Bolstering Corporate Cybersecurity Through CISO-as-a-Service

It's safe to say that for an organisation to succeed today, cyber security must play a leading role in its overall business strategy.

Today, cybercrime has the power to destroy organisations. Whether it's customer trust, sensitive data, or the loss of funds, attacks can shatter an organisation's future in minutes. Furthermore, cybersecurity is no longer just a nice thing to have. Organisations must meet compliance requirements to keep customer and employee data safe. Otherwise, they will face immense financial penalties, which can threaten their solvency.

Therefore, organisations must understand the criticality of cyber today and embed it into all their processes to safeguard their sensitive assets and business continuity.

However, delivering this level of cyber resilience is a significant challenge for many organisations. Cyber security is already widely viewed as a heavy drain on internal resources, so many businesses struggle to build a robust cyber strategy that underpins all organisational activities.

While many organisations outsource their cyber security to dedicated service providers, these offerings only take care of the day-to-day activities, such as detection and response. They don't help businesses build corporate security strategies designed to their specific needs—covering all employees, networks, and assets with objectives and goals to measure and improve cyber resilience.

However, organisations can't afford to live without these essential strategies to survive in today's hostile digital world. So, is there a way to bridge the gap? Could a CISO-as-a-Service be the answer?

The role of the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)

The CISO is undoubtedly one of the newest entrants into the C-suite.

In their role, CISOs are responsible for the overall running of cyber security within a business—ensuring it safeguards critical assets and processes and acts as an enabler for business. The CISO often reports to the board, keeping them updated on business-level threats, regulatory compliance, security budgets, and any upcoming activities that could impact the safe running of their business.

The CISO plays a critical role in driving security within an organisation, but given how new the role is, very few qualified and competent CISOs exist today. This makes them very expensive to recruit, particularly for mid-sized organisations. Furthermore, many of these businesses don't require a full-time CISO; they only need their services on a contract basis, where they can benefit from the insights and expertise CISOs have to offer without taking on an expensive recruit.

Fortunately for these businesses, the most obvious answer to the problem is CISO-as-a-service packages.

CISO-as-a-Service Packages

CISO-as-a-Service packages offer organisations access to a CISO on a contractual basis.

CISO services are designed to provide organisations with leadership skills and expertise, helping them stay secure and compliant. They provide organisations with everything they need to build, implement, and manage a complete information security and threat prevention program without burdening budgets.

They provide organisations with a flexible, cost-efficient, and seasoned cybersecurity specialist who can help them build out and manage security and regulatory compliance. They often have invaluable experience in data protection, identity and access management, security testing, risk management, disaster recovery, and regulatory compliance. This helps organisations deliver customised services and consult remotely or on-site to ensure that risks are reduced while continuously improving overall security posture.

The CISO will often work with the organisation to gain a deep understanding of its business model, employees, customers, network, and geographical locations. Then, they will work in partnership with the business to build out a security program to support their specific needs. They can also act as cyber advisors to other C-suite executives and provide expertise to help the organisation improve its resilience against attacks, meet global and local compliance requirements, and embed security across its processes and employees.

Overall, outsourced CISO services support organisations that don't require a full-time permanent head of security. They allow them to stay ahead of threats and build security programs that help keep them safe and successful in today's increasingly hostile digital world.

At Barrier, we understand the paramount needs, skills, and challenges concerning the CISO for an organisation and their cybersecurity requirements. Our CISOaas is designed to address all pain points of your organisation with a world-class pool of information security professionals who have led enterprise-grade CISO efforts. Contact us today to book a free consultation with our CISOaaS specialists.

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