SERVICE 02 · SECURITY ADVISORY
Strace provides fractional CISO leadership, strategy roadmaps, and governance advisory for mid-market firms operating without a full-time security executive. Practitioner-led, board-ready, priced for organizations that need depth without headcount.
THE PROBLEM
Most mid-market firms reach a point where security needs leadership but cannot yet justify a full-time CISO. The result is predictable: the head of IT becomes the de facto security owner, the managed service provider becomes the de facto strategist, and the board hears about cyber risk only after something has already broken. None of these structures produce a defensible posture or a coherent roadmap. What is missing is not tooling. It is a senior security practitioner accountable for the strategy, the documentation, and the board narrative — without being a permanent hire.
WHAT WE OFFER
ADV-A
A monthly fractional CISO engagement with a defined cadence and a defined deliverable set. Typical structure: weekly working hours, monthly executive readout, quarterly board-ready risk report, vendor security review pipeline, and a security strategy that evolves with the business. Tiered by hours and reporting cadence.
ADV-B
A fixed-scope engagement that produces a written 12–18 month security strategy and prioritized initiative roadmap. Deliverables include a current-state security profile, a target-state profile, a prioritized initiative list with effort estimates, and a sequencing plan that maps to growth-stage realities. Typical timeline: four to six weeks.
ADV-C
Standing advisory on governance, risk reporting, and policy. Engagements include written security policies, board-ready risk narratives, vendor security review programs, NIST CSF profiling, and the documentation a regulated or audited business needs to operate. Delivered as a retainer or as a fixed-scope project.
ADV-D
A fixed-scope review to help organizations prepare for cybersecurity insurance applications, renewals, and carrier questionnaires. We assess your current posture against the controls carriers actually require — MFA enforcement, endpoint protection, backup and recovery, security awareness, incident response planning, and Microsoft 365 hardening — and produce a written readiness report with prioritized remediation. Typical timeline: 2-3 weeks.
WHO THIS IS FOR
Mid-market firms with no in-house CISO · Founder-led companies past 50 employees needing security leadership · SaaS and professional services firms with regulatory or audit obligations · Companies preparing for cyber insurance applications or renewals · Boards seeking quarterly cyber risk reporting that holds up under scrutiny · Mid-market firms operating under SOC 2, HIPAA, or other framework obligations
HOW WE WORK
01 · LISTEN
Scoped intake to understand the business, the security gaps, the regulatory context, and the cadence leadership needs.
02 · STRUCTURE
A defined engagement structure with named deliverables, a monthly cadence, and a quarterly executive checkpoint.
03 · EXECUTE
Working hours where the practitioner does the actual security work — policy drafting, risk reporting, vendor reviews, incident response coordination, strategy refinement.
04 · REPORT
Board-ready risk narratives and executive readouts on a fixed cadence. Documentation built to survive scrutiny from auditors, carriers, or counsel.
WHAT'S INCLUDED — VCISO RETAINER
ENGAGEMENT STRUCTURE
Strace advisory engagements are scoped around clear deliverables, defined timelines, and the cadence leadership actually needs. The vCISO retainer is offered as a monthly engagement tiered by working hours. Strategy and governance projects are delivered as fixed-scope engagements. Cyber insurance readiness reviews are productized two-to-three week engagements.
Pricing is scoped after a short consultation so we can define the environment, urgency, deliverables, and reporting cadence before quoting.
FAQ
START THE CONVERSATION
Schedule a 30-minute consultation. We'll tell you what an advisory engagement would actually deliver in your context — and whether it's the right fit.