Fractional CISO / vCISO Services
Protect your organization's knowledge with a Fractional CISO
FireOak’s team of experienced consultants will work as your fractional CISO (Chief Information Security Officer), providing strategic oversight and technical guidance to lead your cybersecurity program, reduce risk, and give you peace of mind. Let us help you protect and secure your organization’s valuable knowledge.
How our Fractional CISO services work
When we’re working with a new client, we start with a cybersecurity risk assessment and strategy before moving on to tactics.
1
Start with a Cybersecurity Risk Assessment
We’ll start by examining your platforms, policies, procedures, practices, culture, and more to identify the biggest risks, vulnerabilities, and other issues.
2
Strategy first, then tactics
Once there’s a clear strategy in place, we can move on to tactics and implementation. For example, tactics might include rolling out a new password management tool, deploying single sign-on, or setting up a continuous monitoring program.
3
Cybersecurity program management
If your organization already has a current strategy in place, FireOak can take on the day-to-day responsibilities for managing your cybersecurity program, including security operations, continuous monitoring, incident response, vetting new cloud platforms from a security perspective, and more.
4
Cybersecurity projects
Sometimes organizations have a specific issue that they want to address right away or get stuck on a project that requires technical expertise or strategic experience not available in-house. If you have something in mind, talk to us and we can help.
Why hire FireOak as your Fractional CISO
We’re here to help your protect and secure your organization’s information
1
Tailored security for your organization's unique needs.
Your organization is unique, and so are its cybersecurity needs. Don’t settle for a one-size-fits-all approach to protecting your knowledge. With FireOak’s Fractional CISO service, our experienced consultants will work with you to develop a strategy and an approach that’s designed to fit your organization’s risks, size, tech stack, staff, and more.
2
The expertise of an experienced CISO without breaking the bank.
Keeping your organization’s knowledge secure is critical, but hiring a full-time CISO can be costly. Plus, many small to mid-sized organizations don’t need a full-time, dedicated CISO. With a Fractional CISO from the FireOak team, you get access to a team of experienced cybersecurity consultants, without the overhead or full-time commitment of a full-time CISO.
3
Our Fractional CISOs speak your language.
Don’t let technical jargon and complex security strategies distract your team. Our Fractional CISOs are experts in communication, ensuring that everyone understands the importance of security and can work together to reduce risk. Trust FireOak’s consultants to protect and secure your organization’s knowledge, giving the C-Suite and Board peace of mind.
Frequently asked questions
Answers to some of our most frequently asked questions about FireOak’s fractional CIO services.
A Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) is responsible for an organization’s overarching cybersecurity program, strategy, and day-to-day operations. A fractional CISO (or virtual CISO) serves in the same capacity, but is not a full-time member of your organization.
CISO positions require a high level of expertise and tremendous experience in terms of strategic thinking, communications, change management, information/data governance, and hands-on technical work. In many cases, small and mid-sized organizations don’t have enough of the strategic work to justify the expense of a full-time, salaried CISO. In this case, a fractional CISO can bring the right combination of skills, expertise, and experience to the table at a fraction of the cost of a senior-level executive.
All organizations need a Chief Information Security Officer, i.e., someone who is ultimately responsible for leading your organization’s cybersecurity strategy and operations.
If you don’t have a dedicated CISO, this work is getting absorbed elsewhere, by someone in the IT department, the IT Director, the COO, or the CEO/Executive Director. However, these individuals weren’t hired to be be a CISO and may not have the technical background or authority to drive the types of changes which are often needed to address cybersecurity challenges.
Our Fractional CISO service is best suited for small to mid-sized organizations — organizations that have a CIO or IT Director, but not a full-time employee in a dedicated information security role.
Many of our clients work in high risk areas including human rights, reproductive rights, or environmental sustainability. Other clients are small businesses in start-up mode and are trying to create a strong foundation for the future.
If your organization doesn’t have a CIO, you might be better served by our Fractional CIO service, which is broader in scope and provide oversight for your organization’s entire information ecosystem — IT, cybersecurity, and knowledge management.
Other indicators that FireOak’s fractional CISO service might be a good fit is if your organization is mostly:
- Relying on cloud platforms (vs. on-premises servers and infrastructure)
- Either using Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace as its primary productivity suite
Our technical expertise is broad and covers all of today’s common platforms — everything from Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Salesforce, and WordPress — to more specialized platforms that our clients adopt.
We’re not a value-added reseller (VAR). In most cases, we’re platform agnostic, as long the platform offers our clients modern security features, configurations, and capabilities. (We have a lot to say on this subject — we’ve had to help several clients develop an exit strategy to get out of niche platforms that aren’t mature enough to properly protect our clients’ confidential data!)
Our information skills are deep as well — all of the members of our team have a master’s degree in library/information science.
FireOak’s Fractional CISO team takes the lead on implementation for a wide range of security-related initiatives. We focus on strategy first, but when it comes to tactical work, our fractional CISO team can lead cybersecurity projects such as:
- Implementing cloud-to-cloud backup solutions
- Implementing single sign-on (SSO)
- Fine-tuning security controls in cloud platforms
- Deploying a new password management tool
- Developing information security policies
- Leading change management efforts for cybersecurity initiatives
- Developing and implementing the technology-related components of a business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) plan
- Implementing data loss prevention (DLP) controls
These are just examples of the type of tactical and operational work our fractional CISO team takes on for clients. But again, it’s all about strategy first. It’s essential that we make sure that the controls and security initiatives that you’re adopting are appropriate, meaningful, and strategic.
Take the next step and see how we work
Ready to talk about your organization’s cybersecurity needs? Schedule a free, no-pressure consultation to see if we’re a good fit.
