Challenges
When your Organisation needs Cybersecurity Leadership
The CISO role is no longer optional for organisations operating in regulated Swiss industries. FINMA-regulated financial institutions are expected to demonstrate clear executive accountability for information security. Organisations subject to the nFADP, healthcare providers, and critical infrastructure operators face growing pressure to present a governed, documented security program to auditors, insurers, and enterprise customers.
The situations that most commonly trigger a CISO as a Service engagement:
- No appointed CISO or security strategy owner at executive level
- A security incident that has exposed the absence of a formal risk management programme
- Regulatory pressure from a FINMA review, a customer security questionnaire, or an ISO 27001 contractual requirement
- A full-time CISO hire that is not cost-justified at current organisational scale
- An existing CISO who has left, requiring an interim appointment during the recruitment period
- A board or executive team that requires structured cybersecurity risk reporting and cannot currently produce it
Scope of Services
Three Engagement Models for every organisational Context
Full-Time CISO
A dedicated security leader, fully embedded in your organisation, with end-to-end ownership of the information security program. Suited to organisations with significant regulatory exposure, complex multi-site environments, or accelerated security maturity targets.
Interim CISO
A senior appointment to stabilise governance during a critical transition: following a security incident, an executive departure, an M&A transaction, or a regulatory enforcement action. Typical duration is three to twelve months.
Virtual CISO (vCISO)
Part-time strategic advisory on a monthly retainer basis. The virtual CISO provides security direction, stakeholder reporting, policy oversight, and risk management without requiring full-time presence. The most cost-efficient model for SMEs and organisations in early governance maturity.
Process
What a CISO as a Service Mandate covers
Security Strategy and Direction
Establish the cybersecurity risk management program roadmap, governance frameworks, and operational processes and controls, aligned to your business objectives and relevant threat landscape.
Security Investment Prioritization
Evaluate and prioritize security investments and technology decisions against organisational strategy and documented risk tolerance. Connect security spend to justified business risk, not market trends.
Threat-Informed Risk Management
Protect business assets by understanding the active threat landscape relevant to your sector. Inform senior leadership on cybersecurity risks and establish a measured plan to reduce risk to acceptable levels.
Security Gap Analysis
Identify current security gaps and establish protection needs. Align business objectives with cybersecurity measures through a structured assessment that produces actionable, prioritised findings.
Stakeholder Reporting
Translate technical security posture into business risk language for board, executive, and audit committee audiences. Enable informed risk acceptance decisions at the appropriate organisational level
Outcomes
Deliverables from every Engagement
- Risk analysis and documented risk register
- Security strategy and roadmap
- Threat model documentation
- Policies, procedures, and operational processes
- Maturity and gap assessment report with prioritised findings
Senior Consultants with Operational Backgrounds
Every CISO as a Service mandate is led by consultants with a minimum of ten years of governance experience, holding CISSP certification and combining strategic advisory backgrounds with operational security experience. The team serves organisations across finance, healthcare, manufacturing, and critical infrastructure in French-speaking and German-speaking Switzerland.
From a Recent Mandate
A financial services company based in Geneva engaged us for a 12-month CISO mandate. The organisation needed to rapidly identify its cyber risks, establish a security roadmap across short, medium, and long-term horizons, produce formal security directives, raise staff awareness, and implement controls adapted to its specific business context. At the close of the engagement, a documented security framework was in place, security requirements had been formalised, validated, and communicated across the organisation, structured objectives were defined at each time horizon, and cyber risks were identified, registered, and actively monitored.
Next Step
Discuss your Leadership Requirements
Whether you need a virtual CISO starting within four weeks or an interim appointment for a critical transition period, we are ready to assess your requirements and propose the right engagement structure.