Executive security leadership, on a monthly retainer.
A seasoned CISO sitting in your leadership meetings, owning your security roadmap, and standing in front of your auditors and customers — for a fraction of what a full-time hire costs. Built for small and mid-sized businesses that need real CISO judgment, not a checklist consultant.
The SMB security gap
Most companies under 500 employees cannot justify a full-time CISO at $250,000 to $400,000 per year, plus equity, benefits, and the recruiting cycle to find one. So the security function lands on a CTO who already has a day job, or a managed service provider who is paid to keep the lights on, not to think strategically. Neither is wrong. Both leave a gap.
That gap shows up at the worst times. The first enterprise customer asks for a SOC 2 report. The board asks how the company would handle a ransomware event. A vendor is breached and someone has to decide whether to disconnect the integration tonight. Cyber insurance renewal asks twelve questions nobody on staff can answer with confidence. A Fractional CISO is the answer to all of those moments — without the headcount.
Signs you need this
- You have prospects asking for SOC 2, HIPAA, ISO 27001, or PCI evidence and no one to own it
- Your board or investors are asking for security reporting and you do not have a deck
- Your CTO is doing security work that is pulling them off the product roadmap
- You bought security tools and you are not sure they are configured correctly
- You have never run a tabletop exercise and would not know who to call at 2 AM
- Your cyber insurance broker keeps asking questions you cannot answer
What you get on retainer
Four pillars, delivered every month against a written engagement plan. We start with the work that has the highest leverage for your business and adjust as priorities shift. You get a monthly status report, a quarterly executive briefing, and a named point of contact who knows your environment.
Strategy, roadmap, and board reporting
- Quarterly security roadmap aligned to business goals and budget
- Risk register ownership — what we are tracking and why
- Board-ready security metrics and executive briefings
- Investor and acquirer due-diligence support
Policy and program development
- Security policies authored and maintained against your real environment
- Incident response plan, business continuity, and disaster recovery
- Acceptable use, data classification, and vendor management policies
- Annual policy review and refresh — not a binder that goes stale
Compliance and audit oversight
- Named security lead for SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, CMMC, ISO 27001, and NIST CSF engagements
- Auditor coordination and evidence packaging
- Gap analysis and remediation tracking
- Cyber insurance application and renewal support
IR readiness, tool selection, and customer trust
- Named on-call escalation contact for security incidents
- Tabletop exercises and post-incident reviews
- Vendor evaluation for EDR, SIEM, MDR, IAM, and email security
- Customer security questionnaires and trust page maintenance
How the retainer works
The engagement starts with a no-cost discovery call to understand where you are, what is on fire, and what success looks like. From there, we propose an engagement plan, a starting hour allocation, and a 6-month minimum term. Hours roll over within the term, never expire silently, and can scale up as your needs grow. Fees are billed monthly against a written retainer agreement.
Engagement structure
- Starting allocation: 10 hours per month for typical SMB engagements
- Term: 6-month minimum, renewable in 12-month increments
- Scaling: hours expand as your business grows or compliance pressure increases
- Cadence: a recurring weekly or bi-weekly working session, plus async support between
- Reporting: monthly status report, quarterly executive briefing
What we ask of you
- An internal sponsor — usually CEO, CTO, COO, or CFO — who can make decisions
- Read-only access to the systems and documents we need to do the work
- A standing weekly or bi-weekly meeting on the calendar
- Honesty about what is broken so we can prioritize correctly
Why a Red Hound Fractional CISO
Red Hound's leadership has spent more than two decades inside Fortune 500 security programs — running offensive teams, owning compliance, leading incident response, and sitting in the buyer's chair for enterprise security reviews. We are not a generalist consultant who learned security on your retainer. We bring senior judgment to a market segment that usually cannot afford it.
What makes us different
- Practitioner depth. Our team writes the offensive tooling — we are not handing off your environment to a junior analyst.
- Buyer-side experience. We have evaluated hundreds of vendor security programs from inside enterprise procurement, so we know exactly what your customers will ask.
- Vendor-neutral. No reseller commissions, no preferred-stack pressure. We recommend what fits your environment and budget.
- Written record. Every recommendation, decision, and milestone is documented. If you ever change providers, you keep the record.
- Right-sized. We do not bolt enterprise process onto a 40-person company. The program we build looks like the company it is for.
Frequently asked
The questions every SMB asks before signing a retainer. If yours is not here, ask it on the discovery call.
How is this different from an MSP or MSSP?
Managed service providers run the day-to-day operations: alerts, patching, backups. A Fractional CISO sets the strategy that the MSP executes against, owns the relationship with auditors and customers, and represents security at the leadership table. The two roles are complementary. Many of our clients keep their MSP and add us on top.
Do you do hands-on technical work?
The retainer is leadership-focused. For deeper hands-on engagements — penetration testing, identity assessments, architecture reviews — we use our specialist services teams. As your Fractional CISO we scope and oversee that work; we do not bill discovery time to write rules.
What if we have an active incident?
Active incidents typically require dedicated hours beyond the standing retainer. We have a separate IR engagement model and we can mobilize quickly. The retainer ensures someone who already knows your environment is on the call from minute one.
How do we know it is working?
Every retainer includes a monthly status report against the engagement plan and a quarterly executive briefing. The metrics are written down at the start and reviewed every quarter. You should always be able to answer the question "what did our Fractional CISO do for us this quarter" in a single page.
What does pricing look like?
Retainers are scoped during the discovery call to match the size of your environment, the compliance pressure you face, and the hour allocation you need. We are happy to walk through pricing on the call.
Find out what a Fractional CISO would do for your business.
A 30-minute discovery call, no obligation. We listen, ask hard questions, and tell you honestly whether this is the right fit.