Temporary CISO Services — Fractional Leadership

A fractional CISO provides ongoing, part-time cybersecurity leadership on a defined schedule—ideal for organizations that need consistent governance without a full-time hire. An interim CISO is deployed quickly to stabilize a specific situation, such as a leadership departure, audit finding, or incident, typically for a defined period of 30 to 90 days before transitioning to a permanent solution.

Engagements include risk triage, a 30-60-90 day roadmap with named owners and measurable KPIs, incident readiness review, board-ready reporting, vendor risk oversight, and governance structure setup. The scope is tailored to your organization's size, pace, and current risk posture. Operational tasks are delegated to your internal team—the focus is on leadership, decisions, and accountability.

Engagements can typically begin within one to two weeks of scope agreement. For urgent situations—such as an active incident, a recent leadership departure, or imminent audit pressure—initial risk triage and stakeholder alignment can begin even sooner. The first milestone is always a clear current-state assessment delivered within the first two weeks.

Fractional CISO services are best suited for mid-market and enterprise organizations that have cybersecurity risk but don't yet justify a full-time CISO salary. They also work well for large enterprises in transition—going through M&A, leadership changes, or modernization initiatives—that need experienced, objective security leadership without adding permanent headcount.

Board communication is a core deliverable. Tyson Martin uses structured, one-page briefing templates that translate technical risks into business impacts—covering downtime exposure, vendor risks, disclosure considerations, and revenue effects. Boards receive stable dashboards that show trends over time, not reactive alerts, so every briefing enables informed decisions rather than confusion.

Yes. The fractional CISO role is designed to lead and direct your existing team, not replace them. Operational execution stays with your internal staff; the fractional CISO focuses on strategy, governance, risk decisions, and stakeholder reporting. This model reduces friction, accelerates team performance, and ensures your internal resources are focused on the right priorities.

Yes. Compliance support—including alignment to frameworks such as NIST, SOC 2, ISO 27001, and industry-specific regulations—is a common component of fractional CISO engagements. The focus is on building governance structures and documentation that satisfy auditors and regulators while also being operationally useful, rather than checkbox compliance that creates overhead without reducing real risk.

Every engagement ends with a clear transition plan—documented decision rights, trained internal owners, a handoff-ready governance structure, and a forward roadmap. Whether the next step is a full-time CISO hire, a continued fractional arrangement, or a board advisory role, the goal is to leave your organization more capable and independent than when the engagement began.