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Compliance & Risk (vCISO)

$100,000 Per Violation Is the Cost of Guessing. Knowing Where You Stand Is Cheaper.

Get CISO-level expertise and a named "qualified individual" to satisfy FTC Safeguards, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, SOC 2, or CMMC, without the cost of a full-time hire. We design, own, and maintain the written program for you.

Get your free IT & security evaluationBook a 15-minute call
500+ partner networkFortune 1000 experienceVendor-neutralSecurity-first
The problem

You Have to Comply. You Don't Know Where to Start.

A regulator, insurer, or major customer is demanding a written information security program, and you have no CISSP on staff and can't justify a full-time CISO. Nobody is watching your network at 2 a.m., you've never had a formal gap assessment, and you don't actually know your exposure. Non-compliance carries real teeth: six-figure-per-violation fines, consent decrees, years of audits, even personal liability for officers and directors.

The FTC can impose fines of up to $100,000 per violation against non-compliant institutions under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, plus up to $10,000 per violation against officers and directors in their personal capacities.
FTC Safeguards compliance eBook
On average, SMB owners spend $12,000 annually and more than 20 hours per month of their own time trying to comply with federal, state and local regulations.
NSBA, cited in a virtual-compliance-officer datasheet
Nearly half (43%) of all cyberattacks are against smaller organizations.
SMB cybersecurity guide
Estimates of SMB data-breach costs range from $200,000 to $4 million.
SMB cybersecurity guide
By the numbers

The case, in numbers

$100,000
Max FTC fine per violation
regulatory compliance guide
43%
Cyberattacks that hit smaller organizations
SMB cybersecurity guide
88%
Breaches caused by human error
SMB cybersecurity guide
3x
AI incidents more likely to escalate without governance
industry AI risk report
$12,000/yr
Owner time and money spent self-managing compliance
small-business association data
How we solve it

One Written Program, Owned and Kept Current

We serve as your vendor-neutral virtual CISO and named "qualified individual." We design and maintain the security program your framework requires, then turn one-time projects into predictable managed coverage that stays defensible as rules, threats, and your environment change.

01

Your named qualified individual

We designate and serve as the vendor-neutral virtual CISO who owns your written information security program, mapped to the framework that applies to you: FTC Safeguards, HIPAA, PCI-DSS 4.0, NIST 800-171/CMMC, SOC 2, ISO 27001, NY DFS Part 500, or GDPR.

02

Start with a scored gap assessment

Every engagement opens with a gap assessment scored on a maturity scale against your chosen framework. You get a baseline, a target level per control domain, the quantified risk gap, and a prioritized remediation roadmap leadership can actually fund.

03

Findings you can act on, not a 200-page dump

We coordinate independent internal and external penetration testing and vulnerability scanning using recognized methodologies, then deliver severity-ranked findings with business impact, proof of concept, and step-by-step remediation, plus a re-test to prove the fixes held.

04

Predictable managed coverage

We turn the $10K-$15K pen-test and ~$2K scan line items into managed coverage: scans every six months, annual testing, continuous monitoring, and a quarterly compliance review that keeps the program current.

05

The human and procedural layer

We stand up the controls regulators also require: written security policies, security-awareness training with phishing simulations, and a documented, rehearsed incident response plan with defined roles and decision-making.

06

Vendor-neutral, audit-ready evidence

We produce on-demand evidence packages (system security plan, risk analysis, access reviews, encryption reports, framework scorecards) and recommend the right fix for your environment, Microsoft-native or third-party, never pressure-selling product after product.

How it fits together

The architecture, simplified

Framework mapping (NIST / CMMC / HIPAA)Gap assessmentPolicy & controlsContinuous monitoringAudit-ready evidence
From gap to audit-ready, continuously
Where you stand

From ad-hoc to optimized

The free evaluation places you on this maturity curve and maps the climb.

L1
L2
L3
L4
L5
  1. L1 · Ad-hoc (Partial) — No written information security program, no named owner, no risk assessment. Security is reactive and slips down the to-do list on a 'too small to be a target' assumption. Maps to NIST CSF Tier 1 (Partial) — risk managed in an ad hoc, sometimes reactive manner.
  2. L2 · Aware / Risk-Informed — Leadership recognizes the obligation and has had at least a first gap assessment or scan, but findings aren't prioritized, policies are thin or unsigned, MFA and access controls are inconsistent, and there's no named 'qualified individual.' Maps to NIST CSF Tier 2 (Risk Informed).
  3. L3 · Defined / Repeatable — A written program exists with assigned roles, signed policies, a documented risk assessment, scheduled vulnerability scans, and a basic incident response plan. Controls are mapped to a framework (e.g., CIS v8, FTC Safeguards) but governance is periodic, not continuous. Maps to NIST CSF Tier 3 (Repeatable).
  4. L4 · Managed / Audit-Ready — The program runs as a managed service: 24x7 monitoring, scans every six months, annual penetration testing with re-tests, security-awareness training with phishing simulations, and on-demand evidence packages (SSP, risk analysis, access reviews) that satisfy auditors, insurers, and regulators. Quarterly compliance reviews keep it current. Approaches NIST CSF Tier 4 (Adaptive).
  5. L5 · Optimized / Adaptive — Security and compliance are continuously improved and measured; the program adapts to new rules, threats, and operations (including AI governance under ISO 42001 / NIST AI RMF), feeds board-level risk reporting, and is a competitive differentiator that wins upmarket deals. Full NIST CSF Tier 4 (Adaptive) — lessons learned and predictive indicators drive ongoing optimization.
What you get

Outcomes, not vendor brochures

  • A named "qualified individual" who satisfies your regulation and owns the program for you
  • A written information security program mapped to your exact framework
  • A clear baseline: you know precisely where you stand against your target maturity level
  • A prioritized, funded remediation roadmap instead of a list you can't read
  • Audit-ready evidence packages on demand for insurers, auditors, and regulators
  • Predictable managed coverage: scans every six months, annual testing, quarterly reviews
  • Eligibility to win larger customers and qualify for cyber coverage you'd otherwise be denied
Proven in the field

What These Programs Surface in the Field

Outcome patterns from across the industry — the shape of results vendor-neutral delivery produces.

A leader insisted the company was "too small to be at risk," then lost $200,000 to ransomware weeks later, reframing a defensible program as cheap insurance versus catastrophic loss.
A combined internal and external pen test came back low-risk externally but surfaced high-severity internal issues: credential theft via name-resolution poisoning, an IPv6 DHCP poisoning path, and an unpatched hypervisor.
An organization that lift-and-shifted to Azure got a CIS-aligned posture review that turned "are we secure?" into 18 concrete, severity-ranked findings (3 Critical, 8 High, 7 Medium) across identity, networking, data protection, logging, and governance.
An after-hours walkthrough found written passwords on or under keyboards at 30% of workstations despite a strong written password policy, showing people and process matter as much as technology.
A small firm that demonstrated regulatory compliance and client-data privacy became eligible to win larger customers it previously couldn't serve.
Key facts
  • The FTC can impose fines of up to $100,000 per violation under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, plus up to $10,000 per violation against officers and directors personally.
  • A virtual CISO (vCISO) provides CISO-level expertise and a named "qualified individual" to satisfy regulations at a fraction of a full-time hire.
  • Nearly half (43%) of all cyberattacks are against smaller organizations, and SMB data-breach costs range from $200,000 to $4 million.
  • The FTC Safeguards Rule requires system-wide vulnerability scans every six months and annual penetration testing if continuous monitoring isn't in place.
  • SMB owners spend an average of $12,000 annually and more than 20 hours per month trying to comply with federal, state, and local regulations.
Questions, answered

Frequently asked

We're too small to be a target. Why would an attacker pick us?
The data runs the other way: roughly 43% of all cyberattacks hit smaller organizations and three in four U.S. SMBs reported a digital attack in a single year. "Small" often means "soft": fewer controls, no 24x7 coverage, easier to monetize. We start with a gap assessment so the decision is based on your actual exposure, not a guess.
We can't afford a full-time CISO or compliance officer.
That's exactly the model. A fractional, virtual CISO gives you CISO-level expertise and a named "qualified individual" to satisfy the regulation, at a fraction of a full-time hire. Owners already spend an average of about $12,000 a year and 20+ hours a month self-managing compliance; this redirects that money and time into a program someone else owns and keeps current.
Isn't a pen test just a one-time project, and then we're done?
Compliance isn't one-and-done. Rules, threats, and your own environment keep changing, and any change after data collection invalidates prior findings. We turn the $10K-$15K pen-test and ~$2K vulnerability-scan line items into predictable managed coverage (scans every six months, annual testing) plus a quarterly program review, so you stay defensible, not just defensible on one day.
We already have a firewall and EDR. Isn't that enough?
Perimeter tools cover one layer. In real assessments the bigger risk is usually already inside: about 88% of breaches involve human error and six in ten in 2020 came from insiders. A program assesses people, process, and the layers your firewall never sees.
Won't a vendor-led assessment just turn into a sales pitch for products we don't need?
We're vendor-neutral and broker best-fit. We prioritize the controls that close YOUR highest-risk gaps against your budget and size, and when a fix is needed we recommend the right one for the environment, Microsoft-native or third-party, rather than steering toward one product line.
Compliance is a cost center. What's the business upside?
Two concrete returns. It's the cheapest form of breach insurance against losses estimated at $200,000 to $4 million, and it's a growth lever: firms that can demonstrate regulatory compliance and client-data privacy become eligible to win larger customers they previously couldn't serve, and qualify for cyber coverage they'd otherwise be denied.

Know Exactly Where You Stand

Start with a free IT and security evaluation. We'll assess your actual exposure against the framework that applies to you and hand back a clear baseline and prioritized roadmap. No 200-page scanner dump, no pressure to buy.

Get your free IT & security evaluationBook a 15-minute call