Cybersecurity

Board-level security leadership, fractionally

A full-time CISO is a significant salary and a hiring process most growing companies cannot justify. But the decisions a CISO makes — what risk to accept, what to spend, what to tell the board — still have to be made by someone accountable.

A vCISO gives you that accountability on a defined commitment, with the strategy and reporting a full-time hire would produce.

What the engagement includes

  • Security strategy and a prioritised, costed roadmap
  • Board and investor reporting in business language, not control counts
  • Cyber risk quantification so security spend can be argued financially
  • Ownership of compliance programmes: ISO 27001, SOC 2, GDPR, DPDP
  • Third-party and supply chain risk management
  • Security architecture review on major technical decisions
  • Incident escalation point and crisis leadership when needed

Who this is for

Companies whose customers or investors are asking who owns security, businesses entering a compliance programme, and teams whose engineering lead has absorbed security by default.

How it runs

Every engagement follows the same five stages — discover, architect, implement, validate, defend. See how we work →

How the engagement runs

Five stages, with indicative timing. Exact dates are confirmed at scoping.

  1. 01
    Discovery

    Current state, obligations, customer commitments, and the risks the business is already carrying.

    Month 1
  2. 02
    Risk & roadmap

    Risk quantified in financial terms and a prioritised, costed roadmap the board can approve.

    Months 1–2
  3. 03
    Governance cadence

    Policy set, risk register and a review rhythm that fits your board calendar rather than fighting it.

    Ongoing
  4. 04
    Execute & report

    Roadmap delivery tracked, reported in business language rather than control counts.

    Monthly
  5. 05
    Represent

    Customer security reviews, questionnaires, auditors and investor diligence fronted on your behalf.

    As required

Questions we get asked

Fortress plans include four hours a month of advisory. A full vCISO programme under Apex Command is scoped to your actual governance calendar — board cycles, audits, and customer reviews.
Yes. Attending customer security reviews, completing security questionnaires, and fronting audit conversations is a core part of the role.
That is a good outcome and we plan for it. The roadmap, documentation and programme structure are built to hand over cleanly rather than to keep you dependent.

Every engagement starts free.

We assess your environment first, then scope. No commitment until you have seen how we work.