Questions? Concerns?
We are here to explain everything you might want to know. Let us help!
(Anything-as-a-Service) refers to something being presented to a customer as a service. Hence, virtual Chief Information Security Officer-as-a-Service.
Over the last few years, the trend in IT has been moving in the direction of As-a-Service offerings. With As-a-Service models, the offering has shifted to subscription-based technology designed to reduce upfront expense, enhance client flexibility, and give access to the latest technologies. All this is accomplished while the As-a-Service provider maintains their infrastructure entirely.
As-a-Service models include PaaS (Platform as a Service), SaaS (Software as a Service), IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service).
CISO is an acronym that stands for Chief Information Security Officer.
vISO is an acronym that stands for Virtual Information Security Officer.
A vCISO is a Virtual Information Security Officer. The vCISO is a security practitioner who uses their years of cybersecurity and industry experience to help organizations develop and manage the implementation of the organization’s information security program.
While nearly every organization needs a CISO, not everyone can afford one. A vCISO allows organizations to avoid the expense of employing one in-house full-time, only paying for the services and time used.
Short answer “No.” Similar roles, just different verbiage around the title. They will all be a 3rd party out-of-house Information Security Officer that will help bridge the gap between Business, IT, Compliance, and Governance.
All will provide Strategic & Governance Support, create and update Policies and Risk Assessments, Cybersecurity assessments, provide Education & Training, Vendor Management Support & Due Diligence, Business Continuity Planning & preparedness, facilitate Business Continuity roundtable exercises, Incident Response and Incident Response preparedness, facilitate Incident Response roundtable exercises, and will provide research and feedback on current cyber issues.
The national average salary for a CISO is $176,131 in the United States.
On average, a vCISO costs between $30,000 a year and $54,000 a year.
Turnover among key business leaders isn’t unusual; a CISOs average tenure is approximately 24 to 48 months. Many executive leaders are coming to understand that CISOs face excessive stress in their role, leading to frequent burnout and increased turnover. Recruiting and training can be difficult. Organizations that can successfully hire a CISO struggle to retain those individuals long-term. Unfortunately, lots of knowledge leaves when those CISOs leave. This constant change is stressful on the business.
That’s a big question. The question of whether to hire an in-house CISO or a vCISO comes down to the organization’s business strategy, as well as any constraints (such as a lack of budget).
If you are a Small to Midsize Business and are on the fence about what is right for you, you need an experienced security practitioner on staff but are not quite ready to onboard and bear the expense of a full-time job CISO. We would suggest starting with a vCISO to get the groundwork in place, then using our vCISO services in the interim while hiring and training a full-time CISO to take over the Information Security program.
