Virtual CISO | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

The 2024 State of the vCISO Report continues Cynomi's tradition of examining the growing popularity of virtual Chief Information Security Officer (vCISO) services. According to the independent survey, the demand for these services is increasing, with both providers and clients reaping the rewards. The upward trend is set to continue, with even faster growth expected in the future. However, service providers looking to enter the vCISO market must address challenges like technological limitations and a lack of security and compliance expertise.  For more details on the state of vCISO, read Cynomi's comprehensive report. The State of the Virtual CISO Survey Report by Global Surveyz, an independent survey company, which was commissioned by Cynomi, provides a deep understanding of the vCISO opportunities and challenges facing MSPs and MSSPs today. The report shares insights from 200 security leaders in MSPs and MSSPs that provide cybersecurity strategic services or cybersecurity con

Demand for Virtual CISO services is soaring. According to Gartner, the use of vCISO services among small and mid-size businesses and non-regulated enterprises was expected to grow by a whopping 1900% in just one year, from only 1% in 2021 to 20% in 2022! Offering vCISO services can be especially attractive for MSPs and MSSPs. By addressing their customers' needs for proactive cyber resilience, they can generate a growing amount of recurring revenue from existing and new customers. And all while differentiating themselves from the competition. vCISO services also enable upselling of additional products and services the MSP or MSSP specializes in. However, not all MSPs and MSSPs fully understand how to provide vCISO services . Some may be unsure about which services are expected from them. Others may not realize they are already providing vCISO services and have the potential to effortlessly broaden their offerings into a complete vCISO suite or package it differently to make it more

Shadow apps, a segment of Shadow IT, are SaaS applications purchased without the knowledge of the security team. While these applications may be legitimate, they operate within the blind spots of the corporate security team and expose the company to attackers.  Shadow apps may include instances of software that the company is already using. For example, a dev team may onboard their own instance of GitHub to keep their work separate from other developers. They might justify the purchase by noting that GitHub is an approved application, as it is already in use by other teams. However, since the new instance is used outside of the security team's view, it lacks governance. It may store sensitive corporate data and not have essential protections like MFA enabled, SSO enforced, or it could suffer from weak access controls. These misconfigurations can easily lead to risks like stolen source code and other issues. Types of Shadow Apps  Shadow apps can be categorized based on their interac

Almost half of MSP clients fell victim to a cyberattack within the last 12 months. In the SMB world, the danger is especially acute as only 50% of SMBs have a dedicated internal IT person to take care of cybersecurity. No wonder cybercriminals are targeting SMBs so heavily. No wonder SMBs are increasingly willing to pay a subscription or retainer to gain access to expert C-level cyber-assistance in devising and implementing strategies to prevent breaches, reduce risk, and mitigate the consequences of attacks. Hence the popularity of Virtual Chief Information Security Officer (vCISO) services. They are especially attractive to MSPs and MSSPs as:  They enable service providers to address a growing need from their SMB clients for proactive cyber resilience  They offer the potential to grow recurring revenues - expand into a new customer base or sell a new service to existing customers They help service providers differentiate themselves They are an excellent vehicle from which to u

Compliance services are emerging as one of the hottest areas of cybersecurity.  While compliance used to be mainly the province of large enterprises, times have changed, and it is now a day-to-day concern for a growing number of small and medium businesses.  Even when these organizations are not regulated, SMEs often aim to follow compliance and/or security frameworks either for their own risk mitigation or in order to comply with the standards required by their customers. The driver is often their customers' supply chain concerns and requirements. As large businesses adopt cybersecurity and compliance frameworks and agree to certain standards, they impose similar demands on their suppliers. This is a major opportunity for providers of virtual CISO (vCISO) services assuming they can broaden their offerings to encompass compliance. MSSPs, MSPs, consultanies and other vCISO service providers perform a vital role in building a comprehensive cybersecurity program for their SME customer

Virtual Chief Information Security Officer (vCISO) services (also known as 'Fractional CISO' or 'CISO-as-a-Service') are growing in popularity, especially as growing cyber threats, tightening regulatory demands and strict cyber insurance requirements are driving small to medium-sized enterprises demand for strategic cybersecurity and compliance guidance and management. But vCISO services are labor intensive, require highly skilled experts, and are difficult to scale. So, how exactly do successful vCISO providers overcome these obstacles? When you want advice on how to overcome challenges, scale and expand, who better to go to than the people who have been there, seen it, and done it with success? In a new eBook, titled ' Top virtual CISOs share: 7 tips on how vCISO service providers can maximize services, increase revenues, and improve margins " ( Download here ), vCISO platform provider Cynomi interviewed some of America's top vCISO service providers (MS

From ransomware to breaches, from noncompliance penalties to reputational damage – cyberthreats pose an existential risk to any business. But for SMEs and SMBs, the danger is compounded. These companies realize they  need  an in-house Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) – someone who can assess risks and vulnerabilities, create and execute a comprehensive cybersecurity plan, ensure compliance and safeguard business continuity. Yet unlike large enterprises, most don't have the budget to bring a full-time experienced CISO on board. To bridge this gap, managed service providers (MSPs), managed security service providers (MSSPs), and consulting firms offer virtual CISO (vCISO), or 'CISO-as-a-service' services. The model is simple: instead of hiring a full-time CISO, SMEs and SMBs pay a subscription or a retainer to gain access to expert cyber assistance in the form of a virtual CISO. Staffed by seasoned veteran executives, vCISOs offer C-level assistance in devising and

Growing cyber threats, tightening regulatory demands and strict cyber insurance requirements are driving small to medium-sized enterprises demand for strategic cybersecurity and compliance guidance and management. Since most companies this size don't have in-house CISO expertise – the demand for virtual CISO (vCISO) services is also growing. Yet current vCISO services models still rely on manual, humanCISO expertise. This makes these services costly and tough to scale – leaving MSPs, MSSPs and consulting firms unable to add vCISO service to their portfolio or scale their existing vCISO services to meet the growing demand. This is the challenge  Cynomi's Automated vCISO platform  is trying to solve. The company's AI-powered vCISO platform automatically generates everything vCISO service providers need to provide their clients, fully customized for each and every client: risk and compliance assessments, gap analysis, tailored security policies, strategic remediation plans w