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vCISO
Virtual CISO, fractional and outsourced cyber leadership. Executive-level resilience without the full-time hire.
On-demand, flexible and quick to deploy cybersecurity leadership for mid-market, high growth SMBs
Save over £10k a month* to invest in protecting your assets.
Get the strategic guidance, compliance readiness and board-level reporting of a seasoned Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire.
Starting at £4,000/month, a Mondas vCISO service can get an expert to step in and take the pressure off your internal team, and completely own your security roadmap.
Calm, clear, senior-led control for cyber resilience and compliance challenges, built for growing and regulated industries.
*£4,000 / month for Foundation vCISO consultancy vs £120k salary + benefits
CISO as a Service – Fractional and Outsourced Security Leadership
Zero Onboarding Costs
Frictionless, Rolling Agreements
48-Hour Deployment
Certified Leadership
Headquartered in Farnborough, UK
Consolidate your tools. Struggling with cumbersome tech stacks? Clear your path and scale with confidence. A Mondas vCISO can provide the strategic leadership you need to trim the waste from your tech stack and build a transparent, future-proof cybersecurity roadmap.
Safely deploy big transformations. Moving from on-prem to cloud? Implementing a massive ERP like SAP or Oracle? Mondas’ vCISO service ensures major strategic changes are secure by design, with expert oversight for every moving part.
AI usage, effectively managed. Ready to leverage cloud-based AI and LLMs? Don’t step into the unknown alone. A Mondas vCISO service offering helps you establish the target operating model, governance, and guardrails necessary to innovate safely and securely.
Get the compliance journey locked down. Struggling to action internal audit findings or achieve an ISO certification? Mondas can provide an expert CISO for hire. Independent support to implement remediation plans efficiently, ensuring you are doing the right things, the right way.
Book your strategy call
Book your complimentary 30-minute strategy call today and get direct access to a security leader who can help you align your cybersecurity posture with your business goals.
Book a vCISO Consultation
Speak to a vCISO and see if we can cut through the bureaucratic red tape.
Solving CISO-Level Problems
Mondas can place an immediate security leader into your team with a tailored and flexible offering for your business needs. Navigate complex regulatory landscapes, secure the supply chain and provide board-level assurance to win enterprise trust.
The average CISO salary is skyrocketing. You need the expertise, but not the full-time overhead.
Fractional leadership, get executive-level security strategy and leadership at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire.
You need high-level strategic security oversight to mitigate advanced threats and satisfy board members.
Strategic board advisory, our vCISO will translate complex cyber risks into business language for your board and investors.
Enterprise clients and partners are demanding rigorous security audits before signing contracts.
Sales enablement, a Mondas vCISO will provide the security posture documentation and technical assurance needed to win enterprise-grade trust.
Lengthy security questionnaires and third-party audits are slowing down your sales cycle.
Vendor and supply chain management, our vCISO handles these questionnaires on your behalf to close deals and scale faster.
You need to meet strict regulatory or industry standards but don’t know where to start.
Accelerated compliance, rapid readiness for frameworks like ISO 27001, ISO 42001, SOC 2, GDPR, or CSRB.
You have security tools in place but no roadmap to manage risk.
Risk management and governance, our vCISO builds the policies, runs the risk assessments, and manages the audits to ensure long-term resilience.
vCISO Service Use Cases
High-growth businesses require board-level strategic oversight, here’s how the Mondas vCISO service delivers proactive, enterprise-grade security for industry leaders.
Securing AI innovation
We integrated a Mondas virtual Chief Information Security Officer (vCISO) into leading travel brand On the Beach to offer expert leadership during a time of significant growth and technology modernisation.
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By collaborating with the IT leadership team and business leaders, we rapidly enhanced critical security capabilities, improved compliance with UK corporate governance standards, and established secure guidelines and best practices for developing strategic AI models.
Key Milestones: Full security compliance and technical controls review, prioritised and costed roadmap delivered in 2 months. Define business aligned IS and AI security strategies, technology reference architecture and a company-wide risk management process in place within 3 months. Remediation of critical risks formation of an AI strategy, and supporting guardrails and tooling within 6 months.
Safeguarding critical data during expansion
InstaVolt used our vCISO consultancy service to conduct a comprehensive review of their cybersecurity posture, risks, and compliance requirements.
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InstaVolt used our vCISO consultancy service to conduct a comprehensive review of their cybersecurity posture, risks, and compliance requirements. This initiative aimed to enhance their security operations and strengthen business resilience. By modernising their security tools and capabilities, they successfully supported their aggressive and safe expansion into a national presence, managing the process effectively.
Key Milestones: Successfully deployed CrowdStrike across endpoints, cloud, and identity management, while embedding next-gen SIEM capabilities, incident response, and a corporate governance tool, all within six months.
Compliance and strategic roadmapping
For more than six years, Mondas has been a cybersecurity partner to Travis Perkins. Working at the scale and speed of a national leader requires more than just reactive solutions; it necessitates foresight.
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Our vCISO-as-a-Service model has delivered a strong cybersecurity assurance framework and enhanced specialist technical security skills. This approach has transformed complex regulatory compliance into a streamlined process, all with the goal of improving operational resilience.
Key Milestones: Implementation of a 24×7 security operations centre, major cyber incident response service, risk reduction to within corporate tolerances, PCI DSS compliance across the Group, implementation of a major security technology consolidation and modernisation program.
Staring at a sprawling security questionnaire?
Book a free 30-minute triage call, and let a Mondas vCISO translate it for you.
Book a vCISO Consultation
Speak to a vCISO and see if we can cut through the bureaucratic red tape.
Why companies hire a vCISO
A vCISO as a service bridges the gap between enterprise-grade governance and SME agility, providing the board-level expertise of a seasoned security expert at a fraction of the traditional cost.
| Criteria | In-House CISO | vCISO Service |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | £120,000 – £180,000+ per year salary and benefits | From £4,000 per month (£48k per year) – scalable to meet needs |
| Onboarding | 3-6 Months recruitment and onboarding | 7 working days to audit and deploy |
| Industry insight | Single point of experience | Backed by a team of security experts |
| Meeting need | Potential overkill for SME’s day-to-day needs | Scalable and deployed on specific projects |
How does a vCISO onboard my business?
The discovery phase will be vCISO onboarding, knowledge transfer and information security gap analysis. We arrange a confidential discovery session, during this knowledge transfer we conduct a securtiy gap analysis. Your vCISO will determine where the data lives, who has access and where the blind spots might be. Your vCISO can now effectively advise with a full overview of your cybersecurity posture.
During the baselining phase your dedicated Virtual Chief Security Officer will conduct a comprehensive gap analysis and provide a report against rigorous industry standards (like CSRB, ISO 27001, NIS2, or Cyber Essentials Plus and more). They will identify critical vulnerabilities during this phase and map your critical assets and third-party supply chains. Your vCISO will deliver a prioritised, pragmatic roadmap for remediation and resilience.
At the core of our vCISO service is taking accountability for the gap between the IT department and the boardroom. We aim to translate complex technical threats into clear, quantifiable business risks. You will receive regular, board-ready reporting that details risk mitigation progress, budget utilisation, and incident readiness. Your vCISO owns the cyber strategy, establishing a clear risk prioritised remediation plan so your leadership team can focus on driving commercial growth with confidence.
Once high-priority vulnerabilities are neutralised, the role of your vCISO evolves to long-term strategy. The aim is to transition your business away from costly, stressful firefighting and into strategic capability building. Your vCISO will provide risk management governance, act as an effective bridge to align IS and the boardroom priorities, deliver critical security strategies, maturing cyber resilience, technology modernisation and cost optimisation.
vCISO Pricing Options
Cyber threats don’t operate on a 9-5 schedule and our vCISO model addresses the complexity gap between essential IT support and board-level risk management. If you opt to outsource your CISO needs you’re tapping into a collective brain trust of auditors, engineers and strategists. Your security roadmap is influenced by real-time intelligence gathered across multiple industries.
Foundation
SMEs looking to upgrade their security posture, get compliant (e.g. Cyber Essentials), or meet supply chain security demands.
Initial Security Posture Assessment
Identifying critical gaps and uncover external facing vulnerabilities.
Penetration Testing
Monthly Network and Application Testing for up to 50 users.
Cyber Essentials Certification
Evidence and achieve CE Certification.
Strategic Roadmap Development
A 12-month plan to incrementally improve defences.
Policy Formulation & Review
Crafting the necessary documentation for compliance and internal governance.
Monthly Board Reporting
Translating cyber risk into business language for executive stakeholders.
Ad-Hoc Advisory
A designated point of contact for pressing security queries.
Quarterly Risk Review
Threat-informed third-party risk management and proactive reporting.
Strategic
Maturing businesses facing stricter regulatory scrutiny (e.g., FCA compliance, ISO certs or CSRB prep).
All Tier 1 Deliverables included.
Penetration Testing
Monthly Network and Application Testing for up to 250 users.
Incident Response Planning
Developing, testing, and refining protocols for when a breach occurs.
Vendor Risk Management
Auditing the security posture of third-party suppliers and partners.
Security Awareness Training Oversight
Cultivating a human firewall through targeted staff education.
Monthly Risk Review
Analysing scan data to prioritise patching and remediation.
Managed
Enterprises, prime contractors, and targets of advanced persistent threats who require 24/7 visibility and exec-level governance.
All Tier 1 & 2 Deliverables included.
Penetration Testing
Monthly Network and Application Testing across the entire organisation.
24/7 Threat Monitoring Oversight
vCISO liaison between the business and the Security Operations Centre (SOC).
Active Threat Hunting & Intelligence
Proactive searching for anomalies within the network based on the latest threat vectors.
Continuous Compliance Management
Automated auditing and evidence gathering to maintain complex certifications.
Executive Crisis Leadership
vCISO takes the helm during critical incidents, managing communications with regulators, clients, and the media.
More on how a vCISO model works
The distinction between a fractional CISO and a vCISO fundamentally comes down to scale and resilience. A fractional CISO is effectively a ‘timeshare’ arrangement with a single executive, an individual deployed on a part-time basis to steer your cyber strategy. Conversely, a vCISO service provides an entire ecosystem of expertise delivered as a continuous, managed service; rather than relying on a fraction of one person’s time, your organisation gains on-demand access to a diverse bench of seasoned security leaders, threat intelligence analysts, and compliance specialists. The vCISO model can avoid the single-point-of-failure risk potential in hiring an individual,
Yes. A vCISO plays a pivotal role in securing your extended network. Often vendors, contractors, or SaaS suppliers lack rigorous security controls, they may become your weakest link. A comprehensive vCISO service will govern this threat landscape and implement stringent Vendor Risk Management (VRM) frameworks.
A Mondas vCISO will integrate with your current IT department and act as the strategic director to support your tactical needs. Our aim is to allow your in-house team to focus on daily operations and infrastructure. Your vCISO will provide the overarching security architecture and rigorous governance needed to stay ahead of increasingly complex cyber threats.
Absolutely. The most sophisticated technical defences in the world can be unravelled by a single, well-crafted phishing email or a momentary lapse in employee judgment. A vCISO understands that your staff are simultaneously your most vulnerable attack surface and your most critical line of defence.
A Mondas vCISO architects a robust, continuous culture of security awareness. They design targeted training programmes and orchestrate realistic, simulated attacks that address the specific, evolving social engineering threats your sector faces, effectively transforming an unpredictable workforce into a vigilant, proactive human firewall.
A vCISO acts as the strategic architect of your organisation’s cyber resilience, bridging the critical gap between executive business objectives and complex technical execution. Your vCISO steps into high-stake environments to provide decisive leadership. They design comprehensive security roadmaps, ensure stringent compliance frameworks, orchestrate incident response protocols, and translate dense threat intelligence into clear, actionable reporting for your stakeholders. Ultimately, they transform your security posture from a reactive cost centre into a proactive, well-governed business enabler.
Hiring a vCISO bypasses the competitive executive search process, allowing you to inject top-tier security leadership into your organisation almost immediately. The process begins with a strategic risk assessment to evaluate your current threat landscape, regulatory obligations, and commercial objectives.
A Mondas vCISO will then scope a tailored agreement that grants you immediate, scalable access to our bench of security directors and analysts. This outcome-focused approach ensures you only invest in the precise executive guidance you need, exactly when you need it, completely eliminating the burden of full-time payroll, benefits, and retention concerns.
Our vCISO for hire is there to tackle data leakage and give strategic oversight to move away from whack-a-mole security and toward a systemic architecture. AI governance frameworks are a vital component of any vCISO engagement, without the right processes employees may inadvertently feed proprietary code or client data into public LLMs. a vCISO will provide the strategy, oversight, and framework, giving your existing team or MSP the blueprint to handle the daily execution.
Schedule Your Risk Mitigation Strategy Session
Ready to learn more about our vCISO service? Book a 30-minute strategy call with our vCISO who will quickly establish how Mondas can support your security and growth path.
