy, demonstrating compliance, and improving efficiency and cyber-intelligence as key business drivers.
Yet despite the growing requirement, not every company has a full-time CISO. According to a Fall 2021 survey by Navisite, nearly half of small, mid-sized and large enterprises reported not employing a full-time CISO.
We find our clients fall in one of four categories
- Have a full-time CISO
- In between CISOs
- Other executive officers (CIO, CTO) are responsible for CISO job functions
- Use a vCISO service as a permanent solution
Regardless of where they're at, our clients find our virtual CISO (vCISO) service helps them optimize security program and regulatory compliance costs and improve cybersecurity and privacy risk management. Using a vCISO can be more effective and yield a better total cost of ownership (TCO).
Optimize the security program
Using a vCISO can optimize your security, privacy and compliance program and improve the bottom line through operational cost savings, risk management and shortening your product and service sales cycles.
Operational Cost Savings, risk management, sales cycle
Don't just look at the CISO cost; consider the whole security budget. Security, privacy and compliance programs can be expensive. You want to find the right level of investment balancing cost with the organizations' risk appetite.
How do you know you are spending money on the right stuff? Security is a specialty, like finance, legal or development – it takes experienced specialists to understand what they are doing. Having an expert can help make informed investments in technology, personnel and services.
Integrated Risk Management - Avoid Expensive Fire Drills
It's a simple fact that addressing problems early in the product life cycle (shift left) is much less expensive than trying to do it late in the sales cycle (fire drill).
Our vCISO can also plan for agility; your needs will vary over time. Security is a journey, and the threat landscape thrives through rapid evolution. The best approach is to anticipate security, privacy and compliance program needs before they can disrupt your business.
Shorten Your Sales Cycle – Faster Time to Revenue
Without a doubt, your VIP prospects will require a security screening before purchasing your services. Please don't leave your sales team talking security with your prospects on their own. You also want to avoid having the sales team interrupt or derail your engineering team.
Our vCISO can communicate directly with your client's security professionals. We provide them with the documentation and assurance to satisfy security requirements and move on with the sales process.
A vCISO is Less Costly Than Hiring a Full-time CISO
A full-time CISO is difficult to find and expensive when you do find one. They tend not to hang around long either. Cylumena.com reported the average tenure of a CISO to be between 18-26 months.
According to Cybersecurity Ventures, in 2016, annual CISO compensation in the largest U.S. cities was topping out at between $380,000 and $420,000 and expects to see a $500,000 to $1 million range over the next five years. Salary.com reports the average national CISO salary at $228,556. Hitchpartners.com said that Nationally, CISOs experienced a 12% average increase in total compensation from 2019 to 2021 and that the regional compensation gap is closing.
Our CISO as a service is a multi-faceted service and elastic to fit the size of your organization and your specific security, privacy, risk management or compliance needs. Not does our vCISO service offer optimal TCO, but it's also there when you need it with a custom-tailored service. Unlike a full-time CISO, many clients appreciate that a vCISO service is budgeted as an operational expense.
vCISO brings a team of specialists
How many different types of specialists can you afford to hire? A vCISO brings a bench of people that can rotate in and out as required.
According to the IDG 2021 Security Priorities Study, more companies find it easier and safer to outsource security to experts. 62% of SMBs and large enterprises report either already or planning to outsource security functions in 2022.
Security Services Currently Outsourced:
- Security Evaluation Services
- Endpoint Monitoring
- Network Monitoring
- Cloud Data Protection
- Security Analytics
- Security Awareness Training
Our vCISO can bring all or any combination of these services and more with industry experts from our team to help consult and deploy them.
Conclusion
Many companies find themselves between permanent CISOs, and a vCISO is the perfect way to bridge the gap. Some companies considering the total cost of ownership determine that a vCISO service is the best way to go as a permanent solution.
Your business situation and cybersecurity requirements are unique. Tell us about them. 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.
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.
