Menu
Close
Quickly replace a departing full-time CISO with a part-time, interim CISO. We’ll take complete ownership of your cybersecurity program, clean up from an incident, and implement necessary organizational changes in advance of your next full-time CISO hire.
We need help with cybersecurity leadership transitions, but…
Our interim CISO can be working within your organization as early as next week. We’ll keep running and improving your program while you take the time to do a high-quality executive search.
Tap a new interim CISO to lead the change. Our vCISOs will work with your remediation experts and cyber insurance company to resolve the incident, then implement improvements to your program as you look for a new full-time hire.
What does a regular CISO do? That’s what an interim CISO does!
An interim CISO has the same responsibilities of a normal, full-time CISO. However, they commonly focus on cybersecurity program continuity during the period of executive transition. If the leadership change is due to an incident, the interim CISO will often be tasked with improving cybersecurity posture in-advance of the new full-time CISO’s hiring.
Interim CISO contracts usually run for six to twelve months. Compared to normal Virtual CISO arrangements, they are billed hourly. This means the interim CISO can take on whatever work is needed during the engagement, as opposed to focusing on a set of contracted deliverables. Agreements are also written with flexibility in-mind, so the interim CISO can wind down work whenever the new full-time CISO is hired.
Interim CISO and Virtual CISO arrangements both provide highly-skilled cybersecurity leadership to organizations, but their structure is different. Fractional CISO’s version of the two services differ in the following ways:
Domain | Interim CISO | Virtual CISO |
|---|---|---|
Cost | More Expensive (Hourly) | Less Expensive |
Scope | Wide Scope, Does Anything | Mixture of scoped and as-needed deliverables |
Duration | Short-term (6-12 months) | Long-term (3+ Years) |
Generally, the Interim CISO service is better suited to large businesses and enterprises that have had a full-time CISO before. The Virtual CISO service is better suited to growing small and midsize organizations that need cybersecurity leadership, but not at the expense of a full-time CISO.
Beyond your Interim CISO, you can also choose to add an hourly, U.S.-based cybersecurity analyst to your transitional leadership team. The cybersecurity analyst works for the Interim CISO to get more done for your organization, more efficiently.
Many of our Interim CISOs have experience as full-time CISOs at Fortune 500 companies. We can also provide Interim CISOs with experience in a wide variety of industries, making it easy for you to get a leader with experience in your industry.
Our Interim CISO clients measure high in customer satisfaction. We’ve always succeeded in recovering from cybersecurity incidents, bridging the leadership gap, and onboarding a new full-time leader. When you need hard cybersecurity problems solved, we’re here.
Interim CISOs are most commonly hired during periods of organizational transition. The full-time CISO left, the organization suffered a cybersecurity incident, or received a major investment – enabling cybersecurity improvements. An Interim CISO is a great choice to bridge the leadership gap and lead short-term changes before hiring a full-time CISO.
If you’re looking for an Interim CISO, it’s likely because onboarding a capable individual quickly is a priority. You don’t have time to conduct a full executive search, and you can’t afford to get the wrong person in the role. Fractional CISO can have the right person working for you as early as next week.
Don’t just take our word for it, read our case study about how we helped WayPath Consulting become SOC 2 compliant:
CTO of WayPath Consulting
Fractional CISO has enabled us to showcase best-in-class security, putting us on-par with firms much larger in employee count. They allow me to re-invest time previously spent on day-to-day management into growing and improving our business.”
An Interim CISO is a cybersecurity leader brought in to fill a temporary leadership gap in an organization that recently lost or fired its full-time CISO.
Interim CISO engagements last as long as the organization needs to prepare for and hire a full-time CISO. Typically, this takes between six and twelve months.
Yes, an Interim CISO can help with all cybersecurity audits. They are in temporary positions, but have the complete skillset of full-time CISOs.
An Interim CISO is different from a part-time CISO in that Interim CISOs are hired into known-temporary positions. They might also work 40 hours per week, depending on what is needed of them! Part-time CISOs will work indefinitely; as long as the client organization needs them.
Only 1/3 of cyber insurance policies actually pay out in incidents. Most companies have cyber insurance policies that insure too little, or too much, and have absurdly low caps and silly exclusions.
To learn more about cyber insurance and determine if you have the right coverage for you, join us for a free vCISO Office Hours session on Tuesday, April 18 at 1 p.m. eastern time. Bring your questions!
Getting ready for your first SOC 2? This eBook is full of actionable advice to help you prepare for and succeed in your first SOC 2 audit.
Learn: