Today’s information security challenges are overwhelming. Making a decision to reduce risk can be expensive. The peace of putting out yesterday’s fire doesn’t last long until your required to respond on what you’re doing to prevent the latest breach in the news.

vCISO service can help you gain security clarity, improve cyber security processes, help make technology decisions, and ultimately save you money while decreasing your risk. This service is for people who want an experienced confident security leader to augment their technology efforts, but don’t want to afford the full-time role.

This service has been specifically designed for companies that want to protect their company data, client data, and show vendors and partners they are meeting (and exceeding) industry security standards, while balancing and justifying cybersecurity spend.

 

You will save money and accelerate your risk reduction. You will gain confidence in your initiatives, budgets, and projects. You will begin to be able to measure the maturity of your program, see a return on risk efforts, and differentiate the pillars of people, process, and technology that support your security program. You will have peace and confidence that what you’re doing today is the greatest effort for the greatest return. And you will have confidence that whatever comes out tomorrow has already been considered and included in the plan. You’ll be able to quickly response and address the concerns of leaders, c-suite, and board members based on your industry aligned cybersecurity program.

 

It’s your program. Let our passion serve your purpose. 

 

We’re here to support and strengthen your goals. We start with a full assessment and understanding of your goals and current security posture. Once the assessment phase is complete, we present our expert industry-based recommendations. These recommendations are the compounded result of industry best training, certifications, current cyber threats, and industry experience. We partner with you to align our recommendations with your goals. We’ll document it all and create cybersecurity road-map. We’ll help you implement that road-map. We can measure and report on the progress of security improvements over time.

 

What’s the process?

We have a kickoff meeting to learn about you, your unique business, and how you can benefit from our partnership and the vCISO service.
We build out a roadmap and set up a recurring time together to review threats, risks, and security initiatives. We use this time to share what we’re seeing in the threat landscape; what security trends are happening. We also table any questions or conversations that are beneficial.

Outside our scheduled recurring time, we are available and on-call to help. We respond and address any questions or topics that come up. We even prioritize coming onsite to support you.
In the meantime, we add your unique business risk profile to our systems and we’ll be continually reviewing threats and opportunities to share with you. We will build reports and metrics to support your initiatives and provide value to you and your organization.

 

Is there a system?

We have taken what we’ve learned from working with leading organizations to build a scaled down, high impact, high return security program. We’ve essentially built a micro-sized cybersecurity program that you can implement to quickly and effectively respond to today’s business threats. This is all available to you as part of our virtual CISO service.

Our main objective is to listen to your needs, and support you.

We have a extensive portfolio of tools and services we can provide. But what really matters is that you’re getting what you need to be successful. 

If you want to solidify your information security program while saving money, this service is for you. You get industry experts, leading security capabilities, and decades of experience. You’ll be trusting the same people other leading Minnesota companies like Target, and Piper Jaffray has trusted to secure their business. 

 

Common Misconceptions:

“I don’t want an arrogant person that has had some CISO role in the past coming in and dictating what we should be doing. Our business is unique, our problems are different, and I don’t want someone assuming they know what we need.”

We won’t shove anything on you. We’re humble, down to earth, and here to provide you value. It’s your program, your decision, and we want to support you so that you have everything you need to make the right decisions and prioritize the appropriate initiatives.

 

“I want to feel more confident about our security, but I don’t want to spend too much.”

Once the assessment is over and see clearly where you are, and the road map to where you should be, we work with you based on your budget and priority.

Asher Security is the most affordable vCISO program in Minnesota. Or goal is to reduce your risk and save you money. We’ll align with your budget and time frame. 

“We just need some key product solutions and then we’ll be ready to bring on a vCISO.”

Bringing on a vCISO can provide a huge benefit before choosing and purchasing products.

  • Help qualify the exact risk that is trying to be reduced
  • Document the risk reduction expectations of the product clearly
  • Outline the required deliverable of that solution
  • Help build a decision matrix to ensure you get exactly what you need

In addition, the vCISO can provide their unbiased opinion on the market leaders and provide examples of what other companies and industry peers are doing. This experience can go a long way to ensure you get a good price, and ultimately save money. There are many times the vCISO service pays for itself within the first twelve months just form cost savings. 

A mistake we sometimes see businesses making is purchasing security appliances and software hoping it reduces their risk and brings their cybersecurity program up to a measurement that could be considered acceptable. The truth is that even the best products won’t reduce your risk without people and process.

That’s where Asher Security excels. We don’t sell products. We focus solely on the improving people and process. Technology comes and goes. With the right cybersecurity program, built by experts and aligned with industry leading frameworks, you can replace products over time and still maintain a leading security program.  

Call us or fill out the form below to schedule a conversation.

 

Asher Security – 952-228-6173

 

 

Symptoms you need a vCISO:

  1. Talented technology staff, but they feel overwhelmed, confused and frustrated.
  2. Reactive. Can’t get ahead of today’s problems to anticipate for the next ones.
  3. No clear initiatives or focus.
  4. No measurements or metrics supporting projects.
  5. Unable to measure risk over time.
  6. Not sure how to respond to vendors solution offerings.
  7. Unable to differentiate between process, people and technology improvements.

 

How do we do it?

Take the world’s leading security certifications, combine that with experience working with leading Minnesota companies like Piper Jaffray, Target Corporation, and the Federal Government. Heat it up under the pressure of performing risk assessments, stressful purchasing decisions, and responding to high priority security incidents. Season that with a lot of time. You get a high quality, refined, partner to help you with your security program.

 

Case Study #1 – C-Suite Pressure

An IT manager was getting pressured by the C-Suite that they were not doing enough to improve the cybersecurity controls and protect the business. This led to overspending as the IT manager thought the solution was to purchase more security software listed in the magic quadrant. After this did not satisfy the c-suite, they finally reached out to Asher Security. We were able to perform an assessment and identify the most important data within the business. We provided them a maturity score based on a leading framework and reviewed their strengths and opportunities. We recommended a plan that not only improved their security program, but reinvested their budget in areas that benefited from greater gains. In addition, this satisfied their c-suite leadership with a great plan in the deliverable of a cybersecurity road-map.

 

Case Study #2 – Partnerships at Risk

A local company was getting a lot of security questions from external partners about their security program. Questions like;

  • How are you protecting client data?
  • What SDLC process are you using?
  • How are you conducting and reviewing vulnerability scans?

The client was unsure how to respond to these questions as they knew they weren’t doing a lot of what was being asked. They didn’t want to lose the partnerships, but they also didn’t want to spend a lot of money and try to address every question. 

They called us at Asher Security. We were able to perform a security assessment and identify exactly what data types external partners were concerned about and where that data lived and moved throughout the company. Based on that information we proposed a security road map that could greatly reduce the risk to this data. In addition, we created a ‘Security Overview & Commitment’ document that our client could provide to their partners. This guide showed clients that;

  • They authentically cared about the privacy of their clients
  • They had invested in cybersecurity leadership (vCISO) 
  • They had an industry aligned security framework
  • They had a road map that addressed continual improvements 
  • Tactfully addressed concerns partners had. 

This greatly reduced stress on business leaders concerned about impacts to partnerships. It also provided clarity on what security actions should be invested in and how to accomplish them. It allowed the client to perform some initiatives, and allowed us to use our strengths to augment areas the client wasn’t so sure about. Our process improvements were a catalyst to the client’s program. They reduced stress, increased security, decreased risk, recovered time by reducing questionnaires, and most importantly protected their client data. 

Story

We work with one unique client that is highly knowledgeable and educated on information security. I often find it a challenge to offer this individual ongoing value. When I asked them how we were doing and if they found this service valuable, they shared this,

 

“Your service is highly valuable to me. It’s valuable to me because I have you as an industry cybersecurity expert in my back pocket and when I’m questioned by leadership, or the board, on my decision and initiatives. I point out that all my planning has been reviewed by you and your company and is fully supported. I’ve recovered so much time by not having to justify my decisions with research and what my industry colleagues are doing. It’s lowered my frustration. And the business is benefiting because we’re able to react faster and implement solutions in a more fluid way without resistance.”

Schedule a free consultation today by calling or scheduling an appointment. 

Asher Security – 952-228-6173

 

 

If you still want to learn more, check out our Virtual CISO offering here:

Virtual CISO

Have more questions? Here are some articles we’ve provided about vCISO services:

Virtual CISO Cybersecurity Risk Management Strategies

Incident Response Planning with a vCISO

vCISO Cybersecurity Assessment What to Expect

4 Benefits of Hiring a vCISO

Virtual CISO for small business, is it worth it?

How a vCISO Can Improve Your Cybersecurity Posture

Comprehensive Services Offered by vCISOs

What is a Virtual CISO

Virtual CISO vs. Traditional CISO – What’s the Difference

 
 
 
 

 

7 Ways to Improve Your Cybersecurity Reporting to Executives and the Board of Directors

A guide for cybersecurity leaders that will help you gain the reputation of a solid leader, while preventing you from making the mistakes I made when I was projected into reporting. This guilde will equip you and remove the stress and anxiety so that you can be clear and bold in your opportunity to prove you're the right person for the role, and your plan is on track!

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