Fractional CISO & Cybersecurity Strategy
Executive-level security leadership, sized to what you actually need.
A regulator calls. An insurer sends a renewal questionnaire. A major customer asks for SOC 2 evidence. Your board asks how exposed you really are. Someone has to answer — at the right level of detail, with the right authority, in language that doesn't get the organization in deeper trouble.
For most organizations, hiring a full-time CISO is overkill, unaffordable, or both. But going without one leaves a hole every regulator, auditor, and major customer is now trained to spot.
That's where Magenta fits.
What a fractional CISO engagement looks like
We provide ongoing strategic cybersecurity leadership, scaled to your organization's stage, sector, and risk profile. You get a senior practitioner sitting in the seat — attending the meetings that matter, building the programs that need building, signing off on the work that needs a CISO's signature, and translating cyber into the language your board, auditors, and customers actually use.
This isn't an advisory call once a month. It's embedded leadership: someone who knows your environment, your people, your obligations, and your priorities, and who's accountable for the cyber program the way a permanent hire would be — just not for forty hours a week.
Engagements are scoped by capacity: a half-day a week, a day a week, or a flexible monthly retainer depending on what your organization needs and where it is in its security journey.
Our methodology
STEP 01
STEP 02
STEP 03
STEP 04
Frameworks and standards we work in
NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0
ISO/IEC 27001 and 27002
SOC 2 (Type I and Type II)
HIPAA / PHIPA (healthcare)
PIPEDA, FIPPA, MFIPPA (Canadian privacy)
PCI DSS (where payment data is in scope)
NIST AI Risk Management Framework (where AI is in scope)
Sector-specific frameworks where they apply
Who this is for
Growing companies approaching SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, or other certification cycles, and needing a senior cyber leader to own the program through it.
Public sector bodies that need senior cyber leadership without a full-time hire — either as a permanent operating model or as a bridge through a transition.
Non-profits managing rising cyber expectations on flat budgets, who need
someone senior enough to talk to funders and boards about cyber risk.
Mid-market firms whose board, audit committee, or major customers have started asking harder cybersecurity questions than the IT team can answer alone.
Organizations between CISOs — navigating a departure, a hiring cycle, or a transition without losing program continuity.
What you walk away with
A documented cybersecurity strategy aligned to your business and your sector
A sequenced multi-quarter roadmap with priorities, owners, and dependencies
Board-ready reporting on cyber posture, risk, and progress
Audit-ready documentation and customer-due-diligence response materials
Framework alignment defensible under regulatory, audit, or insurer scrutiny
Continuity through transitions, audits, incidents, and growth
A senior practitioner in the seat, accountable for the program
Why Magenta for fractional CISO
Most fractional CISO services are one of two things: junior consultants playing the role, or part-time advisors who don't actually run anything. Neither is what your board, your auditor, or your major customers are asking for.
Our team is senior practitioners who have built cyber programs from scratch, sat across from auditors and regulators, and stood in front of boards. When you hire a Magenta fractional CISO, you get the person you met in the proposal — not their team, not a junior, not a name on the org chart. That's the model.
A fractional CISO engagement often starts with a Cyber Risk Management baseline, so the roadmap is built on real priorities from day one.
Discovery & Baseline
First 30 to 60 days. We learn your environment — your obligations (regulatory, contractual, insurance), your existing controls, your team, your culture, and your business priorities. We baseline your current cybersecurity posture against a framework appropriate to your sector. We identify the most material gaps and the lowest-hanging fixes.
Strategy & Roadmap
We document a cybersecurity strategy aligned to your business — what "good" looks like for an organization of your size, sector, and risk profile, and a sequenced, multi-quarter roadmap to get there. Written to be presented to a board, defended to an auditor, and used as a working document by your IT team.
Program Delivery
We execute against the roadmap in cadence with your leadership team. Policy development, control implementation oversight, vendor risk reviews, security architecture input, audit preparation, customer due-diligence response, incident readiness — whatever the role requires. You decide the priorities; we deliver the work.
Executive Reporting
We produce the reporting your stakeholders need: board updates, audit committee briefings, regulator-ready documentation, customer security questionnaire response, and renewal-cycle insurance information. Done at the standard a permanent CISO would produce, without the permanent CISO's salary.
