What Could a C-Level Data & Systems Security Professional Add to Your Business?
Many businesses want IT represented in the boardroom and yet can’t afford a CISO or CIO. Cost is always a factor, but we want your business to have the best protection available.
That’s why we have developed an outsourced CISO program that gives you the benefit of having access to a C-level IT security professional without the cost associated with hiring a full-time technology executive.
What is a CISO and What Do They Do?
A CISO is an individual that has a seat at the table in the executive of the company. Their job is a complex set of security-related duties. Here are some of the broad categories relating to those duties.
- Strategy - They design a strategy to secure the data and workflow of a company.
- Implementation - They implement policies and best practices associated with ongoing security efforts. These are all put in place and monitored by the CISO.
- Consultation - They consult with the company’s executive to give real-time information regarding how current operations or potential actions impact the company’s cybersecurity posture.
- Purchases - They help with choosing IT purchases to ensure security continuity.
- Preparation - They look to the horizon to anticipate threats and prepare to meet those challenges.
- Employee Training - They train employees to follow protocols and be aware of dangers such as phishing and social engineering.
- Vendor Compliance - They work to ensure that vendors systems don’t pose a threat to the company’s systems.
- Regulator Management - They coordinate with regulators and auditors to ensure compliance.
- Incident Management - They help you respond quickly and appropriately to cybersecurity incidents.
- Coaching – They help the company’s executive with decision making, process implementation, and policy development.
- Risk Assessment – They scan, survey, and monitor the IT systems as well as policies and protocols to spot and remedy any potential vulnerabilities.
- Compliance Frameworks – They help the company by getting them in line with SANS Top 20, and NIST Framework’s critical controls.
Did You Know?
In-house CISO’s make anywhere from $100,000 to $225,000 thousand dollars a year? That’s a lot of money out of your operating or IT support budget. Our outsourced CISO program provides all of the enterprise-level security advantages at a fraction of the cost.
Why Have Access to a CISO?
- There’s a growing legislative movement requiring, even small organizations, to have a CIO or CIS
- Meeting compliance mandates requires having an executive onboard with an in-depth knowledge of cybersecurity.
- The threats posed by criminals are quickly outpacing the solutions offered by garden-variety IT support teams.
Why Can’t We Just Promote Someone on Our Internal IT Staff to CISO?
There are industry best practice litmus tests complicating simply giving a current staff person a C-level title. Moving someone into the position of CISO isn’t as simple as a title bump. If the individual does not have the right industry training and experience, you are setting them up to fail and placing your IT infrastructure in a compromised state.