Expert UK Virtual CISO (vCISO) Services

What Our Clients Say

• What does a virtual CISO do?

  As a minimum, you can expect the same level of service as you would get from a traditional in-house CISO such as:

  • Strategic Steer and Cyber Roadmap Management: Frequent, concise and plain english briefings to your board or executive on the state of cyber security, empowering informed decisions regarding risk and broader business strategy.
  • Subject Matter Expertise: Immediate, impartial and professional guidance on your specific cyber security challenges, such as managing a critical vulnerabilities like Log4j.
  • Incident Readiness & Response: Proactive planning and availability of seasoned cybersecurity leadership during significant cyber incidents, such as ransomware attacks, to ensure that you minimise business disruption, collate all required evidence for forensic analysis and recovery quickly from the cyber attack.
  • Compliance to Regulations: Expert assistance from subject matter experts in handling third-party security audits and regulatory compliance evaluations such as against GDPR, Data Protection Act, SOC2, Cyber Essentials and ISO 27001.
  • Immediate Risk Reduction: Creation and ongoing management of a cyber security risk remediation plan / roadmap with a designed to not only improve strategic cyber security maturity, but also rapidly reduce operational risk quickly and efficiently.
  • Cyber Training & Awareness : Creative training, communications, and table-top exercises / cyber simulations designed to enhance information security awareness among staff, contractors and third parties.

  Your UK Virtual vCISO can of course provide a wealth of other services not included on this standard list. If you’d like to find out the art of the possible, please contact us and you’ll be able to chat to one of our practice partners who will discuss your options with you.

• Do small businesses need a vCISO?

  Yes. Many small businesses benefit from a vCISO, especially if you handle customer data, operate in regulated sectors, rely heavily on IT/SaaS, or have limited in-house security leadership. A vCISO gives you senior security direction (strategy, governance, risk, and oversight) without the cost of hiring a full-time CISO.

  When a small business typically needs a vCISO

  • You don’t have a dedicated security leader, but security decisions are piling up.

  • Customers or partners ask for security assurance (questionnaires, ISO 27001, SOC 2, due diligence).

  • You’ve had incidents (phishing, ransomware scares, data loss) or near misses.

  • You’re scaling quickly, moving to cloud, or outsourcing IT.

  • You process personal data, payment data, health data, or other sensitive information.

  • You need a security roadmap and “someone accountable” to drive it.

• Am I assigned a dedicated vCISO?

  Yes. Unlike many organisations, we assign a dedicated vCISO who will get to know the ins and outs of your organisation and tailor your cyber security services specifically for your business and technology in use.

• Is it possible to have a CISO based on-site?

  Absolutely. Typically, our “Virtual CISOs” spend on average 1 day per month on-site with each client, but we can tailor our virtual/physical presence to your specific needs. 

  Generally, we like to be visible, especially for the likes of chairing Information Security Committee’s or presenting to your board / executive. 

• vCISO Pricing - How much does a vCISO cost?

  It depends upon the size and complexity of your organisation and level of coverage you want us to have.

  CyPro’s UK Virtual CISO (vCISO) service typically costs £2,500-£5,000 per month, which is considerably less than the cost of employing a full-time in-house CISO (Chief Information Security Officer).

  Our vCISO pricing guide explains in more detail.

• Do I legally require a vCISO?

  Whilst it’s not yet an explicit legal requirement in regulations such as the UK Data Protection Act, many companies are now realising how challenging it can be meeting those regulatory requirements without one.

  Are you a small company? We wrote a helpful guide on do small companies need a vCISO?

  The benefits of having a skilled executive for making information security decisions and raising awareness is invaluable

  Also, the ICO tends to look on organisations who have  appropriate security leadership in place, in a much kinder light post data breach than those who haven’t appointed a sufficiently senior representative for cyber security as yet.

• What is the best vCISO?

  It depends on what you need. For Small to Medium Sized Businesses, CyPro is the only UK specialist providing these services tailored specifically for that market and so is a good place to start for UK virtual CISO services.

  If you are a larger business or enterprise, checkout this helpful vCISO guide.

• What is a Fractional CISO?

  While the terms “Fractional CISO” and “Virtual CISO” are often used interchangeably, they could refer to slightly different service models in cyber security leadership.

  Historically, a Fractional CISO is a part-time Chief Information Security Officer who works with your organisation on a regular, ongoing basis. This individual is integrated into your team and provides strategic and operational leadership, typically on a part-time schedule that fits your needs.

  A Virtual CISO (vCISO), on the other hand, historically provides cybersecurity leadership remotely on a much later basis. This role can be either part-time or full-time and offers flexible, scalable support depending on your organisation’s requirements. The vCISO can assist with strategic planning, compliance, incident response, and other key cybersecurity functions, often without the need for an on-site presence.

  However, today these terms are basically referring to the same thing – a fractional CISO and virtual CISO for all intents and purposes are the same.

• What is the difference between a vCISO and a CISO?

  A CISO is a permanent, in-house executive responsible for the organisation’s security strategy and programme day-to-day.

  A vCISO (virtual CISO) provides the same senior security leadership, but part-time or on-demand (typically as an external service), making it more flexible and cost-effective.