Information Security · Virtual CISO · ISO 27001 Certified

Senior security leadership without the full-time hire.

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.

Book a Discovery Call What's included

ISO 27001 certified ourselves DISP member Essential Eight Maturity Level 2, third-party audited

vCISO engagement · Monthly retainer

Two to five days a month

Leadership meetings
Security reviews
Board reporting
Vendor assessments
Policy maintenance
A seat on your risk committee

Outside scheduled time

Reach the vCISO for guidance on decisions, incidents, and anything urgent.

What a virtual CISO does: the strategic security oversight your business needs to grow safely.

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 →

Everything a CISO does, right-sized for your business.

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.

What the retainer owns, month to month

Security strategy: Development, annual review and roadmap ownership
Risk register: Ongoing ownership, updates and executive risk reporting
Board briefings: Plain language security updates, not technical reports
Governance: Framework design and ongoing maintenance
Incident response: Planning and hands-on leadership when incidents occur
Vendor security: Third-party risk assessments and supply chain oversight
Compliance management: ISO 27001, Essential Eight, DISP and CPS 234
Security awareness: Programme oversight and staff education
Technology review: Security tooling assessment and investment advice
Regulatory support: Liaison, evidence management and audit preparation

A vCISO naturally works alongside our Compliance & GRC, DISP Alignment and ISO 27001 services, one engagement, one team, one source of security leadership.

How it compares

It's the difference between a task and an accountability.

A vCISO makes security decisions as part of your team, just not full-time or permanently employed.

Instead of

What they cover

With a vCISO

A project consultant

ConsultantA defined output: a report, an assessment, a policy.

vCISOAn ongoing leadership role. They attend your leadership meetings, sit on your risk committee, brief your board and respond when an incident happens.

Your IT manager

IT managerRuns operations: keeps systems running, manages the helpdesk, handles day-to-day tech.

vCISORuns security: threat models, risk appetite, governance frameworks, compliance obligations, incident response.

A full-time CISO

Full-time CISOA $200,000+ hire.

vCISOThe same expertise, the same accountability, and the same board-level credibility, sized to your business.

Your vCISO doesn't work alone.

Behind every engagement is the full information security practice. These are the three groups your strategy, your compliance and your testing land with.

An InterIntra security lead presenting to a client leadership team in a boardroom — Your vCISO

Owns the strategy, the risk register and the board briefings. The same person quarter after quarter, not a rotating adviser.

InterIntra GRC specialists mapping a compliance framework on a whiteboard — GRC specialists

The people who run the compliance programme underneath the strategy: ISO 27001, Essential Eight, DISP and CPS 234.

InterIntra penetration testers reviewing findings at a workstation — Penetration testers

Testing sits in the same practice, so a finding goes straight to the person who owns the remediation plan.

Backed by a full security practice. 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.

Four situations where a vCISO delivers immediate value.

A vCISO isn't right for every business. Here's who gets the most value from the engagement.

You're scaling faster than your security posture

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.

You have compliance obligations that need an owner

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.

Your board is starting to ask security questions

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.

You need security leadership rapidly deployed

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.”

InterIntra

Information Security Practice · Adelaide & Brisbane

Questions

Got questions? We have answers.

Something else? Call 1300 080 000 and you'll get a straight answer.

How is a vCISO different from hiring a security consultant for a project?

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.

Do we need a vCISO if we already have an IT manager?

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.

What does a vCISO engagement look like in practice?

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.

What is a CISO?

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.

What is CISO as a Service?

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.

Real results. Real businesses.

Security leadership in practice, examples where our team delivered assurance across complex, regulated environments.

See all our work →

Case study

Sunshine Coast University Hospital

Independent ICT auditing across one of Queensland's largest public hospital facilities, assurance across mission-critical health IT systems.

Live clinical environment · Downer partnership · Read the case study →

Case study

Sports College SA

Essential Eight security controls embedded from day one of a new M365 and AWS environment for a 500-student South Australian college.

Essential Eight · 500 students · Read the case study →

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