Virtual CISO
Part-time executive security leadership for organisations that require strategic oversight, board-level reporting, and institutional-grade risk governance — without the cost of a full-time CISO appointment.
Overview
The CISO role has become indispensable in modern governance. Regulators expect it. Investors scrutinise it. Insurance underwriters require it. Yet for Family Offices with lean teams and mid-market Private Equity portfolio companies with disciplined cost structures, a full-time appointment rarely justifies itself. The fully loaded cost of a senior security executive — salary, benefits, team build-out, and tooling — represents a significant fixed commitment for organisations whose security requirements, while genuine, do not demand continuous executive attention five days per week.
The Virtual CISO model resolves this mismatch. Intarmour provides a named, senior security executive who serves as your CISO on a fractional basis. Our vCISO engagements are not advisory in the conventional sense — we do not produce recommendations and depart. The vCISO becomes an embedded member of your leadership team: attending board meetings, chairing governance committees, representing the organisation to regulators and auditors, and taking accountability for security programme maturity.
What distinguishes Intarmour's vCISO practice is the calibre of professionals deployed. Our practitioners bring backgrounds in institutional security leadership — including advisory roles with NATO, theEuropean Commission, and multinational financial institutions. They communicate risk in terms that resonate with investment committees, family office principals, and board directors. They operate in environments where discretion is paramount and consequences extend beyond operational disruption to personal safety and regulatory sanction.
The EU's NIS2 Directive introduces personal liability for management body members who fail to oversee cybersecurity. GDPR enforcement increasingly scrutinises security leadership designation. LPs expect portfolio companies to demonstrate credible governance during hold periods. A vCISO engagement satisfies these obligations while preserving cost discipline.
Service Scope
Security Strategy Development
Definition and refinement of security strategy aligned with business objectives, risk appetite, and regulatory obligations. Multi-year roadmap prioritising investment by risk impact with measurable maturity targets. Reviewed quarterly and adjusted for threat landscape and organisational changes.
Board & IC Reporting
Security posture reports for boards, investment committees, and family office principals. Quantified exposure metrics, trend analysis, peer benchmarks, and clear recommendations with resource requirements. The vCISO represents the security function in governance forums.
Risk Governance Framework
Formal risk governance encompassing identification, assessment, treatment, and monitoring. The vCISO chairs the security governance committee, maintains the risk register, and ensures residual risk stays within defined tolerances. Satisfies GDPR accountability,NIS2 governance requirements, and investor due diligence standards.
Vendor Management & Oversight
Governance of third-party technology and security vendors: selection criteria, contract security requirements, performance monitoring, and reassessment. Implements supply chain security obligations under NIS2 and related frameworks.
Incident Response Planning
Development, testing, and maintenance of incident response capability. Calibrated procedures, escalation paths, tabletop exercises, and regulatory notification workflows. During active incidents, the vCISO coordinates response, engaging Intarmour's incident response capability as required.
Compliance Programme Management
Oversight of cybersecurity compliance across applicable frameworks. Compliance register, audit preparation and remediation, regulatory correspondence, and integration within operational workflows. Covers GDPR, NIS2, DORA where applicable, and sector-specific requirements.
Deliverables
Monthly Security Dashboard
Executive-format security posture report: key risk indicators, relevant threat intelligence, roadmap progress, open remediation items, and security event summary. Designed for non-technical leadership between formal board reporting cycles.
Quarterly Board Report
Security governance report for board or investment committee presentation. Risk register status, maturity progress, compliance posture, vendor risk, incident analysis, and forward-looking threat assessment with specific recommendations and risk-adjusted prioritisation.
Annual Security Strategy
Annual strategy document: threat landscape analysis, risk profile reassessment, maturity trajectory, investment prioritisation, and multi-year roadmap refinement. The foundational governance document from which all tactical activities derive.
Ongoing Advisory Access
Direct access to the assigned vCISO for ad hoc consultation: security implications of business decisions, emerging threat assessment, vendor evaluations, and regulatory interaction support within agreed response parameters.
Single Family Office, Multi-Jurisdictional
A single family office managing substantial wealth across three European jurisdictions engaged Intarmour following an internal review revealing significant security gaps. The eight-person team had no security expertise. The principal's data was distributed across multiple cloud platforms and third-party systems without consistent access controls or encryption. Assessment found exposed personal data on inadequately secured platforms, legacy accounts with active access to financial systems, and no incident response capability.
The vCISO established a quantified baseline across twelve control domains within the first month, then proceeded through three phases: immediate risk remediation, governance framework establishment, and GDPR compliance alignment across all three jurisdictions. Monthly governance reviews with the principal and CFO, vendor security assessment programme, and an incident response framework proportionate to the organisation's scale.
Within six months: demonstrable GDPR compliance across all three jurisdictions, critical risk exposure reduced by over eighty percent, and governance structures operating effectively with minimal principal time commitment. The engagement transitioned to steady-state oversight at a fraction of what a full-time CISO would have required.
Engagement Model
Retainer basis with an initial six to twelve month commitment. The engagement begins with an intensive onboarding phase (four to six weeks) covering security assessment, stakeholder relationships, and initial strategy and roadmap development. Then transitions to monthly governance cadence with defined days per month structured around scheduled activities — committee meetings, board preparation, vendor reviews, compliance monitoring — supplemented by ad hoc advisory access.
After the initial commitment, engagements typically transition to a reduced cadence reflecting maturity improvements achieved. Organisations with internal capability may move the vCISO to a purely advisory role; others continue the fractional model at a cadence appropriate to their needs. Transitions are managed to ensure governance continuity.
Every engagement is supported by the full depth of Intarmour's capabilities, including technical due diligence, sovereign cloud architecture, and private asset defense expertise — a breadth of security capability that no single full-time hire could replicate.
Ready for institutional-grade
cybersecurity?
Confidential assessments for qualified Private Equity and Family Office entities requiring sovereign defense infrastructure.