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Everyone is aware Cybersecurity is a necessity. And regardless of how mature or lacking your current cybersecurity program is, the constantly changing landscape makes it challenging to stay on top of. From potential concerns related to an economic downturn, the significant cybersecurity skills gap, budget cuts, not to mention there is more malicious cyber activity than ever, including state-sponsored attacks on US businesses. There is a lot to keep you up at night!
There are, however, opportunities for you to bring in the expertise you need when you need it.
In this post, we will discuss how a virtual CISO (vCISO) can help your company better manage their cybersecurity budget and risk while running more productive teams. We will discuss using innovative connected technology, strategic budgeting, and more effective internal security training.
Outsource your CISO; get only what you need when you need it
Getting an expert to assess and address your Security Operations pays immediate dividends. A vCISO will have the breadth and depth of experience and expertise to act quickly on what is needed to ramp up your security program. Making sound decisions to utilize the resources you have, including FTEs and technology, and identify and fill in the gaps where needed. In addition to the vCISO assigned to your company, developing comprehensive insights, they also have a deep bench of expertise to draw from to deliver the maximum benefits in the least amount of time, all at a lower cost than hiring an FTE.
Economically speaking this is an innovative way to staff your Security Operation Team for a reasonable price: and the fact is with the skills shortage you may not even be able to find an FTE. Your vCISO can also develop an internal Security-Related training program which builds loyalty and retention. The training program will increase the benefits as your current staff becomes cybersecurity pros.
vCISO’s will typically report to top company leadership and can handle a wide variety of services dependent upon your needs. They can be flexible in dealing with specific projects or address any/all the daily issues related to security and privacy. Some common core tasks include:
- Setting or directing privacy and security policies, standards, procedures, and guidelines
- Managing and directing Information Security teams
- Engaging with executive management
- Running risk assessments on operational security
- Providing threat intelligence and manage enterprise security
- They can assess your threats and risks, and help you make smart decisions about your security to align with your business objectives.
Partner with technology
Your vCISO can also augment your security program through expert advice on how to use automated technology, like machine learning and artificial intelligence. This can be a strategic use of your cybersecurity budget while also effectively relieving some of your staff’s time. When you combine this automation with the collection and correlation of activity data across multiple security layers (XDR capabilities) you have real security without having to manually trace every security incident.
This means your vCISO can concentrate on what machines cannot do effectively, tracking the root causes of potential security issues. Armed with the data provided by technology, they can easily perform the deep analysis that gives you the most valuable results.
Get strategic and look for budget in non-standard places
Many organizations may have pockets of budget floating around in IT departments that vCISOs can use for tech deployment, training and hiring.
Look for shelf ware: it’s more common than you think for procurement departments to keep paying support maintenance fees for products the company no longer uses. A vCISO could do an inventory of no-longer-in-use contracts and claim that budget as their own. And not just in security.
Another way to find budget is to look for volume discounting. For instance, various business units, not just IT, may be buying their own software licenses from the same vendor. A vCISO can discover opportunities to renegotiate volume discounts and claim that savings as cybersecurity budget. The business units may even be paying for product that is already covered under an enterprise license.
Use tools that work better together
vCISOs will get more value for your company by leveraging a unified cybersecurity platform, wherein your endpoint, cloud, email, network, and mobile security tools are continuously sharing information and giving Security Operation teams full visibility into all their cyber assets and vulnerabilities. Using technology where telemetry, reporting and response is improved over a collection of point products that are not at all integrated.
Next steps
Finding creative ways to deal with an expanding digital attack surface, the ever-increasing number of cyberattacks, and an uncertain economic future, vCISOs can take a more unified approach to cyber risk. Truvantis also has expert Penetration Testers that work in concert with your vCISO to understand and address the threat landscape to finally give you and your company peace of mind about your cybersecurity program.
Karen Randall
Principal Security Consultant, Truvantis, Inc.
Karen Randall is a principal security consultant at Truvantis, Inc.Karen has an extensive background in corporate consulting and leadership, with expertise in areas of international business, law, non-profit, and entrepreneurial ventures. She has a natural curiosity that drives her to continuously find solutions in pursuit of a strong security posture for her clients. She enjoys collaboration with and drawing resources from the broad bench of expertise available at Truvantis.
