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
What is a vCISO?
A vCISO (virtual CISO) is an on-demand senior security leader who sets strategy, owns your risk and compliance posture, and reports to the board — without a full-time hire. Macksofy provides CISSP/CISM-certified vCISOs who satisfy the RBI and SEBI requirement for a named, independent security head.
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.
Where Macksofy delivers vCISO.
On-site engagements across India's BFSI, fintech, government and SaaS metros plus the UAE. Senior consultants fly from Mumbai BKC for kickoff, key reviews and exit briefings; remote weeks run through the rest of the engagement.
Macksofy delivers this work to the following standards and regulator requirements. Definitions and controls are sourced from the issuing bodies below.
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