No CISO at your company: how to protect it without a dedicated security leader

Step by step

1. 1

   Enable MFA on all critical accounts

   Multi-factor authentication eliminates more than 99% of compromised-credential attacks. Start with corporate email, VPNs, financial systems and remote access. Use authenticator apps (such as Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator) instead of SMS whenever possible. The cost is zero and the impact is immediate.

2. 2

   Deploy and test immutable backups

   Backups that cannot be deleted or encrypted by ransomware are the real last line of defense. Follow the 3-2-1 rule: three copies, on two different media, one off-site. Validate the restore monthly — an untested backup is not a backup, it is hope.

3. 3

   Install EDR on endpoints

   Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) is the modern replacement for traditional antivirus. It detects suspicious behavior in real time and blocks attacks that slip past conventional signatures. Solutions like SentinelOne, CrowdStrike Falcon Go and Microsoft Defender for Business offer affordable plans for SMBs.

4. 4

   Keep systems and software up to date

   Known vulnerabilities with an available fix are responsible for more than 60% of successful breaches. Create a weekly routine for applying patches to operating systems, browsers, plugins and business applications. Enable automatic updates wherever the environment allows.

5. 5

   Apply access management with least privilege

   Each employee should have access only to what they need to work — nothing more. Review permissions quarterly, disable former employees' accounts on the day of termination, and never share passwords between people or systems. A compromised account with limited access causes limited damage.

6. 6

   Train the team against phishing

   More than 80% of attacks begin with a malicious email or a social engineering message. Monthly phishing simulations, even simple ones, reduce the click rate on malicious links by up to 70% within six months. Awareness is not a cost — it is the cheapest and most effective security control there is.

7. 7

   Build an IT asset inventory

   You cannot protect what you do not know exists. List all devices (computers, phones, servers), systems, cloud services and suppliers with access to your network. The CIS Controls calls this Control 1 for a reason: it is the foundation of everything. A spreadsheet is enough to get started.

8. 8

   Create a basic incident response plan

   Define, in up to two pages, what to do if a system goes down due to an attack, who to call (IT, legal, communications), how to isolate infected machines and how to communicate with customers and authorities. Without this document, the response to a real incident will be chaotic and more costly. Test the plan every six months with a tabletop exercise.

Why most SMBs operate without a CISO — and what the real risks are

In Brazil, more than 95% of companies are micro, small or medium-sized. Hiring a senior CISO costs between R$ 25,000 and R$ 60,000 per month, not counting payroll charges — an investment beyond the reach of most of these organizations. The result is that responsibility for security falls on the owner, the generalist IT manager or, worse, on no one.

The real risk is not hypothetical: Brazil is consistently one of the most attacked countries in the world, notably with ransomware in SMBs in the healthcare, retail, financial services and logistics sectors. Successful attacks cost Brazilian companies an average of R$ 1.4 million, between operational downtime, LGPD fines, customer loss and recovery costs.

The absence of dedicated leadership creates a vicious cycle: without a CISO, there is no policy; without a policy, there are no controls; without controls, there is no visibility; without visibility, the next incident is only a matter of time. Breaking this cycle does not require a full-time professional — it requires method and prioritization.

The concept of the vCISO: strategic security on demand

The vCISO (Virtual CISO or CISO as a Service) is a specialized professional or team hired on a fractional basis — typically between 8 and 40 hours per month — to perform the strategic functions of a CISO without the cost of a senior full-time hire. The model has grown more than 200% worldwide over the past three years precisely because it solves SMBs' main bottleneck: access to expertise without a full-time hire.

A typical vCISO defines the company's security policy, conducts the risk assessment, prioritizes investments, guides the internal IT team, responds to incidents as an escalation point and ensures compliance with LGPD, PCI-DSS or ISO 27001 where applicable. For a company of 50 to 500 employees, this model delivers 80% of the benefits of a dedicated CISO at 20% of the cost.

Decripte offers a vCISO as part of its platform and managed services, scalable from the free Threat Management plan up to enterprise contracts with a dedicated team. This means that a 10-person startup and a company of 10,000 employees can access the same strategic level of guidance, calibrated to their reality.

Accessible frameworks: CIS Controls IG1 and NIST CSF for those getting started

The CIS Controls (Center for Internet Security) is a prioritized list of 18 security controls, organized into three implementation groups. IG1 — Basic Implementation — contains only the essential controls designed for organizations with limited resources and no dedicated security team. There are 56 safeguards that, when implemented, eliminate more than 85% of the most common attacks. It is the ideal starting point for any SMB.

The NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) organizes security into five functions — Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond and Recover. It is not prescriptive: it works as a common language so that business managers and technical staff can discuss risks and prioritize actions. Its version 2.0, released in 2024, now includes a sixth function (Govern) and was expanded to explicitly cover small organizations.

Using these frameworks does not mean implementing everything at once. It means having a map. You assess where you stand today on each control, define where you want to be in six months and work with available resources. Companies that adopt any framework — even partially — reduce incident detection time by 30% and response cost by 40%, according to the Ponemon Institute.

What to outsource and what to keep in-house

A practical rule for SMBs without a security team: outsource the functions that require ongoing specialized expertise and keep in-house what requires business knowledge. Threat monitoring (SOC), penetration testing (pentest), vulnerability management and complex incident response are natural candidates for outsourcing. Internal policies, data classification and team training work best with internal ownership.

When hiring security suppliers, demand transparency in reporting — you should understand what is being done and why, not just receive a dashboard. Make sure the contract includes response SLAs for critical incidents (ideally under 4 hours), ownership of the data generated by the service and confidentiality clauses compatible with the LGPD.

Avoid the mistake of delegating security to the internet provider, the ERP vendor or the technician who takes care of the printer. These partners have value, but they have neither the contractual obligation nor the capability to protect your company from modern cyber threats. Security needs a clear owner — even if it is an external vCISO.

When it is time to hire a dedicated CISO

There are clear signs that the company has grown beyond what a vCISO or an outsourced team can adequately cover. The main one is regulatory complexity: companies that process health data (HIPAA, RDC 204), handle regulated financial resources (BACEN, CVM, PCI-DSS) or serve government contracts tend to need internal security leadership from 200 to 500 employees onward.

Other indicators include: more than three security incidents in 12 months, presence in multiple countries with different legislation, expansion into critical infrastructure (energy, telecommunications, healthcare) or raising institutional investment that requires formal security due diligence.

Even with an internal CISO, combining it with specialized platforms like Decripte's remains advantageous — no individual professional can monitor threats 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with the intelligence coverage that a dedicated platform provides.

How Decripte supports companies of all sizes — from the sole proprietor to the enterprise

Decripte was built on a clear principle: cybersecurity cannot be a privilege of large corporations. Our threat management platform and managed services serve companies from 1 to more than 100,000 employees, with plans calibrated to each budget reality and level of maturity.

The entry point is the free Threat Management plan, available at /intelligence-center. At no cost, it delivers monitoring of threats relevant to the company's sector, alerts for critical vulnerabilities and access to the platform's intelligence dashboard. Many SMBs already use this plan as their first layer of visibility — and it is enough to identify the most urgent risks.

For companies that need more — vCISO, incident management, pentest, breach monitoring, LGPD compliance or certifications — Decripte's paid plans progressively expand coverage, with no lock-in and without requiring an internal security team to operate. Go to /planos to see the options or start now at /intelligence-center and see what is exposed today.

Key terms

vCISO

Virtual Chief Information Security Officer: a professional or team specialized in cybersecurity, hired on a fractional basis (by the hour or on a monthly retainer) to perform the strategic functions of a CISO without an employment relationship. It is an ideal model for SMBs that need security leadership without the budget for a dedicated senior hire.

MFA

Multi-Factor Authentication: an identity verification method that requires two or more independent factors — something you know (a password), something you have (a phone with an authenticator app) or something you are (biometrics). It eliminates more than 99% of attacks based on compromised credentials.

EDR

Endpoint Detection and Response: a security solution installed on devices (computers, servers) that monitors behavior in real time, detects suspicious activity regardless of known malware signatures and enables rapid response to threats. It is the modern and far more effective replacement for traditional antivirus.

security baseline

A minimum set of security controls and configurations that all of an organization's systems and devices must meet. It serves as a starting point for assessing security posture and identifying deviations. Frameworks like the CIS Benchmarks provide ready-made, free baselines for the most common operating systems and applications.

Frequently asked questions