What is a vCISO? A virtual chief information security officer (vCISO) brings expert cybersecurity oversight to your organization. Employing a virtual CISO is especially beneficial if your full-time CISO is unavailable or overbooked. The insights an expert vCISO can provide will help you align your cybersecurity strategy with industry regulations and compliance standards.
“Staying within your compliance requirements is your legal obligation. However, not all compliance bodies fully address evolving threats. You need a security strategy that both meets and exceeds your compliance requirements to adequately protect yourself.” – Tab Bradshaw, Chief Operating Officer, Redpoint Cybersecurity |
As threats continue to evolve, maintaining robust compliance measures while protecting yourself from advanced threats becomes increasingly difficult. Crowdstrike®’s 2023 Global Threat Report revealed that 71% of cyber attacks are enacted without malware.
This discovery highlights the need to go above simply meeting your regulatory requirements if they don’t adequately address the current threat landscape.
The right vCISO can help you strike that balance. They can combine security expertise, familiarity with regulatory standards, and an understanding of your business goals to help you tailor a cybersecurity strategy that truly works. This blog will demonstrate how that can be done.
Performing Compliance Readiness Assessments
By conducting a thorough compliance readiness assessment, a vCISO determines how well your current security policies and practices meet your compliance requirements. This process involves identifying compliance gaps in your security posture and then devising a tailored plan to address these gaps.
These assessments are performed on a regular basis.This is to ensure that your organization keeps pace with any compliance requirement changes and to ensure that any new changes in your IT ecosystem are up to standard.
Developing & Updating Your Security Policies
Based on their assessment, a vCISO can work with your security team to develop compliance-focused cybersecurity policies or update current ones. They will take your IT environment, business processes, and any other industry benchmarks into account as they do this work.
For example, they can help you create policies regarding the following matters that address these concerns in a way that’s practical for your organization to implement.
Compliance Regulation | Cybersecurity Concern |
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) |
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Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) |
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Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) |
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Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) |
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Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) |
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FDA Regulations for Cybersecurity in Medical Devices |
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North American Electric Reliability Corporation Critical Infrastructure Protection (NERC CIP) |
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American Petroleum Institute (API) |
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Maritime Transportation Security Act |
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NIST SP 800-171 |
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Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) |
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Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) |
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Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) |
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Risk Management
A vCISO enhances your organization’s risk management by performing comprehensive assessments that align with compliance demands. These assessments involve a detailed examination of your environment through questionnaires and scans to establish a clear view of your current cyber risk levels.
Armed with this knowledge, a vCISO crafts a plan to fortify your defenses, ensuring continuous improvement and adherence to compliance standards. This ongoing risk management process is pivotal for an organization’s resilience.
Continuous Monitoring
Through ongoing monitoring, a vCISO ensures your organization’s compliance is actively maintained. This continuous oversight includes regular reviews and updates to cybersecurity measures as new compliance standards emerge or your business model evolves.
They analyze trends, track changes, and adjust your security posture in real-time. Therefore, when a new change emerges, you’re already prepared.
Advanced Threat Intelligence
vCISO services provide you with advanced security experts who are well-versed in the current threat landscape. This advantage will help you adapt to evolving tactics. 79% of business executives make cybersecurity decisions without adversary insights. Doing so puts you at risk of implementing ineffective measures against these increasingly sophisticated threats.
Security Posture Reporting
A vCISO empowers your organization with detailed cybersecurity posture reports, which are essential for maintaining compliance. These reports offer a comprehensive view of your current cybersecurity state, highlighting areas of strong performance and identifying where improvements are needed.
These reports benchmark your security practices against industry standards, providing a clear picture of how you measure up.This data gives you actionable insights that guide your strategy to close any compliance gaps.
Get More Cyber Insights For Highly Regulated Industries |
Boost Your Organization’s Security & Compliance With a Military-Grade vCISO
While a lot of the general practices of a virtual CISO or vCISO will help you uphold and enhance your compliance standards, it’s hard to truly meet the regulations you need to meet if your partner doesn’t understand them. That’s why you need to choose a vCISO provider with in-depth knowledge of your industry’s regulatory requirements.
Redpoint Cybersecurity’s team of security experts has extensive experience in:
- Healthcare
- Finance
- Aerospace
- Energy
- Oil & Gas
- Defense
- Law
That means we’re more than capable of working with your cybersecurity leadership to develop, improve, and uphold policies that keep you in compliance with all relevant standards in these industries.
If you need that kind of help, reach out to us today.