Consulting

Cyber Security Consulting, From People Who Have Run It

Most security advice arrives as a framework gap list. Ours arrives as a decision: what your exposure actually is, what to fix first, and what it is worth spending to fix it. Our consultants have run GRC programmes, argued cyber budgets in front of boards and cleaned up after incidents — which is a different qualification from having read about all three.

Talk to an Advisor See the Practice Areas
  • vCISO
  • FAIR Quantification
  • RBI & DPDP
  • ISO 27001
  • Incident Readiness
How an engagement runs
  1. 01

    Diagnose

    Evidence from your environment, not a maturity questionnaire.

  2. 02

    Quantify

    Material exposures modelled on FAIR, in currency.

  3. 03

    Prioritise

    Sequenced by exposure reduced per rupee spent.

  4. 04

    Hand over

    Models, registers and reasoning transferred to your team.

What you are left holding

A prioritised, costed position your board can act on — with the reasoning visible enough to be challenged.

01 — Where we come in

Advice that ends in a decision, not a finding count

We advise across the full arc of a security programme — understanding the risk, governing it, leading it, and standing up to it when something goes wrong. Engagements range from a two-week diagnostic to a standing vCISO retainer, and they are scoped against a decision you need to make rather than a methodology we need to run.

The work is platform-optional. Where 4sight on TrustCore helps — quantification at scale, live control state, continuous exposure monitoring — we will say so. Where it does not, we will tell you that too. A consulting engagement is not a procurement funnel, and treating it as one is how advisory firms lose the right to be believed.

What you get at the end is not a slide pack that ages in a shared drive. It is a prioritised, costed position, with the reasoning behind every number visible enough that your auditor, your regulator and your CFO can each challenge it on their own terms.

What usually arrives

  • A gap list against a framework, 140 findings deep
  • Ratings that cannot be added, compared or budgeted
  • A slide pack that ages quietly in a shared drive
  • Recommendations shaped by what the firm also sells
  • A dependency on the adviser to interpret any of it

What we leave behind

  • Exposure in currency, per business service
  • A sequence, costed, with dependencies stated
  • A board paper that stands without a translator
  • Advice that survives a finance review intact
  • Models and registers your own team can run
02 — Practice areas

Five practice areas, one team

Engagements are usually a combination rather than a single line item — a quantification exercise that turns into a GRC redesign, or a compliance readiness review that surfaces an architecture problem. The team is the same either way.

01

Understand the risk

Measure the exposure before you argue about the remedy.

Exposure in currency, not colour.

Cyber Risk Assessment

Current state established from what your environment shows, not from a questionnaire.

  • Threat and scenario identification
  • Control effectiveness review
  • Crown-jewel and business-service mapping
  • Risk register rebuild
  • Prioritised remediation roadmap

Cyber Risk Quantification

Material exposures modelled on FAIR so the recommendation carries a number.

  • FAIR-based loss modelling
  • Calibrated estimation workshops
  • Scenario libraries for your sector
  • Board-ready exposure reporting
  • Control ROI and spend justification

Third-Party & Supply Chain Risk

The dependencies you do not operate, assessed as carefully as the ones you do.

  • Vendor tiering and criticality
  • Due-diligence questionnaire design
  • Concentration and fourth-party analysis
  • Contractual security requirements
  • Ongoing vendor monitoring model
02

Govern and comply

Turn obligations into a programme that runs itself.

One control set. Many obligations.

GRC Programme Design

Governance that produces decisions rather than another reporting cycle.

  • Risk governance and committee structure
  • Risk appetite and tolerance statements
  • Unified control framework
  • Policy architecture and lifecycle
  • Assurance and reporting cadence

Regulatory Readiness

Indian and international obligations mapped onto one control set.

  • RBI cyber security framework
  • DPDP Act readiness and data mapping
  • CERT-In incident reporting obligations
  • ISO 27001 and SOC 2 preparation
  • Gap closure planning and audit support

Audit & Evidence

Evidence collected as a by-product of operating, not assembled under pressure.

  • Control testing programme design
  • Evidence collection and retention
  • Internal audit readiness reviews
  • Regulator and customer assurance packs
  • Finding closure and re-test tracking
03

Lead and withstand

Senior judgement in the seat, and a plan for the bad day.

Ready before, not after.

vCISO & Security Leadership

Fractional security leadership sized to the need, not to a headcount plan.

  • Fractional CISO engagement
  • Security strategy and budget planning
  • Board and audit committee reporting
  • Team structure and capability planning
  • Programme oversight and vendor governance

Security Architecture & Resilience

Whether the design holds, and what happens to the business when part of it does not.

  • Architecture and design review
  • Cloud and identity security posture
  • Segmentation and zero-trust roadmap
  • Operational resilience and impact tolerance
  • Recovery and continuity testing

Incident Readiness & Training

Rehearsed response, and the cyber fluency to make decisions under pressure.

  • Incident response plans and playbooks
  • Executive and technical tabletop exercises
  • Crisis communication and regulator notification
  • Post-incident review and lessons learned
  • Cyber risk training for boards and practitioners
03 — How we work

Six things that happen in every engagement

The scope changes; the method does not. This is what you should expect from us regardless of whether the engagement lasts three weeks or three years.

  1. 01

    Scope against a decision

    Every engagement starts by naming the decision it exists to support — a budget case, a regulatory deadline, a board question, an acquisition. Scope follows from that rather than from a standard methodology applied at full length.

  2. 02

    Diagnose before prescribing

    A short, evidence-led diagnostic establishes current state from what your environment and your people actually show, not from a maturity questionnaire filled in by whoever had time that week.

  3. 03

    Quantify what matters

    Material exposures are modelled on FAIR so the recommendation carries a number. Where quantification is not warranted, we say so rather than quantify for the sake of a deliverable.

  4. 04

    Prioritise and cost

    Recommendations arrive sequenced by exposure reduced per rupee spent, with effort and dependencies stated, so the roadmap survives contact with a finance review.

  5. 05

    Deliver in two languages

    Two outputs from one analysis: a technical working document your team can execute against, and a board paper that stands on its own without a translator in the room.

  6. 06

    Hand over properly

    Models, templates, registers and reasoning are transferred to your team with the training to run them. If you never call us again, the work should still hold.

04 — Engagement models

Four ways to engage the practice

Most clients start with a diagnostic and continue on a retainer. Nothing here requires you to adopt our platform, and nothing prices against consultant-days for their own sake.

Most common

Scoped Diagnostic

Current-state review, quantification of the material exposures, and a prioritised, costed roadmap. Usually enough to make the next decision on its own.

Shape
Fixed fee
Typical length
4–6 weeks
You get
Roadmap + board paper
Ongoing

vCISO Retainer

Senior security leadership on a fractional basis — strategy, budget, board reporting and programme oversight, with defined availability for escalations.

Shape
Monthly retainer
Typical length
Rolling
You get
A CISO in the seat
Programme

Delivery Support

Hands-on support to stand up or repair a programme: GRC redesign, regulatory readiness, third-party risk, resilience mapping or a quantification capability.

Shape
Fixed scope
Typical length
3–9 months
You get
A working programme
Capability

Training & Enablement

Cyber risk fluency where you need it — board and executive sessions, FAIR practitioner training, GRC upskilling and tabletop facilitation.

Shape
Per programme
Typical length
1–5 days
You get
Capability in-house
05 — Why enterprises bring us in

The six reasons we usually get the call

Security spend needs an argument

A control roadmap expressed as framework coverage loses to every other capital request in the room. Expressed as avoided loss, it competes on equal terms.

Regulation is arriving together

RBI directions, CERT-In reporting, DPDP obligations and sectoral expectations do not queue politely. We sequence them by exposure rather than by whichever auditor asked most recently.

Leadership gaps are expensive to leave open

A CISO vacancy, a fast-growing team or a first-time regulated entity needs senior judgement before it needs another headcount. vCISO covers the gap without the search.

Assessments keep repeating themselves

If three consecutive assessments found the same findings, the problem is not detection. We work on why remediation stalls, not on re-documenting what you already know.

Practitioner judgement, not a template

Every consultant on an engagement has held accountability for a security outcome somewhere. It shows in what they push back on.

Knowledge that stays with you

We would rather leave your team able to run the model themselves than build a dependency. Handover and training are part of the engagement, not an upsell.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

Do we have to buy your platform to use your consulting?

No. Consulting, vCISO and training are standalone engagements. Many of our advisory clients never adopt TrustCore, and the advice does not change based on whether they do. Where the platform would genuinely shorten the work, we will show you the comparison rather than assert it.

What does a typical first engagement look like?

Most start with a scoped diagnostic of four to six weeks: current-state review, quantification of the material exposures, and a prioritised, costed roadmap. That is usually enough to make the next decision — whether that is a budget submission, a regulatory plan or a leadership hire.

Can you work alongside our existing auditors and consultants?

Yes, and we frequently do. We are not trying to own the whole relationship. Being the party that quantifies the exposure while someone else runs the audit is a common and perfectly healthy arrangement.

Is vCISO a full-time commitment?

No. vCISO engagements are sized to the need — commonly a few days a month with defined availability for escalations, board cycles and regulatory events. Organisations use it to cover a vacancy, to support a first-time CISO, or because a full-time hire is not yet justified.

Which sectors do you work in?

Our deepest experience is in regulated sectors — banking and financial services, insurance, fintech and healthcare — where RBI, IRDAI, DPDP and CERT-In obligations intersect. The method travels to other sectors; the regulatory content is where sector experience matters most.

How is pricing structured?

Diagnostics and defined-scope projects are fixed-fee against a stated deliverable. vCISO and ongoing advisory run on a monthly retainer. We do not price against headcount days for their own sake, because that rewards the wrong thing.

Keep reading

Related

Platform as a Service TrustCore, hosted and managed on a subscription. vCISO Services Senior security leadership on a fractional basis. Cyber Risk Quantification Exposure in financial terms your board can act on. All Services The five ways to engage TrustSphere.

Tell us what decision you are trying to make.

A budget you need to defend, a regulator you need to satisfy, a board question you cannot answer yet — start there, and we will tell you honestly whether consulting is the right shape for it.

Talk to an Advisor Assess My Cyber Risk