As a critical area of business concern, cybersecurity requires capable and efficient leadership that makes strategic decisions regarding business cybersecurity and thereby keeps the business’s IT environment secure. The position, precisely, is called Chief Information Security Officer (CISO). The ever-increasing number of cybersecurity instances has made CISOs a critical senior management resource for every business and therefore having a CISO becomes imperative.
The reality is that recruiting a CISO is not that simple. Companies often find themselves struggling to tap needed talent, let alone hire it. Even when they do manage to hire the staff, an in-house CISO comes with a very high cost of employment. Virtually a full-time internal CISO is a challenge for small and medium-sized businesses. Although cybersecurity is as crucial as a large business, cost is often a daunting concern.
This is not just the concern with small and medium-sized businesses, but with global organizations as well. Fortunately, companies have options as they can now hire a virtual CISO from Ovnicom. The decision to hire a virtual CISO is advantageous in many ways. Ovnicom is one of the main cybersecurity companies in Panama. Here are five reasons to hire a virtual CISO and ensure efficient information security.
Who is a CISO and what is a virtual CISO or as a service?
A CISO assumes several responsibilities. Some of these include crafting and implementing a company’s overall cybersecurity strategy, ensuring continuous cybersecurity improvement across the company, improving cybersecurity awareness, and developing contingency plans to help the organization deal with attacks and mitigate its impact to the greatest extent possible. CISOs are high-level executives, and therefore their work typically involves strategy, decision-making, and implementation.
Now, what is a virtual CISO? As stated above, many companies struggle to find CISOs, and the ones available come with strong salary expectations attached to them. In situations like these, a virtual CISO forms a prudent alternative.
A virtual CISO is a certified outsourced information security professional who provides crucial time, advice, and insight, often virtually and remotely. Cybersecurity companies provide virtual CISOs, and therefore when you partner with one, you can hire a virtual CISO, or CISO as a service, through your cybersecurity service provider.
Let’s take a look at some CISO benefits.
5 reasons why you need to hire a CISO as a service:
1. Significant cost savings
Hiring a full-time in-house CISO on your own refers to undergoing a variety of recruiting-related and administrative processes including coordinating with HR agencies, paying them recruitment fees, shortlisting applications, interviewing candidates, paying them a high pay, offer employment benefits, insurance, profit sharing, and provide company-specific training.
All of these factors incur cost as well as time. However, outsourcing the CISO responsibility to a specialized company proves to be a significant relief. All you need to do is apply and get the resource. In addition, it does not require them to pay high salaries. Paying the outsourcing fee, which is significantly less than the salary offered to a full-time CISO, is the only expense companies have to bear in this case.
Additionally, CISOs hired through Ovnicom do not require extensive training. They are experienced enough to take on production in a shorter duration and often don’t necessarily require anything more than an understanding of the company’s cybersecurity landscape. These factors collectively save companies millions of dollars and hundreds of man-hours that they could otherwise use for critical tasks.
2. Access to extensive cybersecurity expertise and experience
Virtual CISOs hired on an outsourced basis through cybersecurity companies are experienced resources specializing in data security and the strategy associated with it. They have already worked with many companies and therefore bring a great deal of knowledge to the operation of the company. In addition, they continue to innovate strategies according to the emerging cybersecurity landscape and best practices while contributing what it takes to deliver the best results.
It’s not that full-time CISOs are underperforming. But sometimes, and in difficult situations that they have not been through before, they may require outside help and advice. They would work as employees, unlike the virtual CISOs for whom you are a customer. In the latter case, it is a question of a greater professional commitment and, therefore, doing everything possible to deliver the expected value is inevitable.
3. Greater professional flexibility
Another significant benefit of hiring a virtual CISO is enjoying a greater degree of professional flexibility than a full-time in-house CISO. One of the first advantages in this regard is that you do not have to find a physical space and create an extensive budget for a new full-time employee. In addition, the virtual CISO tailors customized cybersecurity strategies for your business.
Also, hiring and then firing a virtual CISO is much easier and faster. You can hire the resource for the first few months, leverage their expertise, put your strategies in motion, enforce cybersecurity policy, and then with business growth, you can hire a full-time resource. Similarly, you can try to outsource the job to a virtual information security officer, assess their potential, evaluate the results they deliver, and then enter into a multi-year deal based on careful consideration. All these factors are not possible in the case of full-time employment.
4. Widespread technical contacts
Virtual CISOs are well-rounded professionals who are not limited to technical or strategic expertise, but have widespread contacts across the market and industry. It helps them stay abreast of the latest cybersecurity trends, updates, etc., which, in turn, translates into various strategic and technical benefits for the companies that hire them.
5. Continuous and closer monitoring of the cybersecurity aspect of your company
The CISO programs as a service, and especially that of Ovnicom, implies the employment of a group of cybersecurity experts who maintain close and continuous surveillance on their network. Additionally, cybersecurity companies have alternate CISOs ready to serve you if the existing CISO goes on leave or resigns with the cybersecurity vendor. A close surveillance and resource backup plan allows you to continuously monitor your network, thus better protecting your network and stopping security breaches and attacks.
Do you need a virtual CISO for your company?
Partner with Ovnicom. The company facilitates outsourced CISOs, specific to your cybersecurity needs and delivers better results and value. Write to Ovnicom experts at [email protected] to find out more about how the company can be useful in your context.
