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A day in the life of a vCISO - Audio
Episode 1524th September 2024 • Breaking Into Cybersecurity • Christophe Foulon
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The Role and Impact of Fractional Security Officers in Small Businesses

In this episode, cybersecurity experts William McBurrow and Christophe Foulon delve into the world of fractional Chief Security Officers (CSOs). They explore the unique challenges faced by small businesses in building security risk management programs and how fractional security executives can provide crucial strategic guidance. The discussion covers the differences between a coach and a consultant, the balance between tactical needs and strategic growth, and the pros and cons of a fractional CSO compared to traditional consulting services. Additionally, Christophe shares insights on workforce development and supporting the next generation of cybersecurity professionals.

00:00 Introduction and Background

01:11 Challenges Faced by Small Businesses

02:24 Role of a Fractional Security Executive

04:10 Strategic vs. Tactical Approaches

06:43 Client Engagement and Expectations

08:32 Aligning Security with Business Goals

22:22 External Scanning and Risk Indicators

26:02 Profile of Ideal Clients

30:25 Collaboration and Partnerships

31:43 Workforce Development and Community Support

33:57 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Mentioned in this episode:

Thank you to CPF Coaching for Sponsoring

Thank you to CPF Coaching for Sponsoring

Transcripts

William McBorrough:

Hello, I'm William McBurrow and I'm

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joined here with Chris Foulon.

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You know, I, I work as a fractional

chief security officer for, you

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know, quite a few small businesses.

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I've been in the cybersecurity space

for over 20 years and working as an

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engineer, working as a consultant.

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One of the things that we

found is that, you know, small

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businesses have a unique need of.

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Needing to build security risk

management programs, primarily because

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the market demands it and not having

the knowledge or resources internally

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to the organizations to do so.

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And by virtue of that, they reach out

to service providers, to consultants.

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To partner with them and

help build this program.

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So one of the things that I do as a

fractional security executive is I'm

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partnering with my small business clients.

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And, you know, and part of what

that does for me, working in the

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space as a security advisor over so

many years, is that it really gives

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us a seat at the table and look at

the implementation of security risk

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management from the client's perspective.

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Right.

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And that means dealing with a lot

of the challenges that you have

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with working with small businesses.

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Oftentimes we are partnering with

the CEOs, which is an acronym that I

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refer to as Chief Everything Officer,

and not helping them build their

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security programs and manage their

risk because of regulatory compliance

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or because the industry expects it

or because the clients require it.

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Thank you.

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So from time to time, I like to have

conversations with fellow virtual security

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officer, a fraction of security officers.

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And I'm joined today by Chris

who is well versed in this space.

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And I'm looking forward to an exciting

conversation about some of the

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challenges that we see, you know,

working with, with with small businesses.

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So Chris, welcome.

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And can you tell us a

little bit about yourself?

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Chris: Thank you.

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Happy to be here.

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So my name is Christophe Foulon.

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I've been in IT and security for over

18 years and pivoted from being an

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internal security consultant where I

was flexible and supported stakeholders

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internally, but I always used a coach

consultant type perspective to it.

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So when I had the opportunity to pivot,

I decided that I wanted to continue to

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provide that level of service, executive

cybersecurity, strategic services for

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small, medium sized companies, and offer

them a fractional CISO offering where

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I could go in and provide them with the

strategic guidance that they often Don't

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have because they're very focused on

the tactical day to day items of running

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their business or trying to secure

their technology stack, but might not

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think about the strategic aspect of it.

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William McBorrough: You know,

I, I, I can't help, but think

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about the differences between.

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You know, a coach and a consultant,

a coach is walking alongside of

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you, meeting you where you are

helping you get better, right?

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A consultant, more often than not,

is telling you the things and then

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you go off and struggle to sort

of, you know, do these things.

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So I think bringing that perspective to,

to, to the table, it can't, can't help but

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be you know, to, you know, the benefit of

the small businesses that you work with.

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And one of the things that we talked

about is your work as a virtual CSO,

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as a fractional security executive.

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Now, how would you, how would

you define that role, right?

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And how would you differentiate

it from what we are currently

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seeing on the market today?

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And there's a lot of consulting firms,

a lot of IT providers are, you know,

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offering these systems services.

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How would you sort of, you know, compare

and contrast what you provide and what

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you are frequently seeing being, you

know, offered by those service providers?

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Chris: So often with those types of

service providers, you're providing

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security consultants to help you with your

security program, but they're often not

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that strategic resource that you need.

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Some of them might have senior individuals

that have that strategic experience.

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But most of the times the statement

of work has to be so defined for

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these consulting companies to get the

contract that it just becomes just

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another consulting engagement where

you come in and you deliver X, Y, Z,

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and this is how you prove that you

did it versus coming in, say as a

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coach or as a fractional CISO where.

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You're coming in and you're going, these

are the things that you need to get done.

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Let's help you get them done.

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For my clients that have longer

term engagements, I'm acting as

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their CISO day to day within their

organization at a fractional basis.

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So I'm not there 40 hours a week.

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I might be there 15, 20 hours a week.

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So they don't have that full time

resource, but they have that fractional

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resource that is thinking of things

strategically, that is helping to plan

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out their budget for the next year,

that is working with their application

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development team and infrastructure team

to see what they're looking to achieve

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over the next year and how we can roadmap.

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With either tweaks into the infrastructure

tweaks into their offerings for their

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internal customers, or maybe they need to

get some additional licenses so that they

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can have those capabilities to be able to

deliver on those services, but they might

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not know how to go about researching that.

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So I would be the one that kind of

comes in and helps them do that.

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And it's more of a Partnership, just

as if I were there being there see so

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but I'm not so they don't have the the

liability or the overhead of having a C

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level person within their organization.

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Because I'm my.

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I own LLC.

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I operate independently.

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So that's some of the pros and

cons of having a fractional CSO.

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William McBorrough: You know, give

me, give me your thoughts on this.

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So oftentimes I think, and this is just

based on my, my personal experience,

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is that, you know, you are, you are

a fractional, you know, resource with

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rather full time responsibilities.

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And the reason that is, is that yes,

I might be dedicating 15 hours a week.

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I'm sorry you know, even at a

smaller scale, you know, 15,

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20 hours a month to help build

Guide lead the security program.

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But I'm the only one doing that work.

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Right?

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So although I'm managing my time

in such a way that I'm, you know,

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investing a fraction of the full

responsibility of building the

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security program is still on you.

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Right?

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So, so, you know, if there's an issue,

You're the one the client is going to

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turn to and say, Hey, I have this problem.

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Hey, why do you think, Hey, we

have this, you know, initiative.

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Hey, we got this, you know, email

from our vendor, et cetera, et cetera.

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And, and really is a

full time responsibility.

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And I think, you know, there's the,

the, the, the, The undervalued aspect

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of this is the, you know, peace

of mind that it gives the client

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that I have someone to turn to.

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Because one of the questions that I

often ask when I started Fractional,

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you know engagement very shortly is

how did you operate when I wasn't here?

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Right?

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The decisions that I'm helping

to make, I'm like, well, how

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did you handle this a month ago?

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Right?

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And oftentimes what you, what you find

is that they're just doing things.

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Right?

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And so the need is, is, is certainly,

certainly there, so I'm, I'm

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anxious to hear your thoughts on,

you know, the fractional you know,

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investment of time, but still the,

you know, full time responsibility.

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Chris: Yeah, it really just comes

around to right sizing the program

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for the client, because Oftentimes

when they're, when they might only

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need or can only afford a fraction of

the, so they might not need that full

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program that an enterprise organization

might have, they, they might not

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need someone doing that full time.

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So it's about saying, okay, so for

security awareness, what could we do?

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That is reasonable for this organization

for vulnerability management.

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What's a reasonable way that

we can help them with that for.

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Managing their secrets.

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What's a reasonable way to do that

for checking their SAS configurations

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and ensuring that they're not

leaking their secrets to the world.

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What's a reasonable way to do that.

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So it's really kind of asking

those questions and having that

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conversation with them about what we

reasonably can do for their maturity,

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for their industry, for their.

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Requirements that they might have

from their own customers, because they

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might be small, but their customers

might have really high demands.

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William McBorrough: I mean, the,

the, the, the word that you use

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right there that really reached

out to me was you know, maturity.

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I've, I've, I've always believed

that maturity based security

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program development is the only way.

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And what that means is that you

are starting where they are.

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Chris: Yeah.

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William McBorrough: And, and

you're sort of moving them

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forward at the speed of business.

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Right.

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You know, I do a lot of work within

the defense industry and defense

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contractors have to meet the exact

same security requirements as.

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You know, regardless of size, right?

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So if I'm working with a 20 person

company and I'm working with a 5,

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000 person company, the requirements

are the same, but how to implement

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them, you know, differs, right?

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And you have to meet them where they are

and just throwing tools over the fence

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at them is not, not really the answer.

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To be someone to sit at the table with

them and help and better understand.

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Their business processes, right

their business goals and actual

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capabilities and resources to get there.

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And I think that's, that's,

you know very necessary.

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And that leads me to my next question

is really what is, what is the process

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that you go through when someone reached

out and said, Christophe, we need help.

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Can you help us?

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Chris: Well, it's similar

to a consulting engagement.

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You do have to scope ahead of

time what their expectations are,

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what you're looking to achieve.

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What's their budget?

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How much time expectation

are they looking to have?

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And then really help them set those

expectations to what's reasonable based

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on their budget, based on what you're

looking to achieve and just have that

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back and forth with them that, okay,

so you're expecting 40 hours, but you

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really only could pay for 10 hours.

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Let's prioritize what we

could do in those 10 hours to.

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Achieve the most bang for your buck to

help you get that next big contract so

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that you could pay for the next 30 hours

and kind of work with them, mature with

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them so that you can grow with them

and they'll stay with you and they'll

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refer you to other clients as well.

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I,

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William McBorrough: I, I couldn't

agree more, more with that, you know

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but how do you, how do you deal with,

you know, unrealistic expectations?

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Chris: You, you set them ahead of

time you have that conversation ahead

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of time, and then when they're spoke

pre, don't be afraid to call it out.

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You're, this is You're your own

business as a fractional CISO.

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You have to be running

your, your profit and loss.

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You have to be managing your time.

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And when scope creep happens, you

say, Hey, our initial conversation

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or our initial terms said that we

were going to do this, this, and

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this within these amount of hours.

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What you're asking will require.

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This amount of hours, if that's a

project that you want to take on next.

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We could do that after we complete this

phase of the project, and then you can

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set up a phase delivery approach where

if that's something that they feel

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is really important to do that could

be prioritized next on their list.

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William McBorrough: Great, great.

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You know, with respect to that,

what, what level of ownership

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do you assume of the outcome?

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And what I mean by that is, And very often

as consultants and you're coming in you

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were doing a song and dance whatever it

is You're providing a deliverable, right?

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And you are wishing the

client, you know, best of luck.

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Now, sometimes you offer to help

them address whatever that, you know,

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deliverable requires, but there's been so

many times over the years as a consultant,

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I've been brought in to do assessments.

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And to do audits primarily because

a business need required that right

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either for compliance purposes or

You know For what whatever reason but

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there's been so many times where you

hand that client that deliverable with

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specific tailored Recommendations and

you know that they're not equipped

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to do anything in that paper Right?

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Not only do they not have the

resources to really do it, more

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often than not, you know, they don't

even have the inclination to do it.

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Right?

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A lot of the activities we do in the

security space are activities that

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are driven by compliance requirements.

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And, you know, sadly, there are

a lot of companies out there

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that are checking the boxes.

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Right?

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But when you, when you come on

board, you know as a fractional exec.

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Coach versus consultant now and,

and, and you're establishing goals

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with the organization that you're

establishing milestones, that you're

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sort of establishing deliverables and,

and, and, and setting expectations.

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How much ownership do

you take from yourself?

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to, you know, carry that through,

you know you know, to the end.

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Chris: Me personally, I, I, I,

I sometimes do get invested.

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I, I want them to succeed.

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So I, I do take some ownership into it.

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But I also set shared, shared, kind

of like the shared responsibility

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model of a cloud service provider.

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I could be here to provide you with the

service to even tell you what to do.

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But if you don't do it when I'm not

here, you're not going to get the

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results that you're supposed to get.

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So I want to help and ensure that you

gain the maturity that you need to.

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So that you can continue this and we can

develop tools and processes for you to

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continue to do this while I'm not here.

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And I get invested that I want

to see that repeatability.

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I want to see that, oh, this becomes

something that we do versus, oh, Yeah,

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we just did it at one time because

we had an audit and that was it.

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William McBorrough: Yeah.

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In my view, I think it's

really a partnership, right?

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Like you have to partner

with me to walk this road.

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Right.

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And I think that That, that really

feeds into maybe the vetting, right.

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All of the client, but then there's a two

way vetting that, that, that, you know,

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that, you know, occurs, you know, they're

vetting us to do the least that we're

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going to meet their needs, but we're,

you know, vetting them as well, are they

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the client that we want to partner with?

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Because taking on a fraction role,

it's different than just doing consult.

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And, and I think that, you know, those

of us who work in this vein I think

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there is a level of, you know, you

know, investment you know, in, in that

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you get to see what's, what's happening

under the covers where you get to see

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the challenges that, you know, That, you

know, they have, and they're partnering

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with you in good faith, you know, part

of your role is to help them overcome

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those, you know, those challenges, right?

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We are, you know, we

need to do five things.

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You can only afford to, we shift to

two to restart and focus on, right.

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And these are things that, and a lot

of times when I find is that when

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I start working with, with, with

clients, I have to, you know, detangle

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them from, what I would call, cool.

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Misinformation, right?

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From security vendors,

our own folks, right?

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You know, one of the things that I say

that, you know, often in my speaking

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engagements is that, you know, if

I'm a vendor that is selling hammers,

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I'm only interested in your nails.

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Right.

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I'm not asking you about your screws.

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I'm not.

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And I'm saying that, Hey, you need

this hammer to, to, to, to, you

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know, to hit all of those nails and

that is the most important thing.

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And, and that, that you need.

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And that's what happens, you know,

with a person with small businesses

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in the security industry, right?

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Everyone that's selling the

gadget, the tool that's supposed

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to be, you know, something BO and

all, and that's a small business.

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Peace.

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Right.

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You don't know where to go

with your limited dollars,

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limited time, limited resources.

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And I think that's why folks like

fractional security executives are so

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important because you are helping sort

of provide that buffer between the

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business goals and the tools to get there.

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Right.

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And I think that that really speaks to

where, where do you find your focus?

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When you start, is it really at

the strategic level or are you

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focused on the tactical things?

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One of the things that I've found

is that more oftentimes when small

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businesses reach out to, you know,

you know, you know, security leaders

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to have tactical needs, right.

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That are going unmet.

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And they're saying, I need someone

to come in and help me solve this.

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They're not thinking, Hey, come in and

help me create a five year roadmap.

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Right.

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So, I mean, where do you, you

know, where do you stand on that?

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Chris: Well, you, of course you

help them with the tactical stuff,

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but you also want to balance the

need for that strategic growth.

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So they might have an audit, they might

have something that's important to them

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right then and there, but if you don't

help them with their program maturity,

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It's going to come back and bite them

in a year, so you help them set up the

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framework, you help them set up what

they need to be successful in two,

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three years, you just don't limit your

scope to where you are plus six months.

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You, you want them to be successful

in the next 24 to 48 months.

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I think past that there, there's

too much of a variable for change.

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There's too much of a variable

for, for growth pivot in what

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they're, they're providing.

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So I think that two to four year

windows, like that sweet spot of.

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How do I help them plan to

be successful and guide them

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down that best strategic path?

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William McBorrough: I mean, that

makes perfect sense to me, right?

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So what is, what is the approach that

you take to ensure that you're aligning,

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right, their security program with,

you know, the business goals, right?

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Because very often You know, a

lot of businesses see, you know,

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security as a call center, right?

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It's something that I have to do that

I have to spend precious resources on.

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And if I don't do it, I might get

breached or I might miss on, you

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know, business opportunities due

to compliance you know, et cetera.

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But how do you, how do you help

these clients rather start to see

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security as an enabler, right, to

bigger and better things than just.

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Oh my gosh, the government is making me do

this, the industry is making me do this.

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Chris: Well, say, okay the government

might be making you to do this, but

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as you grow, what sort of clients

are you going to want to focus on?

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You're going to want to focus on

bigger clients or more strategic

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clients or multinational clients.

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Okay.

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What sort of requirements are

those clients going to have of you

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in order for you to service them?

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And then you look at it like that.

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So you prep them for.

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What you're going to need to do to

be successful for their clients.

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And that could be having a more

mature security program versus

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having just a CR, a GRC program that

could be tackling some of their SAS

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misconfigurations that the first thing

this more mature vendor is going to do.

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is scan their environment

externally and go, Hmm, look

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at all these misconfigurations.

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This could be a sign for what

they have inside and might not

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want to take the risk on that.

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So pass on this one.

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So you kind of help them with, these

are the types of expectations that

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you're going to have from your bigger

clients in order to be successful.

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So these are the Types of things that

you have to do, not just because some

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regulations said you do it, but because

the customers that you want, that's

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going to pay you are requiring it.

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William McBorrough: Yeah.

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Chris: Business enabler.

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Yes, exactly.

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William McBorrough: You know

what, what you mentioned about,

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you know, external scanning.

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Right.

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And, and I've, my, my views on

external scanning has really been that.

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You know, it is a scan of your, you know,

internet accessible assets, and it's not

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necessarily giving you a fuller security

or risk posture of the organization,

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:

although, although the vendors that are

marketing this can present it as if You

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know, instead of the be all and end all.

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And, and I've, I've always been, you

know, had, you know, had a jaded eye

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at, at, you know, at those types of

services, understanding what it takes

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to really assess an organization.

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However, What I haven't done is thought

about it from the perspective that you

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just shared that, you know, sometimes

that it, it, it doesn't show a full risk

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:

picture of the organization, but it can be

an indicator of the approach to security.

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Yes, that in itself is a key data point.

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Right.

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And, and, and I think

that that is very true.

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And that's, that's something that I had

sort of thought about you know, the fact

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that here, if you are not addressing the

clear vulnerabilities in your external

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footprint low hanging fruit there what

else are you not doing internally?

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Right.

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From a risk management perspective

and actually infrastructure management

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perspective, employee training

and management, you know you know,

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perspective and that as an indicator of

an organization's approach to security

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is, is something that I think that

I've never seen in that night before.

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Chris: I look at it like you're buying

a house or you're going to rent a house.

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The first thing you do is

you look at the curb appeal.

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If, if, yeah, curb

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William McBorrough: view that I like.

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:

.

Chris: If you're in in a bad neighborhood and you're the

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best looking house, okay, great.

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That that sets you apart.

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So yeah, compared to your

competitors, the fact that you

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look better, that's a good sign.

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Now, if you're worse than your

competitors, that's also a sign.

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And then you look at it like, okay,

well, yeah, they have some things and

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some things bad, but the things that

were bad, like They don't really impact

385

:

the overall security posture, but it

could be something that could clean up.

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So then you look at that

as another data point.

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:

So these are the types of things

you have to take into consideration.

388

:

And that's how I always look at it.

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Like it's, it's a data point, no matter

how you look at it, it's a data point.

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And it's a tool, like anything

else, like those that want to use.

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:

generative AI and, and use those

types of tools on their web presence.

392

:

They don't lock it down to, Hey, this chat

bot that you now have on your webpage,

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:

not lock down that knowledge base to only

the things that it's supposed to say.

394

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And you let it say a whole

bunch of other things that

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:

opens up yourself to liability.

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So maybe you didn't think this process

through when you rolled out this new

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:

feature, so it kind of, you think

like a threat actor in this situation

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and you're like, well, if they did

this here, they probably have done

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:

this similarly in other places.

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:

So yeah, that's something to consider.

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William McBorrough: Current appeal.

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:

I'm stealing that.

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Be on notice.

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:

Hahahahaha!

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:

So, so lastly, so what, what would

you see as sort of the profile of a

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:

business that could benefit from, you

know, a fractional, you know, security

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:

advisor or a fractional security you

know, executive such as yourself.

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Chris: Oftentimes they'll,

they'll have a technical team,

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:

and they'll have a technical team.

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To help implement the day to day things,

but their leadership has been primarily

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:

focused on infrastructure, technology,

availability, and they've kind of

412

:

locked their growth because they can't.

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:

develop that security profile that

their clients are looking for.

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So they feel like it's now a

business blocker, not to have that

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:

strategic vision, not to be able

to tackle the types of requirements

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:

that their clients are looking for.

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:

So now they've gone to the market,

like, okay, I have someone doing some

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:

of the things to, to get me by day

to day, but we, we can't get the,

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:

the, The other blocking and tackling

down, we, we, we can't develop a more

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:

security focus program to make our

vendors feel comfortable using us as

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:

a supplier, using us as one of their

own, whether we're coming in and we're

422

:

offering augmented services, if we

can't show them that we have our own

423

:

house, house in order, how can we help

them get their own house in order?

424

:

William McBorrough: Yeah, yeah.

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:

I mean, I think, I think, you know,

governance, risk, and compliance.

426

:

You know, really covers what I think is

lacking with a lot of small businesses.

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:

You know, because that's,

that's a role that sits above I.

428

:

T.

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:

That's a role that sits above operations.

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You know, that's a role that

sits above, you know, H.

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:

R.

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:

And, and, and what, what I think is,

is unfortunate is that, you know, a

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:

lot of businesses see security as an I.

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:

T.

435

:

function.

436

:

So it's really just, you know, other

duties as a sign to whatever IT

437

:

resource they have available, right?

438

:

A mature enough organization might have

an IT manager or IT director and, and,

439

:

and, or even if you go to less mature

organizations, they could have a part time

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:

IT person or, and, and, and, you know, or,

you know, local MSP you know, but these

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:

are folks that are paying you in terms of.

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:

Business risk, right?

443

:

And I think that you rightly point

out that, you know, the market

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now demands that you, you manage

your risk in a verifiable way.

445

:

A lot of the clients that we've

worked with on the consultant side

446

:

of MCProtect, you know, come to

us with, you know, questionnaires

447

:

from their large customer, right?

448

:

You know, wanting to know

their security posture.

449

:

And very often, my initial response

is, you are not doing anything on here.

450

:

Right.

451

:

So the question is, how do we

get you from here to there, so

452

:

that you can respond favorably.

453

:

And, and, you know, market

forces, you know, do work.

454

:

I, you know, do work the work

that we do in the defense space.

455

:

We're seeing that form in

smaller subcontractors.

456

:

Why?

457

:

Because the larger prime customers,

it's flowing down those requirements.

458

:

And they're saying that we need you to get

compliance so that we can get compliant.

459

:

So now they're starting to build

and improve their security.

460

:

Again, market forces at work.

461

:

So how, how, how do folks

that are interested in.

462

:

Maybe having a conversation with

you about your services and you

463

:

coming to help them and how, how

can folks get in touch with you?

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:

Chris: Well, they can

find me at cpf coaching.

465

:

com or they can email me.

466

:

Chris at cpf coaching.

467

:

com, and I can help

answer their questions.

468

:

I, I also work with a

great group on Alignable.

469

:

There's a technology group there that

meets every week and we collaborate

470

:

together on ways that we can help

small businesses enable their growth

471

:

through partnerships and collaborators.

472

:

As you mentioned, A fractional

CISO is just that one person

473

:

there for a fraction of the time.

474

:

So as you'll naturally have to

collaborate with others, that could be

475

:

the MSSP, that could be a SAS provider,

that could be their local MSP that's

476

:

helping them with their technology.

477

:

So as a fractional executive, you

have to be able to collaborate

478

:

with all of the vendors.

479

:

In their space to help them together

achieve the growth that they're looking

480

:

to do, not just your primary client.

481

:

They might be your primary client, but

you have many clients that work with

482

:

them that you also have to satisfy.

483

:

And oftentimes if, if you don't

agree with one of those sub

484

:

clients that the relationship

might not work out, especially if.

485

:

They're one of the favorite

vendors of that client.

486

:

So it really does become working as a

team to help that small business succeed.

487

:

And I've found that working together

with great collaborators like yourself

488

:

and, and others in this alignable,

alignable group that I've been

489

:

able to find some great partners.

490

:

William McBorrough: Excellent.

491

:

Excellent plug there

for the alignment group.

492

:

You know, lastly, as, as someone who's

been an educator for over 15 years, you

493

:

know, I, I, I, I can't believe it all,

you know, commenting instead of pulling

494

:

the work that you've been doing in.

495

:

You know workforce development and

really creating a path into the space

496

:

that we know and love for so many years.

497

:

So, you know, can you can you

share a little bit about that work?

498

:

And, and, and, you know, how folks

can learn more and sort of, you

499

:

know, follow that work as well.

500

:

Chris: I wasn't prepared for this,

but this is one of the books that I've

501

:

written the cyber security interview.

502

:

They actually we just completed our second

edition of it where we added even more

503

:

work roles that people can consider as

they're transitioning into the field.

504

:

You're right.

505

:

Being a coach, being an educator is

just part of your overall persona.

506

:

So I teach at a university.

507

:

I write books.

508

:

I've been doing a podcast called

Breaking into Cybersecurity.

509

:

There's a theme there.

510

:

I love to grow and develop stakeholders.

511

:

And that's what I do at my businesses as

well, is I go in there and I figure out

512

:

what's the best way to grow and develop.

513

:

The business leader that I'm working with,

they're stakeholders because it's all,

514

:

it's all part of the holistic process.

515

:

So yeah, those are some of

the other things that I do to

516

:

give back to the community.

517

:

There's a nonprofit that I support

called the whole cyber human

518

:

initiative where we, we find open

source training for individuals that

519

:

are transitioning into the field.

520

:

Many of them are veterans

coming out of the military.

521

:

We help provide them with that, that

guided path for them to find their way.

522

:

To see if security really

is the field for them.

523

:

Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't.

524

:

They look at the skills and competencies

that they've gained in other fields

525

:

and see how they could translate

it into this field and if this is

526

:

something that they want to do.

527

:

So that's another passion project

that I do to give back and

528

:

help the ecosystem as a whole.

529

:

William McBorrough: I'm all

about pursuing our passions.

530

:

And I think we are, you know, we are,

we are all lucky that your passion

531

:

lies within not just cybersecurity,

but supporting, you know, the next

532

:

generation of cybersecurity professionals,

as well as helping businesses,

533

:

small businesses manage their risk.

534

:

I think that is, I think

we need more of you.

535

:

And I greatly encourage.

536

:

Folks to follow up with you if you're

interested in getting in the cyber

537

:

security space, or if they have a business

that is looking to grow and scale, and

538

:

they're trying to figure out how can I

look at cyber security in a way that is

539

:

going to help drive my business, right?

540

:

You know, to do that, you need leaders

who are able to help you at that

541

:

strategic level, align your investment

of time and money and security with

542

:

where you're trying to get business.

543

:

And, and, and, you know, I'm

not shy to say Chris is one

544

:

of the best of them out there.

545

:

So thanks again.

546

:

Chris: I appreciate it.

547

:

Thank you so much.

548

:

And thank you for having me on.

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