Virtual Business Meeting

Top 4 Signs Your Company might need to Hire a Virtual CISO (vCISO)

A CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) is a company executive responsible for establishing, implementing, and overseeing cybersecurity strategies. CISOs work alongside IT teams and department heads to safeguard the company’s digital assets.

But as more and more businesses opt for managed cybersecurity — indicated by the rapidly expanding managed security services market — vCISOs are quickly replacing traditional CISOs. A vCISO, or virtual CISO, is a third-party security leader hired on a contract basis. They provide all CISO services without taking up an employee role in the company. Think of it as CISO as a Service. However, vCISO services are usually embedded within a managed IT security bundle.

CISO vs. vCISO: Which is better for your business?

Working with a vCISO is far more convenient, effective, and economical than hiring an in-house security officer. For one, a CISO costs between $207,853 and $264,339 in annual salaries alone. And it takes a lot of searching and vetting to find a qualified candidate to fill a CISO position.

Besides, your digital footprint might need to be larger to warrant a full-time CISO in the first place. But the good thing about vCISOs is that they bring essential security leadership to all organizations regardless of size or growth stage. Additionally, a vCISO is not necessarily a single person but a diverse team of IT security experts pooling their skills and experiences to make the best cybersecurity decisions on your behalf.

Do you need a vCISO?

Given the ever-worsening cybersecurity landscape, every IT-reliant company needs a strategic security leader. Hiring a virtual CISO reduces the likelihood of your company getting attacked and positions it to better recognize and respond to threats. But it can be difficult to justify getting outside cybersecurity assistance, especially if you already have active security measures. So, here are four signs your organization could use a vCISO:

Your in-house IT talent is becoming inadequate

The cybersecurity landscape is highly dynamic. First of all, threat actors devise increasingly sophisticated attack techniques. Plus, as your company’s IT infrastructure evolves and expands, so does the attack surface. Naturally, every new breed of threat requires a unique skill set to detect and evade. That’s often too much to ask of an internal IT security team.

But with a vCISO laying security initiatives, you can continuously update your security posture without hiring fresh talent or upskilling the existing staff.

You are overwhelmed by cybersecurity responsibilities

Managing cybersecurity is an ongoing, hands-on job. There’s quite a lot you have to track, from endpoint security and network monitoring to user management. Handling all this in-house can quickly overwhelm your team and create risky gaps in your cybersecurity efforts. This might already be happening if you’re falling behind on your cybersecurity responsibilities.

Hiring a vCISO offloads critical cybersecurity management tasks, freeing your team to focus on other jobs better suited to their role in the company.

Your company can’t meet its regulatory security requirements

Failing to meet regulatory or industrial data safety standards is a big security red flag. Furthermore, some of these standards, such as HIPAA and CCPA, carry heavy penalties for non-compliance.

Virtual CISOs are well-versed in security compliance matters. As such, a vCISO can help you develop a cybersecurity framework that protects your IT and ensures all your data-handling processes adhere to the set guidelines.

You’ve recently failed a security audit

If you’ve failed a security audit recently, you could use a vCISO’s expertise to figure out what you’re doing wrong and how to get it right. Sometimes all you need is an outsider’s perspective to gain critical and clear insights into your security systems — a virtual CISO can give you that.

A vCISO would be an invaluable addition to your organization’s cybersecurity efforts, especially if you’ve started to notice any of these signs. Being a managed service, a vCISO bridges the cost and convenience gap between professional IT security leadership and small businesses.

However, it would help if you didn’t wait for these signs to show because it might be too late. Why risk it? Sign up for vCISO services with GB Tech today and augment your cybersecurity with highly skilled and experienced IT security experts. Contact us now to get started.