Transitions are where gaps form, access lingers, tools misfire, and accountability vanishes. It’s the one moment where everyone assumes someone else has the wheel—and that assumption can cost millions. As a vCSO, your role during these transitions is clear: protect the organization from inherited liabilities and educate the C-suite on risks they likely don’t see coming. 

As a vCSO, this is your moment of truth. Because compliance isn’t about checking a regulatory box. It’s about proving the organization wasn’t negligent. And if your client’s security decisions aren’t mapped to a recognized standard, you’re not building a defense—you’re handing ammunition to regulators, insurers, and attorneys. 

In 2024, AT&T became the face of corporate cybersecurity failure. Despite reporting $122 billion in revenue and nearly $20 billion in pretax profits, the company cut corners where it mattered most: security. In an attempt to streamline costs, AT&T trusted sensitive customer data to a third-party provider without enforcing essential protections like multi-factor authentication (MFA).

In today’s threat landscape, where cybercrime losses exceed $10 billion annually, the situation has reached unprecedented urgency. If your organization isn’t already prioritizing evidence collection, you’re leaving the door wide open to financial ruin, reputational collapse, and legal disaster. 

Persuading a skeptical executive to invest in cybersecurity is an art as much as a science. With ransomware attacks surging, regulatory scrutiny tightening, and generative AI lowering the barrier for malicious actors, no business is safe. Yet, some executives remain staunchly opposed to prioritizing cybersecurity budgets.

The question isn’t whether you should implement a compliance program, it’s how you can most resource-efficiently implement the kind of compliance program that will best mitigate your risk.

A poorly written policy, and a team that is not educated and excited about the policies, can result in putting your organization at risk.

Simply following rules without thought may create problems in the long run. Does your team really understand why the rules are in place? Do they know the consequences if they don’t follow them?

After an analysis, it was found that they had almost everything secured. But almost doesn’t cut it because hackers only need one small vulnerability. 

A risk assessment is all about analyzing your organization’s cyber situation so that you can make appropriate decisions for what protection you need and where.

Right now, even as you’re reading this, hackers are developing new ways to attack your business.

Have you ever thought about how small changes on your network can impact the life and success of your company?