Here are five signs that a virtual CISO may be right for your organization.
1. You have a lot to protect
Companies produce more data than ever, and keeping track of it all is the first step to securing it. A virtual CISO can identify what data needs to be protected and determine the negative impact that compromised data can have, whether that impact is regulatory, financial or reputational.
2. Your organization is complex
Risk increases with employee count, but there are many additional factors that contribute to an organizationâs complexity: the number of departments, offices and geographies; how data is used and shared; the distribution of architecture; and the life cycle of applications, data and the technology stack.
A virtual CISO offers an unbiased, objective view, and can sort out the complexity of a companyâs IT architecture, applications and services. They can also determine how plans for the future add complexity, identify and account for the corresponding risk, and recommend security measures that will scale to support future demand.
3. Your attack surface is broad
For many organizations, potential vulnerabilities, especially those that share a great deal of data within the organization, may not be obvious at first glance. Virtual CISOs can identify both internal and external threats, determine their probability and quantify the impact they could have on your organization. And at a more granular level, they can determine if those same threats are applicable to competitors, which can help maintain competitiveness within your market.
4. Your industry is highly regulated
Organizations in regulated industries like healthcare, finance, energy/power and insurance will have data that is more valuable, which could make them a bigger target for bad actors. Exposure is even more of a concern due to potential noncompliance. Virtual CISOs bring a wealth of expertise on regulatory standards. They can implement processes to maintain compliance and offer recommendations based on updates to applicable rules and regulations.
5. Your risk tolerance is low
An organization without a great deal of sensitive data may have a much greater tolerance for risk than a healthcare provider or a bank, but an honest assessment is important in determining how much risk each organization should accept. A virtual CISO can coordinate efforts to examine perceived and actual risk, identify critical vulnerabilities and provide a better picture of risk exposure that can inform future decisions.
Cybersecurity is growing more complex, and organizations of all sizes, especially those in regulated industries, require a proven security specialist who can address the aforementioned challenges and ensure that technology and processes are in place to mitigate security risks.
, ever-increasing regulations, and the potential effect of brand damage on profits has made 
a mainstream board-level issue. It has never been more important for 
and processes to be in line with business
feel they are being heard, business leaders admit they aren’t listening.
with business priorities will be much easier.
are the common factor understood by both sides and could be used as the primary driver in this alignment. The reality, however, is this isnât always happening
s to better understand the use of metrics to communicate with business leaders: why metrics are necessary; how they can be improved; what are the problems; and what is the prize?
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s, Proxies, or any other solution you have actually do. They only care about the level of risk in the company.â
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that business leaders understand. This can be used to start the process for each side to learn more about the other. Business will begin to see how security reduces risk, and will begin to specify other areas that need more specific protection.
and information stored, processed, or transmitted by the organization. These departments and these leaders tend to provide metrics that focus on their tactical duties rather than business drivers that concern the board/C-suite.â
. Logins, blocked traffic, transaction counts, etc… but most do not map back to business objectives or are explained in a format business leaders can understand or care about. Good metrics need to be tied to dollars, business efficiency shown through time improvements, and able to show trending patterns of security effectiveness as it relates to the business. That’s the real challenge.â
and president-elect of ISSA. âThat is a mistake, because security is our job. We need to better understand the business, so that we can articulate the impact of not applying 
. The key to this whole approach is for the CISO to understand the business, and to understand the mission and goals of the business.â
