Cyberattacks and data security breaches continue to grow at a record pace year after year.  According to recent surveys, over 60% of cybersecurity professionals saw an increase in cyberattacks and security breaches related to the pandemic. In order to defend against these attacks, businesses need to take proactive steps to remain safe and secure.  This is especially pertinent for financial institutions.  A key area of need and support would be a vCISO.  Some of the key benefits of a vCISO are discussed below.

Cost Reduction and Stability

A chief information security officer (CISO) is a mandatory component of the financial institution risk management program.  They are there to assess, monitor, report and consult on the process of managing information risk, whether it’s a cyber control, a cyberattack, data leakage or security breach. The responsibilities of this position are critical and mandatory for financial institutions working to protect themselves against cyberthreats, but the reality is, requested salaries keep increasing due to a lack of qualified talent, sometimes exceeding $300,000.00! That cost-prohibitive income combined with the lack of longevity (there is a high level of transition due to the lack of talent), is why financial institutions should consider the option of hiring a virtual CISO.

For a fraction of the salary of a full-time CISO, organizations can engage a vCISO who is an outsourced, highly experienced information security practitioner with audit, reporting, assessment, and executive-level experience who can offer their deep expertise and cross industry insight to a financial institution on an ongoing (typically part-time) basis, sometimes far surpassing the skillset and expertise of a conventional CISO. Engaging a vCISO allows a financial institution the flexibility to obtain deep industry and overall information security experience and knowledge for a fraction of the cost.

On-Demand Expertise to Facilitate Growth and Security

A vCISO works closely with Senior Management to establish a well-communicated information security strategy and roadmap, one that meets not only the requirements of the financial institution and its customers, but also State and Federal requirements. Most importantly, a vCISO can provide financial institutions unbiased strategic and operational leadership on security controls and technologies, which includes:

• Guidelines, Controls, And Standards
• Regulatory Compliance with GLBA, FFIEC, OCC, NCUA, CFBP, State and Federal Laws
• Cyber Risk and Incident Management
• Vendor Risk Management
• Cyber Infrastructure Planning
• Business Continuity
• Database Security Management

Since vCISOs are already experts, it saves the financial institutions ramp-up time and related expenditures, additionally your financial institution is able to eliminate the cost of benefits and full-time employee and onboarding requirements and the possible revolving door of personnel transition. You can allocate your internal resources more effectively, add some needed capital to the bottom line and utilize employees in roles supporting your goals enabling them to take on other priority tasks.

Conclusion

The right vCISO can provide a business with quality executive-level information security experts how actively collaborate with Executive Management to make reasonable and effective decisions on the businesses needs in data security, privacy, and compliance requirements.  A seasoned vCISO will have had the advantage of working with many companies struggling with many of your challenges.   They bring that knowledge base to communicate which policies, procedures, and technologies are best for solving your financial institutions specific goals. Overall, the main objective of a vCISO is to help you make better business protection choices, act as a bridge for data protections reporting and support your long-term framework for information security goals to protect you from the ever-evolving threat landscape.

This article was written and produced by Carl Cadregari, Executive Vice President FoxPointe Solutions.  Looking to get in touch with Carl? Reach out today: ccadregari@foxpointesolutions.com.