Strategic Cybersecurity Leadership Without a $300K Salary
A seasoned security executive builds your security program, reports to your board, manages compliance audits, and coordinates incident response -- while you pay a fraction of a full-time CISO's cost.
A vCISO Is Not a Consultant
Your vCISO embeds into your leadership team, owns your security program, and takes accountability for outcomes.
A vCISO Is
- An experienced security executive embedded in your leadership team
- The person who owns your security program end to end
- Your representative in audits, board rooms, and regulatory conversations
- A strategic decision-maker who translates risk into business language
A vCISO Is Not
- A one-time consultant who delivers a PDF and disappears
- A help-desk technician with an inflated title
- A compliance checkbox service that ignores real risk
- A junior analyst reading from a script
What Your vCISO Delivers
Every engagement is scoped to your organization's size, industry, and compliance obligations.
Risk Assessment and Management
Formal risk assessments aligned to NIST SP 800-30, maintained risk registers, quantitative risk scoring, and treatment plans tied directly to budget decisions.
Security Policy and Governance
Complete policy framework development mapped to HIPAA, CMMC, SOC 2, PCI DSS, and NIST CSF so a single policy satisfies multiple frameworks simultaneously.
Board and Executive Reporting
Quarterly executive security reports with KPIs benchmarked against industry standards. Your vCISO presents directly and fields board questions.
Compliance Program Leadership
Multi-framework compliance management with real-time dashboards showing control status, evidence gaps, and upcoming audit milestones.
Incident Response Planning
Documented IR plans, playbooks for ransomware and BEC scenarios, annual tabletop exercises, and real-time response coordination during events.
Security Awareness Oversight
Phishing simulation campaigns, role-based training, new-hire onboarding, and behavioral metrics that feed directly into compliance documentation.
Why Your Business Needs a vCISO
$250K-$400K+ CISO Salary
Full-time CISOs in the Raleigh-Durham metro cost $250K-$400K+ including benefits, equity, and recruiting fees.
No One Owns Security
The IT manager handles it "sort of" -- a compliance gap that regulators and insurers will find.
Insurance Gaps
Cyber insurance carriers deny coverage or raise premiums without documented security governance.
$3K-$15K/Month Retainer
Same strategic capabilities at 60-80% lower cost. Scale up or down monthly as needs change.
Dedicated Security Executive
A named vCISO who sits in board meetings, fields auditor questions, and owns your security posture.
Better Insurance Terms
Documented governance structure and program oversight that insurers want to see.
Who Benefits Most
Founded in 2002 by Craig Petronella -- a CMMC Registered Practitioner and Licensed Digital Forensics Examiner -- PTG has built cybersecurity programs for 2,500+ organizations.
When you engage our vCISO service, you get a team of security professionals backed by a 24/7 Security Operations Center, a proven compliance methodology, and 23+ years of hands-on experience.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a vCISO cost?
$3,000-$15,000 per month ($36K-$180K annually), compared to $250K-$400K+ for a full-time CISO plus benefits and recruiting fees. Most businesses see 60-80% cost savings.
How quickly can a vCISO start?
PTG can onboard a vCISO engagement within 1-2 weeks. Compare that to 4-9 months for a full-time CISO executive search.
What is the difference between a vCISO and a full-time CISO?
Same strategic responsibilities -- different engagement model. A vCISO works on a fractional basis, giving you access to a team of specialists rather than a single hire. See the full comparison.
Can a vCISO lead compliance audits?
Yes. Our vCISOs lead all aspects of compliance preparation and audit support across CMMC, HIPAA, SOC 2, PCI DSS, and ISO 27001 with a consistent track record of successful outcomes.
Do I need a vCISO if I already have an IT team?
Yes. IT operations and cybersecurity strategy are different disciplines. Your IT team manages infrastructure. A vCISO provides the security strategy layer: risk assessments, policy governance, compliance management, and board reporting.
Can I transition to a full-time CISO later?
Absolutely. Many organizations start with a vCISO to build their program, then hire full-time when scale demands it. Your vCISO helps define the role and facilitate the transition.
Ready for Strategic Security Leadership?
Schedule a free consultation to discuss how a vCISO can build and protect your security program.
