Virtual CISO Services
Extend your security leadership with strategic cybersecurity guidance without immediately building a full internal CISO function.
There is a stage where an organization has security work but no security owner. Decisions get made — about tooling, architecture, vendors, priorities — by people whose main responsibility is something else, and each decision is defensible on its own while the whole drifts.
A vCISO arrangement supplies the judgement without the permanent hire: someone who sets direction, brings a view on risk, and can present security in terms a board will act on.
What is a vCISO?
A vCISO (virtual Chief Information Security Officer) is a fractional security leadership engagement that gives an organization security strategy, risk management, security roadmaps, governance and executive reporting, without immediately building a full internal CISO function.
Who needs it? Organizations with no senior security owner, where security decisions are being made by people whose main job is something else; organizations where a full-time CISO is premature but the judgement is still needed; organizations where the board has started asking security questions and it needs to be presented in governance terms; and organizations where growth has outpaced the practices that worked at a smaller headcount.
How TMG Security helps. TMG Security supplies the through-line those organizations are missing, not more work, but an order to it, and accountability for whether that order is right, covering security strategy, risk management, security roadmaps, governance, security program development and executive reporting as part of the engagement.
The cost of no owner is direction, not effort
Organizations without a security owner rarely do nothing. They buy tools, run tests and fix findings. What is missing is a through-line — a reason those activities are the right ones this quarter, and a way to tell whether the position is improving.
That is what the role supplies. Not more work, but an order to it, and someone accountable for whether the order is right.
How this is put together.
Illustrative horizons showing how an engagement is usually sequenced. They are not commitments to a specific outcome or timeline.
What a vCISO engagement covers
SCOPE OF SERVICEEngagement model, time commitment and scope are agreed per organization. Illustrative horizons are not commitments to a specific outcome.
How the engagement works
- 01UNDERSTANDThe business, its risk appetite and what is already in flight.
- 02ASSESSEstablish the current security position honestly.
- 03DIRECTAgree priorities and the reasoning behind them.
- 04EMBEDWork alongside the team rather than reporting from outside.
- 05REPORTKeep leadership informed in terms they can act on.
- 06ADJUSTRevisit priorities as the business changes.
When Does Your Team Need Security Leadership?
Output leadership can act on.
Which of these apply depends on engagement scope.
Where current practice differs from the requirements that apply to you.
Which controls address which requirements, and where nothing does.
What the gaps mean in terms of risk, not just non-conformity.
What needs to exist in writing, and what it needs to say.
Whether you could demonstrate a control operates, if asked.
Sequenced work, with dependencies made explicit.
A version of the findings that a board or exec team can act on.
Adjacent parts of the programme.
How pricing and engagement model work
A vCISO engagement is priced as an ongoing arrangement rather than a one-time project, typically structured around a set number of hours or days per month. Cost depends on factors such as the scope of oversight, for example a single function versus a full security programme, the size and maturity of the organization, and the duration of the engagement. These factors are agreed during scoping before a quote is provided.
Questions we get asked before an engagement.
It varies by organization and is agreed up front rather than assumed. What matters more than hours is being available at the points where decisions are made — a vCISO who only appears for a monthly report adds little.
No. The role sits above delivery: direction, prioritisation and governance. If anything it makes an existing team more effective, because it removes the burden of arguing for priorities they were never given authority to set.
The engagement should make that hire easier and eventually unnecessary. A reasonable arrangement includes handover: a documented programme, a live roadmap and context the incoming CISO would otherwise spend months rebuilding.
No, and we would be wary of anyone who does. Outcomes depend on decisions your organization makes and resources it commits. What we bring is judgement, direction and honest reporting about where the programme actually stands.
Duration is agreed as part of scoping and depends on factors such as the scope of oversight, the size and maturity of the organization, and whether the need is short-term — for example, a specific initiative — or an ongoing arrangement.
Discuss vCISO Support
Tell us who currently makes security decisions and what is forcing the question — a customer, a board, or growth.