Virtual CISO (vCISO)
An experienced CISO embedded in your leadership team on a fractional basis — 1, 2 or 4 days a week. Sets policy, owns risk register, presents to the board, manages regulators, mentors your in-house team and stays accountable to outcomes, not hours billed.
- Quote SLA48 hours
- Typical engagement5–15 working days
- RetestFree within 30 days
- Reporting formatCERT-In + ISO + SOC 2 ready
- Team100% in-house · OSCP / OSWE / OSEP
A vCISO engagement, in plain language.
A vCISO is not an advisor who emails recommendations. Macksofy vCISOs (15–22 years experience, prior in-house CISO roles at BFSI / fintech / SaaS) join your leadership calendar, attend your board / risk committee meetings, own the security strategy, sign off on the risk register, sit across the table from RBI / SEBI / CERT-In inspectors, and mentor your 2–6 person security team. They report to your CEO or COO, not to us. The model fits start-ups and mid-market firms who need real CISO leadership without the ₹2–4 Cr/yr fully-loaded cost.
- C-level security leadership at 25–40% of the fully-loaded in-house cost
- Board + risk-committee reporting handled by someone who has done it before
- Regulator-facing interlocutor (CERT-In · RBI · SEBI · DPDP Authority · DESC / NCA in GCC)
- Mentorship pipeline for your in-house engineers (career-ladder, training plan)
- Continuity through founder departures, fundraises and M&A diligence
Phased delivery — every step documented.
Interactive walkthrough of how we run a vCISO engagement — tap a phase to expand its activities.
1 · Onboarding (Month 1)
- Stakeholder interviews (board, CEO, CTO, CFO, audit, legal, ops)
- Asset, vendor and regulator inventory
- Current-state risk register + maturity baseline (NIST CSF · ISO 27001)
- 12-month security strategy + budget draft
Industry-standard + custom.
We use the same tooling top BFSI red teams operate — combined with Macksofy in-house extensions and proprietary scripts where commercial tools fall short.
Sectors we operate in
What you get
- 12-month security strategy + budget signed off by board
- Policy stack (10–14 core policies) — drafted or refreshed
- Monthly risk-committee meetings chaired
- Quarterly board pack (trend chart, top risks, regulator status, hiring plan)
- Regulator interlocutor for CERT-In · RBI · SEBI · DPDP · DESC · NCA
- Incident command during High / Critical events
- Mentorship + interview support for in-house security hires
- Annual maturity reassessment (NIST CSF + ISO 27001)
Anonymized engagement snapshots.
Scope · vCISO 2 days/week for 14 months
Finding: Built security from 1-person to 4-person team; passed SOC 2 Type 2 and SEBI CSCRF; supported successful Series-D due diligence
Strategic — avoided estimated ₹2.5 Cr/yr full-time CISO cost during pre-IPO scaling phase
Scope · vCISO 4 days/week — interim coverage during in-house CISO transition
Finding: Continuity through 7-month CISO transition; chaired IRDAI inspection response; closed 14 of 17 audit observations before handover
Material — zero regulatory observation carried into the new CISO tenure
Scope · vCISO 1 day/week + 24×7 IR on-call
Finding: Built UAE PDPL + ISO 27001 program from scratch; passed ISO certification within 9 months of engagement
Strategic — unlocked GCC enterprise sales channel previously blocked on certification gap
Senior CISO leadership, priced for your stage.
vCISO retainers run ₹4–18 L per month depending on day-count, seniority and regulatory footprint. 12-month minimum. Tell us where you are in your security journey and we'll send a scoped proposal within 48 hours.
Rated 4.9 ★ from 612 client reviews.
“We've worked with three Big 4 firms before Macksofy. None found what their team did in our payments stack. The most actionable report we've received in a decade.”
“The CHFI training Macksofy delivered for our cyber cell raised investigation quality measurably. Practical, India-context-aware, and respectful of our operational realities.”
“Came in with zero security background. 5 weeks later I was running Burp Suite and Metasploit confidently. Cleared CEH on the first attempt.”
Things people ask before signing.
Often paired with this engagement.
Get a fixed-price proposal in 48 hours.
Tell us about your security need — pentest, audit, training or a wider engagement. A senior consultant will reply within a few business hours.
- CERT-In Empanelled
- EC-Council ATC · CompTIA Authorized
- 20,000+ professionals trained
- India + UAE engagements