Virtual CISO Services for Texas Mid-Market
Security Leadership Without the Headcount
GXA® delivers vCISO services — also known as CISO as a service — to Texas businesses that need executive-level security leadership, compliance program ownership, and board-ready reporting without hiring a full-time Chief Information Security Officer. Our virtual CISO team is CISSP-led and backed by a 24/7 Security Operations Center.
Schedule a vCISO Discovery Call
30-minute call with a CISSP-led security leader. No obligation.
What a Virtual CISO Delivers
Our vCISO services replace the strategic security gap that most mid-market companies feel the moment their business, customers, or regulators start asking harder questions.
Risk Assessments & Gap Analysis
Independent security risk assessments benchmarked against NIST CSF, CIS Controls, and your industry framework — delivered with a prioritized remediation roadmap.
Security Policies & Incident Response Playbooks
Written information security program, acceptable use, access control, data classification, and tested incident response playbooks your team can actually execute.
Board-Ready Reporting
Quarterly security reports written for executives and boards — risk posture, key metrics, incident summaries, and the business implications, not raw alerts.
Compliance Program Leadership
Own the HIPAA, SOC 2, PCI, or CMMC program end-to-end — control mapping, evidence collection, auditor management, and POA&M tracking.
Third-Party & Vendor Risk Management
Vendor security reviews, due diligence on critical suppliers, and responses to the security questionnaires your customers send you.
Security Awareness Training & Phishing Simulation
Ongoing security awareness training plus quarterly phishing simulations. Turn your staff from the biggest risk into the first line of defense.
gShield™ vCISO Service Tiers
Two clear tiers of virtual CISO services, aligned to whether you need strategic security maturity or regulated-industry compliance leadership.
gShield vCISO Basic
Security leadership, GRC platform, policies, and quarterly reviews — your virtual CISO as part of the GXA leadership team.
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Dedicated vCISO Leadership
Your own virtual Chief Information Security Officer providing strategic security leadership and board-level guidance — integrated with your vCIO + vITM team.
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GRC Platform
Governance, Risk, and Compliance platform with an annual full assessment and quarterly updates. Executive dashboard showing maturity progress over time.
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Security Policies & IR Playbooks
Development and annual updates of security policies and incident response plans, with annual tabletop exercises to keep them real.
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Quarterly Security Reviews (QISR)
Quarterly Information Security Reviews, security questionnaire responses, and user access reviews to maintain and prove your security posture.
gShield vCISO Compliance
Full regulatory compliance leadership for HIPAA, SOC 2, PCI-DSS, CMMC, and more. Includes Vanta / SecureFrame GRC and audit preparation.
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Regulatory Compliance Support
Expert guidance for HIPAA, PCI-DSS, SOC 2, CMMC, GDPR, and other frameworks — from gap assessment through audit.
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Vanta / SecureFrame GRC Platform
Enterprise compliance management platform to prepare, manage, monitor, and maintain compliance maturity with continuous control monitoring.
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Compliance Assessments
Periodic security risk assessments against required regulatory frameworks with a prioritized POA&M (Plan of Action and Milestones) for remediation.
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Audit Preparation
End-to-end audit preparation, evidence gathering, auditor management, and response support — so your audit is a non-event.
CISSP-Led vCISO Services
GXA\u2019s security practice is led by CEO George Makaye, CISSP — a 20+ year security executive who also runs Makaye InfoSec, the firm\u2019s dedicated cybersecurity venture.
Your virtual CISO does not work alone. Every vCISO engagement is integrated with your GXA vCIO (strategy) and vITM (operations) Pod, backed by a 24/7 Security Operations Center running gShield™ managed detection and response.
That integration is why our CISO services work: policy becomes configuration, configuration becomes monitoring, and monitoring produces the evidence your auditor, board, and customers are asking for.
The Integrated Pod
- vCISO \u2014 Security strategy, policy, compliance, board reporting
- vCIO \u2014 Technology roadmap, budget, digital transformation
- vITM \u2014 Day-to-day IT health, standards, and on-site operations
- 24/7 SOC \u2014 gShield™ MDR, threat hunting, incident response
Who Needs CISO as a Service
vCISO services are the right fit when security has become a board-level issue, a sales blocker, or a compliance requirement \u2014 but a full-time Chief Information Security Officer is not the right economic answer yet.
Regulated Industries
Healthcare (HIPAA), financial services, defense contractors (CMMC, DFARS, NIST 800-171), and SaaS companies pursuing SOC 2 or ISO 27001.
Mid-Market Growth Companies
Texas businesses with 20–500 employees who have outgrown part-time security and cannot justify a $250K+ full-time CISO hire.
Customer-Driven Security
Companies losing deals to security questionnaires, pursuing enterprise customers, or going through M&A due diligence that demands a named security leader.
What You Get From Our vCISO Services
One retainer, one accountable security executive, and a defined set of deliverables every quarter.
- 12-month security strategy & roadmap
- Written information security program
- Annual risk assessment & risk register
- Incident response plan & tabletop exercises
- Quarterly security reviews (QISR)
- Executive & board-level reporting
- Compliance program leadership
- Customer security questionnaire responses
- Third-party / vendor risk reviews
- User access reviews
- Penetration test oversight
- GRC platform (Cynomi or Vanta)
How vCISO Fits with the Rest of Your IT
Virtual CISO services work best when paired with the right strategic and operational IT leadership.
gShield™ Cybersecurity Platform
The full gShield security platform \u2014 MDR, SOC, vulnerability management, phishing simulation, and compliance. vCISO services are the leadership layer on top of gShield.
Explore gShield →Fractional CIO Services
Need strategic IT leadership alongside security leadership? Our fractional CIO owns the technology roadmap, budget, and digital transformation \u2014 the executive partner to your vCISO.
Explore Fractional CIO →vCISO Services FAQ
Common questions from Texas executives evaluating virtual CISO and CISO as a service.
What is a vCISO (virtual CISO)?
A vCISO, or virtual Chief Information Security Officer, is a fractional security executive who leads your security program without the cost of a full-time hire. GXA’s vCISO services provide strategy, risk management, compliance leadership, incident response planning, board reporting, and vendor oversight on a retainer basis.
What is CISO as a service, and when do I need it?
CISO as a service is the outsourced model for hiring vCISO expertise. You need it when you face compliance requirements (HIPAA, SOC 2, PCI, CMMC), when customer security questionnaires are slowing down deals, when your board is asking about cyber risk, or when your business has grown past the point where part-time security is defensible.
How are GXA vCISO services different from an MSSP?
An MSSP (managed security service provider) runs tools — firewalls, SIEMs, and alerts. A vCISO runs the program — strategy, risk, policy, compliance, and board reporting. GXA pairs gShield managed detection and response (the MSSP layer) with vCISO leadership so you get both operational security and executive accountability from a single partner.
What compliance frameworks do your vCISO services cover?
Our vCISO Compliance tier supports HIPAA, SOC 2 Type I and II, PCI-DSS, CMMC, NIST 800-171, NIST CSF, ISO 27001, and GDPR. We handle control mapping, evidence collection, auditor management, and POA&M tracking using Vanta or SecureFrame as the GRC platform.
How does gShield vCISO Basic differ from gShield vCISO Compliance?
gShield vCISO Basic delivers security leadership, a GRC platform, written policies, tabletop exercises, and quarterly security reviews — ideal for companies that want strategic security maturity without a specific regulatory driver. gShield vCISO Compliance adds dedicated compliance program leadership, Vanta or SecureFrame, and full audit preparation for regulated industries.
Are your vCISOs CISSP certified?
Yes. GXA’s security practice is led by CEO George Makaye, who is CISSP certified, and our vCISO team carries industry credentials aligned to the frameworks we deliver. You get a credentialed security executive, not a generalist IT manager with a new title.
How quickly can a vCISO engagement start?
Most GXA vCISO engagements begin within two weeks of the signed agreement. Week one is discovery and current-state review; week two delivers a baseline risk assessment and the first 90-day security roadmap. Compliance-driven engagements can be expedited when an audit deadline is on the calendar.
Schedule a vCISO Discovery Call
30 minutes with a CISSP-led security leader. We will review your current security posture, compliance drivers, and customer pressure \u2014 and tell you whether a vCISO engagement is the right answer.
Schedule a vCISO Discovery Call
Tell us about your security drivers and we will respond within 1 business day.