CIS v8 · NIST CSF 2.0 · ISO 27001:2022 · SOC 2
Cyber security assessment that gives you a board-ready answer in 14 days
Independent risk and compliance assessment for SMB and mid-market. We map every finding to your insurer's questionnaire, your auditor's framework, and your board's risk register, in plain English, with a remediation runbook you can actually act on.
Eight control domains. Every finding scored, evidenced, and tied back to a framework reference.
8 domains assessed · CIS v8 mappingMFA coverage, privileged accounts, service accounts, password policy, JML lifecycle, conditional access.
CIS Controls 5 & 6EDR/XDR coverage and tuning, patch latency, disk encryption, local admin sprawl, application allow-list.
CIS Controls 1, 2 & 10Firewall rules, segmentation, lateral movement risk, VPN/ZTNA posture, exposed services, DNS hygiene.
CIS Controls 12 & 13M365 / Google Workspace hardening, AWS/Azure/GCP configuration baseline, SaaS app sprawl, OAuth grant review.
CIS Controls 4 & 12Data inventory, classification, encryption at rest and in transit, DLP coverage, sensitive-data sprawl.
CIS Controls 3 & 11Incident response plan, runbooks, backup posture (3-2-1, immutable, tested restores), tabletop history, RTO/RPO.
CIS Controls 11 & 17Vendor inventory, security review process, contractual controls, SaaS data flow mapping, sub-processor visibility.
CIS Control 15Policy completeness, board reporting cadence, risk register, security training program, phishing simulation results.
CIS Controls 14 & 17No vague findings. Every gap is scored Critical / High / Medium / Low, mapped to the control it violates (e.g. CIS 5.2, NIST PR.AC-1, ISO A.5.16), tied to the asset or process it lives in, and given a fixed remediation owner suggestion.
What the executive readout actually looks like.
Every assessment ends with a one-page executive summary you can hand to your board, your insurer, and your auditor: the same straight answer to all three. Below is an illustrative sample.
Scope: 8 control domains, 153 sub-controls, 4-week engagement. Methodology: external scan + authenticated config review + 6 stakeholder interviews + document review.
Above is one slide from a 24-slide deck. Full deliverable also includes the control-mapping spreadsheet (153 rows), technical findings PDF, prioritized 90-day runbook, and the insurer-questionnaire evidence packet.
Three lanes. Pick by deadline, framework depth, and whether this is one-time or continuous.
All three tiers run on the same senior assessors and the same evidence-based methodology. The difference is depth, framework rigor, and whether you want a snapshot or an ongoing posture program.
Quick Risk Snapshot
5-day snapshot designed for cyber insurance renewal questionnaires and board pre-reads.
5 business days · remote · 1 IT lead required
- External attack-surface scan (DNS hygiene, exposed services, expired certs)
- Identity posture review (MFA coverage, privileged accounts, dormant identities)
- Endpoint coverage check (EDR sweep, patch latency, local admin sprawl)
- Email defense check (SPF, DKIM, DMARC, anti-phishing posture)
- Backup posture check (3-2-1, immutability, test-restore evidence)
- Insurer-questionnaire-ready evidence packet
- 60-min readout with executive summary deck
Full CIS / NIST Assessment
4-week control-by-control assessment for board, audit and pen-test readiness.
4 weeks · CIS v8 IG2 or NIST CSF 2.0 · remote + on-site option
- Everything in Quick Snapshot, plus:
- Control-by-control scoring across 8 domains (identity, endpoint, network, cloud, data, IR, vendor, governance)
- Authenticated configuration review of M365 / Google Workspace, AD / Entra ID, EDR, firewall, backup
- Cloud posture review (AWS, Azure, GCP, M365 SaaS) where applicable
- Document review (policies, runbooks, vendor contracts, IR plan)
- Structured interviews with IT, HR, finance, ops leads
- Prioritized remediation runbook sequenced by risk-reduction-per-dollar
- Board deck + technical findings PDF + control-mapping spreadsheet
- Free 30-day Q&A window for clarifying questions
Continuous Risk Program
Monthly attestation for organizations on the path to SOC 2 Type II or ISO 27001.
12-month engagement · quarterly re-assessment · audit-ready evidence
- Initial baseline assessment (Full CIS / NIST scope)
- Monthly external attack-surface scans with diff reports
- Quarterly control re-review against drifted configurations
- Continuous evidence collection for SOC 2 / ISO 27001 audit
- Board-ready dashboard updated monthly
- Cyber insurance renewal packet refresh on demand
- Vendor risk re-scoring as your supplier list changes
Mutual NDA + BAA signed before kickoff. You own the deliverables. No requirement to engage us for remediation.
Answer both questions to continue.
Scope a cyber assessment
Tell us the goal, framework and headcount. We'll send a fixed-fee scope and a kickoff date.
Almost done.
Tell us the goal, the framework and the headcount: we'll send a fixed-fee scope, a kickoff date, and a deliverable date you can put on the board calendar. Mutual NDA on request.
Frameworks we map findings against
Pick one or combine.
Mapped to the frameworks your auditor, insurer and regulator actually use.
Every finding in the deliverable carries a control reference for at least one framework you're already accountable to. Pick one as the primary mapping at scoping: we cross-walk to the others as needed at no extra fee.
Trust Services Criteria. Common Criteria + Availability + Confidentiality + Processing Integrity + Privacy as elected by you.
Security Rule 45 CFR 164.308 (administrative), 164.310 (physical), 164.312 (technical), 164.314, 164.316.
Level 1 (FCI) and Level 2 (CUI) for DoD supply-chain entities. NIST 800-171 control mapping included.
SAQ A through SAQ D and ROC scope. Cardholder data environment definition + segmentation validation.
Required for NY DFS-licensed financial entities. CISO designation, risk assessment, third-party security policy, incident notification.
For non-banking financial institutions. Qualified individual, risk assessment, encryption, MFA, monitoring, vendor oversight.
Annex A controls (93 controls in the 2022 revision). ISMS scoping + statement of applicability.
Six functions: Govern (new in 2.0), Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, Recover. Profile + tier scoring.
Cyber security assessment, answered honestly.
How long does a cyber security assessment take?
The Quick Risk Snapshot is 5 business days end-to-end, including kickoff, evidence collection, scanning, scoring and a 60-minute readout. The full CIS v8 or NIST CSF 2.0 assessment runs 4 weeks: week 1 kickoff and document review, week 2 technical scanning and interviews, week 3 control-by-control scoring and gap analysis, week 4 remediation runbook and executive readout.
What deliverables do we get?
Five artifacts: (1) Executive summary slide deck written for non-technical board members, (2) control-by-control gap analysis spreadsheet mapped to your chosen framework, (3) technical findings report with severity, exploitability and asset context, (4) prioritized remediation runbook sequenced by risk-reduction-per-dollar, (5) evidence packet ready for cyber insurance renewal or auditor review. All five are delivered as both PDF and source format (PPTX, XLSX, DOCX) so you can edit and re-use internally.
Who from our side needs to be on the calls?
Five roles, total time commitment ~6 hours across 4 weeks for the full assessment: IT lead (kickoff + 3 technical interviews, ~3 hours total), HR lead (1 interview on identity, onboarding, offboarding, ~45 min), finance lead (1 interview on vendor risk and approvals, ~45 min), operations lead (1 interview on physical security and BCP, ~30 min), and an executive sponsor (kickoff + readout, ~1 hour). For a Quick Snapshot, IT lead alone is enough: ~2 hours across 5 days.
Will the assessment find everything an attacker would?
No assessment finds everything. We're explicit about this in the deliverable. The full CIS v8 IG2 assessment combines: external attack-surface scanning (Shodan-class enumeration, exposed services, expired certs, DNS hygiene), authenticated configuration review of identity, endpoint and cloud, document review of policy and process, and structured interviews. We do not perform exploitation or social engineering unless you specifically engage us for a penetration test: that's a separate scope. The assessment finds the controls gaps that lead to incidents; a pen test demonstrates exploitability of specific paths.
Can the report be used for cyber insurance renewal?
Yes. We map every finding to the standard insurance questionnaire taxonomy used by Coalition, At-Bay, Chubb, Travelers, AIG, CNA and Beazley: MFA coverage, EDR coverage, backup posture, privileged access, email filtering, awareness training, vendor management. The evidence packet is what your broker needs to negotiate premium and remove exclusions.
What frameworks do you assess against?
CIS Controls v8 (Implementation Group 1 or 2), NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, SOC 2 Trust Services Criteria, HIPAA Security Rule (45 CFR 164.308-318), PCI-DSS 4.0, NYDFS 23 NYCRR 500 (for licensed financial entities in New York), and FTC Safeguards Rule (for non-banking financial institutions). We can also run a custom framework mapping if you're certifying against a customer-specific control set (Microsoft SSPA, AWS WAF, Salesforce ISVForce).
Are you also the people who will fix the findings?
You decide. Some clients run remediation entirely in-house using our prioritized runbook as the work-plan. Some retain us for the highest-impact items only (typically MFA enforcement, EDR rollout, backup hardening, privileged access cleanup). Some move into our Continuous Risk Program for ongoing managed remediation with monthly attestation. There is no requirement to engage us for remediation: the assessment deliverable is yours regardless. We will tell you honestly which findings are best handled by your existing MSP or in-house team versus where outside specialist help moves faster.
What does pen test readiness mean?
It means the assessment surfaces the issues a pen test would find: before you pay $25-50K for a pen test that comes back full of low-effort findings. We do this by running authenticated configuration review against the same control families a pen tester probes: identity (MFA, privileged accounts, service accounts), endpoint (EDR coverage, patch latency, local admin sprawl), network (segmentation, lateral movement risk, exposed services), and data (sensitive data location, encryption at rest). After remediation, the pen test that follows finds harder, higher-value issues: not the obvious ones.
Do you sign NDAs and BAAs before kickoff?
Yes. Mutual NDA signed before any documents are exchanged. For HIPAA-covered entities or business associates, we sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) before any PHI-adjacent system is touched. Standard Master Services Agreement covers liability, IP ownership of deliverables (you own them), data handling, and post-engagement data destruction. All three documents are reviewed and returned.
What happens after the assessment is delivered?
Three options: (1) take the deliverables and run remediation in-house: we offer a free 30-day Q&A window for clarifying questions, (2) engage us for prioritized remediation projects on a fixed-fee basis: typically MFA rollout, EDR deployment, backup hardening, identity cleanup, (3) move into the Continuous Risk Program for monthly attestation, quarterly re-assessment, and audit-ready evidence collection.
