Cybersecurity
Compliance and vCISO
Compliance and vCISO services get you through a security audit and keep you ready for the next one, led by a part-time security chief. A vCISO is a virtual chief information security officer: senior security leadership you hire by the fraction instead of as a full-time executive.
- 6 companies on the shelf
- Coverage
Buyer's checklist
Eight questions that decide this purchase
Think these through before you buy. Answer what you can and your quote comes back faster. Skip what you cannot, and we will work through it with you.
- 01
Which standard, contract or customer is requiring this, and by what date?
- 02
Do you answer to one framework or several?
- 03
Which systems actually touch the regulated data? Scoping first keeps you from paying to protect things the rule never covered.
- 04
Do you want a one-time push to the audit date, or an ongoing service that keeps you ready for the next cycle?
- 05
Who leads security between audits: someone on staff, or a vCISO?
- 06
Will you choose and manage the certifying auditor yourself, or should your partner run that process?
- 07
Which channels must be captured and kept, such as voice, chat, video and texts, and for how many years?
- 08
Are the AI tools your staff use inside the program or outside it?
No company matches every box you checked
That usually means the combination is rare, not impossible. Clear a filter, or add the service and we will go find who can do it.
Capabilities come from published supplier material. We confirm them for your addresses before anything is quoted.
More on what it is
Most engagements open with an assessment against the standard you have to meet. A good one returns a prioritized list of gaps, in the order to fix them. From there the work runs in stages. First find out where you stand. Then design the policies and controls. Then put them in place and keep watching them.
The standard depends on who is asking. PCI DSS covers any organization that handles payment card data, whatever its size. CMMC covers defense contractors, is built on the NIST 800-171 controls, and is confirmed by an authorized outside assessor called a C3PAO. SOC 2 is the report business customers ask a vendor for. When several rules apply at once, a provider can build one blended set of controls so you do the work once instead of once per rule.
You can buy this as a project or as a service. A project pushes you to an audit date and ends at the report. A service, often called GRC for governance, risk and compliance, tracks your status continuously in a portal and keeps someone accountable between audits. Certification comes around again, so a program that lapses after the audit means another scramble next year.
The scope has widened in recent years. Beyond controls and policy, a program may include staff training, capture and retention of business communications across voice, chat, video and text, and governance of the AI tools your people use.
One caution. A training platform or a monitoring tool supports a compliance program and cannot stand in for one. An auditor still expects written policy and evidence that someone reviews it.
Who needs it
- You store, process or transmit payment card data.
- You hold Department of Defense contracts, or want to, and must show certified security maturity to stay eligible.
- A customer or a prospect has asked for your SOC 2 report.
- You work in financial services, healthcare or the public sector, or you file under Sarbanes-Oxley, and have to keep business communications for years.
- You need security leadership and cannot justify a full-time executive.
If no regulation, contract or customer requires a named standard from you, you may not need a compliance program yet. You still need security. Start with Managed Security.
Signs you need it
- Compliance is an annual scramble in the weeks before the audit.
- A gap assessment handed you a long list of findings and no order of attack.
- Each department runs its own training for its own rule, and nobody finishes any of it.
- Staff have moved sensitive conversations to apps you do not monitor because the approved tools feel too restrictive.
- Your annual card compliance report is due or has lapsed, which puts fines and your ability to accept cards on the table.
- People are using AI tools that nobody has inventoried.
How IT Raven helps
Add Compliance and vCISO to your quote list and tell us which standard you face and the date that matters. A person takes that to the compliance and security advisory firms in our 500+ partner network and matches on what decides the outcome: real experience with your framework, the engagement model you want, and whether they will manage the auditor for you.
Compliance work tends to surface neighbors. An assessment often calls for a Penetration Test. Staff training has its own page at Workforce Training. Controls that need round-the-clock monitoring lead to Managed Security. We quote those alongside so the findings and the fixes arrive together.
We stay on one thread through scoping, the assessment and the audit itself, and the same team is here when recertification comes due.
How buying works
The store is the easy part. Staying on the account is the job.
Anyone can show you logos. The reason to buy here is what happens on install night, and on the ticket you open nine months later.
- 01
Build your quote list
Add services and companies as you shop. No form stands between you and the shelf.
- 02
We bring back real options
A person shops the bench against your addresses, then walks you through what fits and what does not.
- 03
We handle the order and install
Paperwork, site survey, install dates, cutover night. You get one thread, not five vendors.
- 04
We stay on your account
Same team for moves, adds, tickets and the next renewal. That is the part everyone else drops.