Advisory & Data Protection
Senior security leadership on subscription: a dedicated lead who runs your governance, drives your roadmap and answers the phone when an incident hits.
Hiring a full-time CISO is expensive, and good ones are scarce. Yet someone still has to own your security strategy, chair the governance meetings, answer the board's questions and take charge when an incident hits. Blackfoot's Virtual Cyber Office is a virtual CISO service that gives you that leadership without the permanent headcount.
You get a dedicated security lead backed by Blackfoot's wider team of consultants, QSAs and testers. Your lead chairs monthly or quarterly governance meetings, maintains your security roadmap, coordinates security activity around your business projects and reports progress in language your leadership understands. Because the same person carries context from quarter to quarter, decisions build on each other instead of restarting with every engagement.
The service spans strategy and operations: driving the security strategy, operationalising your governance framework, reviewing planned business changes for security impact, and monitoring your control environment against an agreed framework. A pool of business support hours each year covers ad hoc advice, reviews and the questions that don't wait for the next meeting — a supplier questionnaire that needs answering, a customer audit, a technology decision with security strings attached.
When something goes wrong, our First Responder service means your vCISO takes the lead coordinating the incident response — triaging, advising and managing the situation so your team isn't improvising under pressure. Regular updates, challenge and education keep security visible across the business between incidents, not just after them.
The service also gives stakeholders something they can point to. A reporting dashboard and structured management information demonstrate to boards, customers and insurers that security is led, reviewed and measured — assurance that is increasingly asked for in contracts and renewals.
Many Virtual Cyber Office clients pair the service with our Risk Management as a Service subscription, so the risks your vCISO surfaces are tracked, owned and reviewed in the Clarity portal rather than living in meeting minutes.
One dedicated, senior point of contact who knows your business — not a rotating cast of consultants.
Monthly or quarterly governance meetings chaired and run by Blackfoot, with actions tracked and progress reported.
Expert coordination on-call when an incident occurs, so response is led rather than improvised.
Your vCISO draws on Blackfoot's QSAs, ISO auditors, data protection experts and CREST-accredited testers as needed.
A generous pool of business support hours each year for reviews, advice and the questions between meetings.
A reporting dashboard and management information that turn security activity into something leadership can steer by.
Your dedicated security lead reviews your current strategy, controls and obligations to establish a baseline and agree the governance rhythm.
Together we agree a security roadmap aligned to your business plans, with clear priorities and owners.
Blackfoot chairs your regular governance meetings, tracks actions, challenges progress and keeps security activity moving.
Your vCISO schedules security activities around business projects and leads incident response through our First Responder service when needed.
Regular management reporting shows leadership what's improving, what's at risk and where investment should go next.
Straight answers to what prospective clients ask us most.
A virtual CISO (vCISO) is an experienced security leader engaged on a flexible basis instead of as a permanent hire. They own your security strategy, governance and incident coordination, giving you CISO-level direction at a fraction of the cost of a full-time executive.
Consultancy answers a question and leaves. The Virtual Cyber Office is a continuous relationship: the same lead runs your governance meetings, maintains your roadmap and carries context from quarter to quarter, with support hours available whenever you need them.
Yes. Our First Responder service is part of the Virtual Cyber Office: your vCISO takes the lead coordinating the response, advising your team and managing communications so decisions get made quickly.
The vCISO provides leadership and direction; day-to-day IT operation stays with your team or your IT provider. Most clients find the combination works well — and where gaps exist, your vCISO will tell you honestly what to hire or outsource.
Get a fixed-scope quote, usually the same working day.
