May 13 2025

Becoming a Complete vCISO: Driving Maximum Value and Business Alignment

Category: CISO,vCISOdisc7 @ 10:13 am

As cyber threats become more frequent and complex, many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) find themselves unable to afford a full-time Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). Enter the Virtual CISO (vCISO)—a flexible, cost-effective solution that’s rapidly gaining traction. For Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs), offering vCISO services isn’t just a smart move—it’s a major business opportunity.

Why vCISO Services Are Gaining Ground

With cybersecurity becoming a top priority across industries, demand for expert guidance is soaring. Many MSPs have started offering partial vCISO services—helping with compliance or risk assessments. But those who provide comprehensive vCISO offerings, including security strategy, policy development, board-level reporting, and incident management, are reaping higher revenues and deeper client trust.

The CISO’s Critical Role

A traditional CISO wears many hats: managing cyber risk, setting security strategies, ensuring compliance, and overseeing incident response and vendor risk. They also liaise with leadership, align IT with business goals, and handle regulatory requirements like GDPR and HIPAA. With experienced CISOs in short supply and expensive to hire, vCISOs are filling the gap—especially for SMBs.

Why MSPs Are Perfectly Positioned

Most SMBs don’t have a dedicated internal cybersecurity leader. That’s where MSPs and MSSPs come in. Offering vCISO services allows them to tap into recurring revenue streams, enter new markets, and deepen client relationships. By going beyond reactive services and offering proactive, executive-level security guidance, MSPs can differentiate themselves in a crowded field.

Delivering Full vCISO Services: What It Takes

To truly deliver on the vCISO promise, providers must cover end-to-end services—from risk assessments and strategy setting to business continuity planning and compliance. A solid starting point is a thorough risk assessment that informs a strategic cybersecurity roadmap aligned with business priorities and budget constraints.

It’s About Action, Not Just Advice

A vCISO isn’t just a strategist—they’re also responsible for guiding implementation. This includes deploying controls like MFA and EDR tools, conducting vulnerability scans, and ensuring backups and disaster recovery plans are robust. Data protection, archiving, and secure disposal are also critical to safeguarding digital assets.

Educating and Enabling Everyone

Cybersecurity is a team sport. That’s why training and awareness programs are key vCISO responsibilities. From employee phishing simulations to executive-level briefings, vCISOs ensure everyone understands their role in protecting the business. Meanwhile, increasing compliance demands—from clients and regulators alike—make vCISO support in this area invaluable.

Planning for the Worst: Incident & Vendor Risk Management

Every business will face a cyber incident eventually. A strong incident response plan is essential, as is regular practice via tabletop exercises. Additionally, third-party vendors represent growing attack vectors. vCISOs are tasked with managing this risk, ensuring vendors follow strict access and authentication protocols.

Scale Smart with Automation

With the rise of automation and the widespread emergence of agentic AI, are you prepared to navigate this disruption responsibly? Providing all these services can be daunting—especially for smaller providers. That’s where platforms like Cynomi come in. By automating time-consuming tasks like assessments, policy creation, and compliance mapping, Cynomi enables MSPs and MSSPs to scale their vCISO services without hiring more staff. It’s a game-changer for those ready to go all-in on vCISO.


Conclusion:
Delivering full vCISO services isn’t easy—but the payoff is big. With the right approach and tools, MSPs and MSSPs can offer high-value, scalable cybersecurity leadership to clients who desperately need it. For those ready to lead the charge, the time to act is now.

DISC Infosec vCISO Services

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DISC InfoSec offer free initial high level assessment – Based on your needs DISC InfoSec offer ongoing compliance management or vCISO retainer.

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Tags: Fractional CISO, vCISO, vCISO services


Oct 25 2021

CISO Interview Series: Investing in Frameworks, Humans, and Your Technical Skills

Category: CISO,vCISODISC @ 7:24 am

The journey for someone to the role of Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) isn’t often straightforward. Take Sandy Dunn, for example. Per SailPoint, Sandy started as a paper delivery kid at 10 years old. She then worked her way through software sales, insurance, and even horses before becoming the CISO of a health insurance provider in Idaho.

All these “entry-level” jobs share one thing in common. They gave Sandy the experience to fulfill a CISO’s multifaceted responsibilities. But don’t just take my word for it. Check out my conversation with Sandy below.

“One skill I think every CISO needs is business acumen.”

Joe Pettit: Thanks for taking the time to speak with me today, Sandy. I would love to hear some of your views on the role of the modern CISO. How is it changing, and what are the essential skills that a CISO should have now?

Sandy Dunn: The required skills for a CISO is an interesting question. Every business is different, so really every CISO role will be slightly different with different expectations for where they fit in the organization. One skill I think every CISO needs is business acumen. You need to be able to understand how security fits into that specific business. Having some level of technical skills is important, too. It helps you with effective communication with your cybersecurity team about issues, tools, proposed remediation, and then to be able to explain everything they just told you back to the business or put it into a business context. Technical knowledge will benefit you in understanding the severity of a problem, too (independent of the volume of the voice who is bringing it) and determine if a situation is a one-alarm fire or a five-alarm fire.

“…one of the things I really had to (Read more…)

*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from The State of Security authored by Joe Pettit. Read the original post at: https://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/security-data-protection/ciso-interview-series-investing-in-frameworks-humans-and-your-technical-skills/

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Tags: CISO, Fractional CISO, vCISO


Jul 23 2021

Questions that help CISOs and boards have each other’s back

Category: CISO,vCISODISC @ 11:27 am

The ransomware threat posed by organized crime groups is considerable, and its impact can be devastating and threaten the entire business. This makes it imperative for boards to ensure the company has taken necessary cybersecurity precautions to resist the threat. Additionally, executives have seen the value of efficient infosec firsthand over the last eighteen months. The efforts security teams have made to keep businesses safely functioning during a global pandemic have been impressive, if not heroic.

Regardless of why the C-level is focusing on IT infrastructure and strategy, this interest presents an opportunity for security teams. I know this is true because over the last few years F-Secure’s board has been refining how we cooperate to make better decisions about our security posture and risk appetite.

At the core of this process has been the creation of questions we use to make the best use of our time together. When approached holistically and answered honestly, these queries allow us to understand if we are focused on the right things, whether we are achieving our goals, and where our gaps are.

Since we would have benefited by having a list to start with, we’re sharing five of ours now to help other organizations.

Start with the easier ones

Here are the first three questions that I expect board members to ask me whenever they get a chance:

  • What are the key threats against your top assets?
  • How do you protect your assets from cybersecurity threats?
  • Whose responsibility is it to implement protections?

Questions that help CISOs and boards have each other’s back

Chief Information Security Officer

Tags: CISO, CISO implementation guide, Fractional CISO, vCISO


May 28 2021

The evolution of the modern CISO

Category: CISO,vCISODISC @ 2:17 pm

The modern CISO

The role of CISO first emerged as organizations embraced digital revolutions and began relying on new data streams to help inform business decisions. As technology continued to advance and became more complex, so too did threat actors who saw new opportunities to disrupt businesses, by stealing or holding that data hostage for ransom.

As the years have gone by and cyberattacks have become more sophisticated, the role of the CISO has had to advance. The CISO has evolved from being the steward of data to also being a guardian for availability with the emergence of more destructive and disruptive attacks. The CISO also must be highly adaptable and serve as the connective tissue between security, privacy and ultimately, consumer trust.

The changing threat landscape

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Tags: CISO, Fractional CISO, vCISO