Why Fractional CISO: How medium-sized businesses can improve their cybersecurity posture

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Why Fractional CISO

Many medium-sized businesses know that they are not doing enough to address cybersecurity threats. The frequent news reports of cyberattacks are unsettling. Many of them occur because of human error, not because of technology. The good guys have to be nearly perfect but the bad guys only have to find a single vulnerability.

People, Process & Technology

Cybersecurity requires that people, processes and technology work together.

How much time has your organization spent on cybersecurity training for your personnel? Are your employees still clicking on phishing emails? Do they reuse passwords for your business-critical systems? Going through checkbox training won’t safeguard your organization. Your personnel will need to be well-trained to protect against cybersecurity attacks.

Does your organization’s IT staff know the latest cybersecurity threats? Are they trained on the latest cybersecurity techniques? Do they push your vendors to improve their security? Do they enforce the security policy with your employees? Your IT staff may have strong technical capabilities but that does not mean that they are security experts.

vendor risk management template

When is the last time your organization conducted a security process review? Are you patching your servers, software, routers and network gear? Do your former employees still have access to your systems? Do you have old data on a server with unencrypted confidential or personal information? How is your source code or other intellectual property protected? Is there a security problem that everyone knows about but no one has taken the initiative to resolve? It is likely time for a security review.

All the security at a fraction of the cost!

Medium-sized businesses often need a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). The CISO can help to mitigate risk to information assets and technologies. A CISO is a senior-level team member responsible for an enterprise’s security vision, strategy, and programs. Yet, a trained, full-time employee who keeps up-to-date on the latest security threats is expensive. Now, medium-sized companies can get the benefit of a CISO without the cost of a full-time employee.

A virtual CISO or CISO-as-a-service can:

  • Supplement the management team with cybersecurity veterans to make appropriate risk-based decisions.
  • Coach employees to address cybersecurity issues.
  • Advise the Board of Directors on the company’s security posture and plan.
  • Write, implement and maintain the organization’s cybersecurity policies, procedures and processes.
  • Implement and deliver a training program tailored to the organization’s needs.
  • Furnish product security guidance, including requirements, design review, threat modeling and development frameworks.
  • Provide cybersecurity messaging for marketing and sales groups.
  • Plan for and manage cybersecurity breaches.
  • Address compliance with industry and government regulations.
  • Provide direction on IoT projects from IoT industry thought leaders.

vciso ebook

Interested in learning more? See how your organization can rely on Fractional CISO to address your security challenges; leaving you to focus on your core business. Please call us at 617.658.3276 or email us at [email protected].

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Only 1/3 of cyber insurance policies actually pay out in incidents. Most companies have cyber insurance policies that insure too little, or too much, and have absurdly low caps and silly exclusions.

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