Explore RealCISO FAQs

Everything we’re asked that you need to know about RealCISO.

What is RealCISO?

RealCISO® is a powerful vCISO platform and dashboard that enables anyone (Consultants, MSPs, MSSPs, vCISOs or internal cybersecurity teams) to evaluate, understand and improve an organization’s cybersecurity posture and reduce cyber risk for CIS Controls v8, NIST 800-171, NIST CSF, NIST 800-53, SOC2, HIPAA, CMMC 2.0, ISO 27001 and more.

Every organization wants a stronger security posture, but rarely is it clear how to do so. Technology is rapidly changing. Best practices are evolving. Industry standards are shifting. Without a trusted guide, reducing cyber risk while maintaining compliance can be a constant uphill battle. Until now.

RealCISO® is an innovative answer to an ongoing challenge.  With RealCISO®, organizations answer a few simple questions about their people, processes and technologies, and receive actionable recommendations on how to improve security gaps. It’s simple, fast and effective. Are you ready to manage your cyber risk?

See how your organization can strengthen its security posture today. Sign up today!

I’m a vCISO. Can I use RealCISO as a platform to work with my clients?

Absolutely! RealCISO is ideally suited for virtual Chief Information Security Officers (vCISOs) looking to provide comprehensive cybersecurity services to their clients. Here’s why RealCISO is an excellent fit for your needs:

  1. Multi-Tenant Capabilities: RealCISO’s platform includes multi-tenant capabilities, allowing you to manage assessments for multiple clients within a single account. This feature streamlines your workflow, making it easy to switch between different client profiles and manage their cybersecurity assessments efficiently.
  2. Customizable Reporting: With RealCISO, you have the ability to customize reports to suit the specific needs of each client. This flexibility ensures that you can provide tailored insights and recommendations, enhancing the value of your services.
  3. Secure Client Data Segregation: Security and confidentiality are paramount in your role as a vCISO. RealCISO ensures that client data is securely segregated, maintaining the highest standards of privacy and data protection. This is crucial when handling sensitive information across various client accounts.
  4. Comprehensive Assessments Based on Compliance Frameworks: RealCISO supports assessments based on common compliance frameworks, making it a versatile tool for evaluating and improving your clients’ cybersecurity posture. Whether your clients need to comply with frameworks like SOC2, HIPAA, or NIST, RealCISO has you covered.
  5. Ease of Sharing Reports with Clients: The platform allows you to generate and share detailed assessment reports with your clients. This feature facilitates transparent communication and helps in making your clients understand their security standings and the necessary steps for improvement.
  6. Enhanced Client Engagement: By providing clear and actionable insights, you can engage with your clients more effectively, helping them understand their vulnerabilities and the importance of remediation strategies.

How does RealCISO compare to other vCISO platforms?

RealCISO is the market leader as a vCISO platform and software.  Read Five Elms independent market analysis – www.realciso.io/realcisos-market-position-is-ideal-for-msps-mssps/

Can I use RealCISO to assess my vendors or suppliers?

Yes, you can! With RealCISO, you have the ability to add sub-organizations for each supplier you want to assess. Simply create invites for individuals at each supplier and invite them to their specific sub-organization to complete an assessment. You can then view your suppliers’ security profiles individually or see roll-up analysis around systemic gaps across your supply chain.

I need someone to help me talk through the RealCISO recommendations. Do you provide consulting services?

RealCISO does not provide consulting services but we have an extensive network of consulting partners who would be happy to help depending on your company profile and the type of assessment frameworks you are looking for assistance on.

Can RealCISO help me get ready for an audit?

Yes it can. Whether it’s CMMC or SOC 2 or any other framework, when you go through a RealCISO assessment, you can upload evidence for each control question along with contextual narrative. Upon completion, you can export your RealCISO report of compliance and a ZIP file of all associated evidence with one click to provide to an auditor.

I answer a lot of risk questionnaires from customers and all are different and time consuming. What do you recommend we do?

Answering questionnaires is a conversation with your customer’s risk assessors. Often, instead of blindly answering custom questionnaires, you can offer to provide the RealCISO report of your security posture (with a signed NDA of course!). You can also publish a security transparency page (STP) of your security controls with the STP feature. This is often enough to address a customers’ concerns.

How do you decide what goes into the RealCISO marketplace?

Our marketplace is curated. Every product or service we onboard goes through an in-depth functionality review against CIS controls to truly suss out what is vendor marketing and what is true coverage. Our users can now start seeing how two products in the same category can have different mileage.

How many users can I bring into RealCISO? Do you charge by users?

You can have unlimited users in RealCISO. We want to ensure that you invite as many people as you need to (internal and external to your organization) so that all the tribal knowledge is accurately captured.

I outsource my IT or have an IT manager but no security and compliance experts. Can I still use RealCISO?

RealCISO is meant for your exact use case. All questions are IT friendly and in plain English without cybersecurity jargon. RealCISO assessment results tell you exactly what you should be doing and how to prioritize that risk so you are being strategic in what you focus on instead of boiling the ocean.