What Is a VCISO and What’s the Benefit For Your Company?

Have you noticed your IT team wearing too many hats and stretched way too thin lately? Asking them to be cyber security experts on top of their other job responsibilities can be overwhelming for them and risky for your organization. Cyber security is a specialized and rapidly changing field and the bad guys never rest. With the frequency and impact of cyber attacks rising, it’s never been more important to have skilled, experienced and dedicated professionals focused on protecting your organization. The answer may be a VCISO, or Virtual Chief Information Security Officer.

Many companies are using VCISO or virtual CIO services these days, as it is much more cost effective and beneficial than an in-house CISO. People offering these services are cyber security experts who can develop and manage the execution of your company’s information security program as well as report on the state of information security to your board, executive team, auditors or regulators.

It’s never been more difficult to recruit and retain IT talent and many companies are frustrated by the amount of time and expense required to find and hire an in-house CISO. Fortunately many managed service providers (MSPs) such as Intrust, offer VCISO services to their clients.

Avoid Leadership Gaps With a VCISO

One of the advantages of working with your MSP to provide VCISO services is that you get a focused team of cyber security experts rather than a single individual or a small (but expensive) in-house team. A VCISO will provide your organization with:

• Cyber security tools, policies and procedures.
• IT infrastructure planning.
• Cloud migrations and management.
• Microsoft product licensing and management.

In addition, the service can be scaled up or down at a moment’s notice depending on your need. With the wide range of specialties provided, your needs for a CIO and/or a CISO are met. A VCISO will help you navigate the changing landscape of desktop as a service (DaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), monitoring as a service (MaaS), network as a service (NaaS), recovery as a service, security as a service (SaaS) and more while ensuring that your organization is productive AND secure.

The Right Tools at the Right Time

If you’ve ever tried to open a can of vegetables with a knife instead of a can opener, you know that the right tools are important. The dedicated cyber security experts at Intrust stay well-versed in the latest technologies and trends to ensure that our clients are protected by the best tools and advice in an increasingly dangerous world.  As your VCISO, we will get to know your company and its IT infrastructure as if it were our own. The ultimate goal is to offer timely solutions and strategic planning with:

• Threat detection: We take proactive steps to help identify and stop hackers and online predators.
• Vulnerability assessment: We expose the weak spots in your network that need to be addressed.
• Anti-malware strategies: Viruses, spyware and malware are stopped in their tracks.
• System hardening: We use industry best practices such as the CIS Benchmarks to harden your sytems so that hackers will move on to softer tarets.
• Employee education: We train staff to become human firewalls so they can help protect your company’s assets from harm.
• Thorough evaluation: After reviewing your current situation, needs and expectations, we provide an overview of how we can help
• Suggested actions: You’ll receive our list of next steps for your future protection and growth.
• Compliance: We can help you comply with standards such as NIST 800-171.

How Virtual CIO Partnership Works

All it takes to find out the benefits of VCISO partnering with Intrust is to contact us by phone or by booking a virtual meeting. We provide you with the general scope of IT services that Intrust offers, as well as their costs. If it looks like our partnership will be a good fit, we will schedule an evaluation of your current IT and cyber security infrastructure. After the evaluation, you will receive:

• A cyber security assessment.
• A personalized review of our IT needs checklist.
• Ideas for how technology can fuel your company’s growth.
• A review of your current and future business goals.
• Valuable time with an IT expert who can help you understand your IT and cyber security needs.
• Discussion about how your IT issues are impacting your business success.
• And more!

Why Intrust IT?

Intrust was founded in 1992 by Tim Rettig and we are securing today and a better tomorrow for our employees, clients, and communities.

Our team of employee-owners are IT experts who continue to boost IT operations, improve security and take the guesswork out of technology for businesses of all sizes and all industries. 

And, our office is located in the Cincinnati area. You won’t have to wait for us to hop on a plane to get to your business. We’re right here and will respond quickly to your needs. 

Best of all, every client benefits from having access to Intrust’s entire team of IT experts for a fraction of the cost of staffing an internal IT department, CIO or CISO. By growing together as a business, we inspire each other and our clients in a new way to do more and impact our region.

 Contact us or book a no obligation meeting.