Virtual CISO (vCISO)
A virtual CISO for the AI you're now responsible for
A virtual CISO is a security executive you bring in a few days a month instead of a full-time hire. I run security the way a board runs everything else, as a risk decision with a dollar figure attached. I was the most senior information security leader through a ~$20 billion combination, and the judgment you get has already been tested under real M&A complexity. I also help write the OWASP standards for LLM and agentic-AI security, so the program you get already accounts for the AI your teams are adopting.
What I own as your virtual CISO
- Security strategy and roadmap: set the direction against your business plan, sequence the work to put the highest-value fixes first, and hand the board a maturity roadmap it can fund in stages.
- Risk in business terms: find and rank your exposures by what they would cost, put dollars and probabilities on the ones that matter, and steer spend to where the risk sits.
- The program, built and run: write the policies, stand up the controls, own the day-to-day security operations, and grow the team and the security-awareness habits that keep it alive between my visits.
- Compliance and frameworks: map the program to the standards your auditors and customers already trust, NIST CSF, ISO 27001, and SOC 2, along with the regulated-industry rules your sector answers to, then get you ready for the audit or the customer questionnaire before it lands on your desk.
- Incident readiness and response: write the response plan before you need it, run the tabletop that gets your people rehearsed, take the seat that leads the business through a breach, and run the review that keeps the same gap from opening twice.
- Third-party and vendor risk: vet the vendors and partners who touch your data or your systems, hold their onboarding to the same bar, and watch the ones already inside your walls, because plenty of breaches walk in through someone you trusted.
- AI and LLM security: extend the CISO remit to the AI your teams are already using, from model governance to the failure modes of LLMs and agents, and hold your models and pipelines to the same controls as the rest of the estate.
What I bring to the seat
- I co-wrote The CISO Evolution: Business Knowledge for Cybersecurity Executives (Wiley), a book about the business fluency this job demands. The board framing you get from me is framing I helped put in print.
- I have spent nearly three decades leading security teams and steering change in large, complex organizations, answering to boards that wanted decisions they could defend.
- As a Distinguished Fellow at the Enterprise Risk Quantification Institute, I put cyber risk in dollars your CFO and your board can act on, which turns a wall of findings into one business call the room can weigh.
- The same person setting your security strategy understands the AI risks aimed at it. I carry the CISSP, CCSP, AIGP, and QTE to back that up.
Case study: Cureton Midstream
Cureton Midstream is a private-equity-backed gas gathering and processing company in Weld County, Colorado. They were not legally obligated to run a formal security program. Leadership chose to anyway, and brought in RockCyber's vCISO services to build one a private-equity board could stand behind.
50%lower mean time to detect and respond
0 to 100%OT visibility and vulnerability coverage
10xNIST CSF control coverage
RockCyber's vCISO services gave us access to top-tier cybersecurity expertise without the substantial costs of hiring a full-time CISO, ensuring our security practices are robust and up-to-date.
We achieved a higher level of alignment with industry standards and regulatory requirements, which has been crucial in maintaining stakeholder trust and confidence.
Questions I get about the vCISO work
- What is a virtual CISO (vCISO)?
- A virtual CISO is an experienced security executive who leads your security program part-time, usually a few days a month, instead of a full-time hire. You get executive judgment and board-ready reporting without the cost or the search.
- How is this different from a security consultant?
- A consultant hands you a report. I take the CISO seat: I own the plan, sit with your board, and answer for the program while it runs. It is a standing relationship for as long as you need it.
- Do you cover AI risk too?
- Yes. I help write the OWASP standards for LLM and agentic-AI security, so AI governance is part of the program from the start. If you want a dedicated AI executive, that is the fractional Chief AI Officer engagement.