Most businesses need a Chief Information Security Officer but can't justify one full-time. A vCISO gives you senior security leadership, strategy, governance, board reporting, incident response, at a fraction of the cost, with the depth of a specialist firm behind them.
We've seen what happens when businesses scale without a security strategy. Compliance obligations blindside them, a breach exposes gaps that were always there, or a board finally asks a question nobody can answer. A vCISO changes that. We've built security programmes for Australian businesses across finance, healthcare, government and the defence supply chain.
Back to Information Security →A full-time CISO is a $200,000+ hire. A vCISO gives you the same expertise, the same accountability, and the same board-level credibility, sized to your business, not a large enterprise budget.
Our vCISOs don't work alone. Behind every engagement is InterIntra's full information security practice, pen testers, GRC specialists, ISO 27001 auditors and incident responders. When something complex comes up, the right person is two desks away.
A vCISO naturally works alongside our Compliance & GRC DISP Alignment and ISO 27001 services, one engagement, one team, one source of security leadership.
A vCISO isn't right for every business. Here's who gets the most value from the engagement.
Headcount is up, systems are multiplying, and your IT setup that worked at 20 people is showing strain at 80. A vCISO steps in before the gaps become incidents.
Finance, healthcare, government supply chain. Somewhere someone needs to own the compliance programme, answer auditor questions, and sign off on risk acceptance. A vCISO does that.
Cyber risk is now a board-level issue. If the question "what's our security posture?" lands without a confident answer, a vCISO gives you one, and keeps updating it.
Post-breach recovery, pre-acquisition security review, audit preparation, or a sudden gap after your security lead departs. We can deploy a vCISO at short notice and have them up to speed fast.
“Security leadership isn’t a cost centre. It’s the thing that keeps every other investment safe.”
A consultant delivers a defined output: a report, an assessment, a policy. A vCISO is an ongoing leadership role. They attend your leadership meetings, sit on your risk committee, brief your board, respond when an incident happens, and make security decisions as part of your team, just not full-time or permanently employed. It's the difference between a task and an accountability.
Often, yes. An IT manager runs operations: keeps systems running, manages the helpdesk, handles day-to-day tech. A CISO runs security: threat models, risk appetite, governance frameworks, compliance obligations, incident response. They're related but different skill sets. Most IT managers are good at one but stretched thin trying to cover both. A vCISO takes the security leadership off their plate so they can focus on what they're actually great at.
We offer three engagement models depending on your situation. The most common is a monthly retainer, a fixed number of days per month (typically two to five, depending on your complexity and compliance obligations) covering standing activities: leadership meetings, security reviews, board reporting, vendor assessments, and policy maintenance. Outside of scheduled time, you can reach the vCISO for guidance on decisions, incidents, and anything urgent.
For specific workstreams, a certification project, an audit preparation programme, or a defined risk remediation plan, we offer project-specific engagements with a clear scope and end point, after which you can transition to a lighter retainer if ongoing oversight is needed.
For urgent situations, post-breach recovery, acquisition due diligence, or an imminent audit, we offer rapid deployment: a vCISO on-boarded within days, not weeks, with the full InterIntra security practice behind them from day one.
The Chief Information Security Officer is the senior executive responsible for an organisation's information security: setting the strategy, managing risk, overseeing compliance, and leading the response when things go wrong. In larger enterprises the CISO is a full-time C-suite role. For most South Australian businesses, the need for that function is real but the justification for a full-time hire isn't, which is exactly what a vCISO solves.
CISO as a Service gives your business access to an experienced virtual CISO without hiring a full-time executive. You get the same strategic security leadership, governance oversight, board reporting, and incident response capability, on a fixed number of days per month rather than a full-time salary. It suits businesses that have outgrown ad-hoc security but can't justify a full-time C-suite hire, or organisations that want an independent security voice at the leadership table.
Security leadership in practice, examples where our team delivered assurance across complex, regulated environments.
Independent ICT auditing across one of Queensland's largest public hospital facilities, assurance across mission-critical health IT systems.
Read the case study
Essential Eight security controls embedded from day one of a new M365 and AWS environment for a 500-student South Australian college.
Read the case studyInterIntra achieved ISO 27001 certification five years ago, before most MSPs knew what it required. What that means for businesses seeking genuine certification, not a repackaged product.
Read the article →The most common credential practices in small and medium business are also the most dangerous. Here's what to do about it, and why Keeper is the tool we recommend.
Read the article →30 minutes, free, no commitment. We'll talk through your current security posture, your compliance obligations and what a vCISO engagement looks like for your specific situation.
