Who is an Elastic CISO and why does your small business need him?

An Elastic CISO or e-CISO as the name suggests, is an outsourced specialist who leads your organisation’s cyber security function and provides rich expertise remotely. Cybersecurity has quickly become the number one priority for many small businesses. Cyber threats aren’t exclusive to big businesses and small businesses using any kind of technology are just as vulnerable to system infiltrations, putting their customer data, proprietary information, and other assets at stake.

A Chief Information Security Officer or CISO is basically a senior executive in the organisation responsible for the protection of computer systems, computer networks and sensitive information from cyber threats. The CISO has to establish the organisational vision with respect to risk management and protection of critical assets. The CISO role is complex and requires expert knowledge and diverse experience.

However, not every organisation can afford to hire a specialist cyber security expert, set up a dedicated cybersecurity team with information security managers or even put the right security measures in place in terms of information technology.

An e-CISO, then, is the perfect way to bridge the gap when it comes to navigating security risks for your small business in a cost-efficient way.

An e-CISO is basically a trusted advisor/cybersecurity expert who acts like a security consultant for your business. The e-CISO is not a full-time employee of your organisation but will carry out all necessary tasks with respect to protecting your business and your sensitive data from security incidents.

In this blog, we cover:

1. What can an e-CISO do for your organisation?

2. When and how should you hire an e-CISO?

3. How to select the right e-CISO service for your organisation?

What can the Elastic CISO do for your small business?

The e-CISO can do some or all of following for your business:

• Security advisor and consultant to the executive leadership team

• Strategic direction and guidance to the organisation on cyber security framework

• Develop strategy for using technological resources and, ensure systems and applications are used efficiently and securely

• Oversee implementation of cyber security framework and information technology roadmap

• Establish IT governance, risk management and compliance framework

• Establish disaster recovery and business continuity plan, and evaluate effectiveness at regular intervals

• Manage IT budgets

• Liaise with security partners, suppliers and regulatory bodies on behalf of the organisation

An e-CISO will do everything for your business that is expected out of a cybersecurity leader, albeit virtually and on a consultancy basis. This brings us to the next question.

When should you hire an Elastic CISO?

You should hire an e-CISO when:

• Strategic and operational leadership on security is imperative, however, an organisation can’t afford to hire a full-time CISO

• the organisation is a mid-size or small business and would like to focus on big picture of the cybersecurity space

• significant cost savings is a key metric with zero compromise on the quality of cybersecurity goals to be achieved

• the key objective is to shift from reactive to proactive way of managing cybersecurity

• the business intends to gain access to highly skilled, seasoned and certified cybersecurity professional to design organisation’s security strategy, overlook implementation, increase board and senior leadership engagement, and deploy scalable solutions

How to select the right e-CISO service/offering?

Shortlisting the e-CISO service purely depends on the current maturity of the organisation with respect to cyber security and information technology. It is imperative for the organisation to conduct no-holds barred exercise to gain insights on current maturity which can be facilitated by e-CISO.

The organisation can be at any of the below stages and an e-CISO must be equipped and capable of contributing towards any or all the stages:

Planning:

The organisation is willing and fully committed to get a cyber security program started. It includes creating a detailed cyber security plan with clear insights on short term as well as long term roadmap focused on scalable solutions.

Planning is tailored to the needs of the organisation, current maturity index and based on the gap assessment conducted by the e-CISO office.

Implementation:

Implementation not just means deployment of the agreed plan and bringing it to life, but also necessarily involves building the security DNA in the organisation through introduction of information security training and sign-off during employee induction, security awareness via multiple channels, certification roadmap for key IT professionals as well as the organisation, and regular assessment of security posture.

Optimisation:

Optimisation stage involves transition to the state-of-the-art security posture where the organisation experiences significant reduction in the cost and optimal benefits and realisation.

During this stage, the focus is to continuously invest in security infrastructure to enable 360o coverage and prevent potential risks.

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About Aluskört

Aluskört recognises the need for end-to-end security services for small and medium-sized companies and provides them access to highly skilled professionals including e-CISO supported by information security office, spanning cloud consulting, cybersecurity, regulatory compliance, and digital strategy.

We help organisations protect their employees, customers, and operations team from internal and external threats, and allow businesses to achieve advanced security posture.

Leverage the power of our skills and experts for deeper, broader and timely expertise on evolving cybersecurity challenges from strategy to execution.

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