A Virtual CISO gives your business the same security leadership that large enterprises have, without the cost of hiring a full-time executive. In practical terms, that means someone is looking at your entire security posture, building a strategy that fits your business, managing compliance requirements, and making sure your team knows what to do when something goes wrong.

At SSO, our V-CISO service covers everything from risk assessments and policy development to incident response planning and board-level reporting. We use Cynomi's AI-powered platform to automate the assessment and analysis work that traditionally takes weeks of consultant time, so you get faster results without sacrificing depth. Think of it as having a seasoned security executive on your team who shows up with a plan, not a slide deck.

A full-time CISO typically costs $250,000 or more per year before benefits, bonuses, and the supporting staff they'll need. For a company with 50 to 300 employees, that's a significant investment for a role that may not require 40 hours a week of attention.

A V-CISO gives you the same strategic leadership on a flexible basis. You get the expertise without the overhead. Our team members bring decades of experience from the U.S. Intelligence Community and Department of Defense, so the caliber of guidance is the same or better than what most companies could recruit for a full-time position. The difference is you're paying for focused engagement where it matters, not filling a seat.

Our clients typically see savings of 60 to 70 percent compared to a full-time CISO hire. The exact investment depends on the size of your organization, your industry's compliance requirements, and the current state of your security program.

We structure our engagements with predictable monthly pricing that scales with your business, so there are no surprises. The best way to get a clear picture of what it would look like for your specific situation is to book a Strategy Session with us. We'll walk through your environment and give you a straight answer.

Yes. This is one of the most common reasons businesses bring us in. We work across multiple compliance frameworks including CMMC, HIPAA, PCI, NIST, and SOC 2. Our approach starts with a gap analysis using Cynomi's AI engine to identify exactly where you stand today, then we build a remediation roadmap and work alongside your team to close the gaps before audit time.

Our clients have a strong track record of passing compliance certifications on their first attempt. If you're a defense contractor working toward CMMC, a healthcare-adjacent business dealing with HIPAA, or any organization facing regulatory requirements, this is where a V-CISO pays for itself many times over.

Not at all. Our V-CISO service is delivered 100% remotely and we serve clients across the United States. We currently work with businesses in multiple states and time zones.

While SSO is based in San Diego and we have a strong presence in the Southern California business community, our V-CISO engagements are built for remote delivery from day one. All of our assessments, strategy sessions, compliance work, and ongoing management happen through secure remote tools. Geography is never a barrier.

We work across a range of industries, with particular depth in healthcare and healthcare-adjacent businesses, defense contractors and subcontractors, professional services firms, manufacturing, construction, and trades businesses.

That said, the need for security leadership isn't industry-specific. Any business handling sensitive data, dealing with compliance requirements, or concerned about the growing sophistication of cyber threats can benefit from a V-CISO. If you're not sure whether it's the right fit for your industry, book a Strategy Session and we'll give you an honest answer.

Most engagements begin with a comprehensive security assessment using Cynomi's AI platform, which can be completed in hours rather than the weeks a traditional assessment takes. From there, we typically have a tailored security roadmap and initial policy recommendations within the first 30 days.

The full engagement ramps up over the first 60 to 90 days as we implement priority security improvements, establish ongoing monitoring, and build out your compliance documentation. You'll see tangible progress from the first week, not months down the road.

Cynomi is an AI-powered Virtual CISO platform that we use to accelerate and enhance our security assessments. It automates the data gathering and analysis work that traditionally requires weeks of manual effort, which means we can deliver faster results at a lower cost without cutting corners.

In practice, Cynomi handles the heavy lifting on risk assessments, policy generation, and compliance gap analysis. Our team then reviews, customizes, and applies those outputs based on our decades of hands-on experience. It's the combination of AI efficiency and human expertise from the Intelligence Community that makes our V-CISO service different. You get speed and depth, not one or the other.

Besides the info in the section a couple scrolls above here, you can always start with our free Self-Guided Cybersecurity Assessment and may come to a self-informed realization during the process!