PRATUM SERVICES

vCISO Services

Pratum’s Virtual CISO (vCISO) service helps businesses develop and implement information security programs. We deliver expert security leadership and a supporting team of analysts and consultants to solve unique cybersecurity challenges.

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Why Pratum's Virtual CISO Service?

Strategies Built On Your Unique Needs

We start by understanding your business and create a program around it. We help explain security's value to your senior leadership team.

A Trusted Partner

We’ll be your sounding board, advocate and coach as we help develop plans that advance your business.

A Team of Experts

Your assigned vCISO collaborates with all of our consultants to ensure that you get the latest best practices.

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vCISO client Stephanie Kempf, VP of IT

We can take advantage of all the skills and experience at Pratum. The cost to add all those capabilities
in-house would be exorbitant.

Stephanie Kempf Vice President of IT

A Security Program Tailored to
Your Business Needs

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Establishing Your Cybersecurity Vision
Understanding where you want to go is integral in deciding how to get there. We help develop your vision and keep you accountable.

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Prioritizing Cybersecurity Initiatives
Pratum vCISOs provide strategic direction to help you achieve your goals. We determine and prioritize security initiatives to reduce risk in a quick and cost-effective manner.

vCISO Reducing Risk

Reducing Risk with Continual Security
Assessing and addressing security risk is never complete. Pratum’s vCISO will be with you, leading you along the way.

Expertise Across Industries

Our vCISOs deliver expert security leadership and a supporting Virtual Security Team (VST) of analysts and consultants to solve unique cybersecurity challenges. Virtual CISOs work with various clients in multiple industries, exposing them to ideas often missed by CISOs working in isolated verticals. Our vCISOs continually expand their expertise and apply it to each client's environment.

vCISO meeting between consultant and client

Instant Scalability

When a big project, security event or new business line comes along, you can ramp up your vCISO’s capacity overnight.

Efficiency with Core Competencies

A virtual CISO fills in the security gaps where organizations need it most. By focusing on cybersecurity strategy and implementation, vCISOs let internal teams remain dedicated to their respective core competencies.

Objective Independence

vCISOs aren't swayed by internal politics or personal career goals. They act as an independent third party with an objective viewpoint and a clear goal: helping clients make the best security decisions for their business.

Economical

You can customize your vCISO plan so you pay only for time you use. This option delivers special advantages to growing organizations deciding whether they’re ready a full-time CISO. For a fraction of the cost of a single on-staff expert, vCISO clients gain access to an entire team of professionals.

The vCISO team has a deep understanding of our business and security needs. They are down-to-earth, communicate effectively, and display a real passion for helping our organization.

Tysen Landmesser Information Technology Manager - Accumold LLC

What Does a vCISO Do?

The best solution for your information security needs may not be a full-time employee. Hundreds of both SMBs and larger companies have realized the cost advantages, flexibility and broader experience a vCISO provides. Here’s a list of the key things a vCISO can do for your organization.

You shouldn’t build your security strategy on cost alone, but vCISOs typically offer the win-win of expertise at a lower price. Full-time CISOs cost around $200,000 per year, and it’s hard to find a good one even if you have the funds. Many companies realize significant cost advantages by hiring a fractional vCISO for several hours a week. Some Pratum clients stick with a vCISO setup even as their company grows dramatically because they see the value of a team of experts reviewing their situation rather than counting on one individual to know everything.

Most IT leaders have to fight for the funding they need to fully secure their organization. Executives rarely understand technology well enough to recognize why IT needs everything it’s asking for. A good vCISO bridges that gap by translating between tech and executive teams. A vCISO should have the business vision and communication skills to articulate the value of information security to C-suite leaders and the board of directors. The vCISO will demonstrate the ROI of security investments and clearly explain the risks of various scenarios so that leaders can make informed various decisions.

People are the frontline defenders of your system, making ongoing training critical. Your vCISO lays out the training program, ensures it’s being followed and revises it as your team gains experience.

Leadership gets lonely. So a vCISO often plays the welcome role of a listening ear for IT leaders who need to someone to bounce a new idea off or—or just someone who understands their unique point of view.

In simple terms, this is the vCISO’s job description. Information security now sits squarely in the center of business strategy as it plays a regular role in keeping and winning clients. The vCISO reviews your overall business and goals and creates a plan tailored for your situation. A good vCISO turns information security from a cost center to a growth strategy as they position you to enter markets and win clients that were previously out of reach because your security posture wasn’t there yet.

The information security to-do list overwhelms everyone. Which hardware and software upgrades are really necessary? Which risks identified in a risk assessment should you remediate first? Which policies should you create first if you have none right now? A vCISO helps you sort all of the options into a specific schedule built around your budget and business priorities.

Written policies not only make your data more secure but also demonstrate to third parties such as insurance providers and clients that you do things properly. A vCISO leverages years of experience with policy creation to establish the policies you need using the right frameworks for meeting your requirements.

A series of one-off projects can result in wasted budgets and a hodgepodge of information. Your vCISO helps you schedule projects in the right sequence so that each can build on others. They’ll also help you select vendors that work well together or offer better pricing because you time projects properly.

Pratum performs ethical phishing tactics to reveal potential vulnerabilities an organization has to real attacks. These phishing techniques help organizations understand the proper training methods, which need to be implemented to help educate employees. Pratum phishing attacks are a safe way to test an organization's employee security methods and prepare it for real threats and malicious attacks.

Flexibility is one of the biggest strengths of a vCISO contract. If your business changes through something like an acquisition, you can immediately scale up the hours your vCISO provides. If you suddenly face a new regulatory requirement, your vCISO partner can tap other members of their team with that specific expertise.

This has become a large part of every vCISO’s job in the last few years. The boom in ransomware and supply-chain attacks has driven many companies to demand proof that their partners handle data securely. Insurance underwriting often requires clients to answer hundreds of detailed questions. All of that means most companies now spend hours each month responding to questionnaires about their people, processes and technology. A vCISO takes that off the plate of the IT team, risk management team and others. The vCISO creates a database of critical information and uses it to streamline responses to the endless questionnaires.

Sometimes the very presence of a vCISO helps you satisfy compliance requirements. Most info security review forms now want to know which specific person in your organization is tasked with oversight of your security program.

This applies when you’re on the other side of the scenario described above. You need to make sure that your partners take security seriously so you can trust in your supply chain and your ability to share data securely. Your vCISO will set up best practices for third-party risk management for your team to follow.

A series of one-off projects can result in wasted budgets and a hodgepodge of information. Your vCISO helps you schedule projects in the right sequence so that each can build on others. They’ll also help you select vendors that work well together or offer better pricing because you time projects properly.

Many companies face regularly pressure to meet HIPAA rules, get a SOC 2 report, comply with GDPR or meet other standards. Unless your team has been through those processes several times, you’ll probably waste a lot of time and money by going it alone. A vCISO prepares you for those processes and serves as your liaison with auditors and other review teams to ensure you get the results you need to keep doing business.

vCISO Additional Resources

Case Study: Mittera
Rather than building a costly in-house team, executives choose the flexibility and broad expertise of virtual CISO service for the long haul. Read More
What is a vCISO?
Our vCISO service helps you develop & implement information security programs that strengthen brand reputation and protect customer data. Watch Video
Case Study: Accumold
Pratum helped this manufacturer create policies that assure customers their data is in good hands.
Read More

Interested in our Virtual CISO service?

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Des Moines, IA
515-965-3756 | sales@pratum.com

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