nicwerks® serves as vCISO and cybersecurity consultant for Los Angeles law firms, CPA firms, and entertainment companies with 5 to 100 people. You get an experienced security leader who sets the roadmap, writes the policies, answers the questionnaires, and shows up every month. You don't take on a six-figure executive salary to get there.
A vCISO (virtual chief information security officer) is a senior security leader your firm engages on a fractional basis. Where a managed IT provider keeps systems running and a security stack blocks attacks, a vCISO owns the strategy: deciding what matters most, putting it in writing, holding vendors to a standard, and being the person who can answer when a client, insurer, or board member asks how the firm protects its data.
This service is built for firms with 5 to 100 people: law firms handling privileged matters, CPA firms under the FTC Safeguards Rule, and entertainment companies protecting unreleased work and the people who make it. Big enough that clients and underwriters ask hard questions. Not big enough to justify a full-time security executive. If you've been searching for a vCISO in Los Angeles or a cybersecurity consultant in Los Angeles who already knows how firms like yours operate, this is that engagement.
A prioritized 12-month plan tied to your actual risks, budget, and growth, so the firm knows what to fix first, what can wait, and why.
Written information security, acceptable use, access control, incident response, and AI-use policies in plain English, drafted with your team and kept current.
Due diligence on the software and service providers that touch client data: practice management, e-discovery, payroll, cloud storage, AI tools. You know who holds your data and how well they guard it.
Cyber-insurance applications, client security questionnaires, and partner or board reporting completed accurately and on time, with evidence to back every answer.
A standing monthly meeting with your leadership: progress against the roadmap, open risks, what changed in the threat landscape, and decisions that need you.
A response plan the firm has rehearsed, with insurer and counsel contacts ready, so a bad day is a managed day. See how we handle incidents →
Every vCISO engagement begins with a free assessment: a conversation with your leadership about how the firm works, followed by a review of your Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace tenant, endpoints, backups, email security, and the policies you already have. You get a plain-English summary of where you stand and what we would do first. If it makes sense to go further, we propose a monthly engagement sized to your firm. If it doesn't, you still leave with the findings.
A law, CPA, or entertainment firm with 5 to 100 people; fielding client security questionnaires or cyber-insurance applications nobody wants to own; required to maintain a written security plan; adopting AI tools and unsure where the guardrails are; or a leadership team that wants security decided on purpose instead of by default.
You need a full-time, on-site security executive, a formal certification audit performed (we prepare you for auditors and work alongside them, but we aren't a certification body), or a one-time checkbox report with no one accountable afterward. A vCISO is a relationship, not a document.
A full-time CISO in Los Angeles is a senior executive salary plus benefits. A vCISO engagement is a flat monthly fee sized to your firm, typically a small fraction of that, and we quote it only after the free assessment so the number reflects your actual environment rather than a package.
Often, yes. IT providers keep systems running; a vCISO decides what the firm's security posture should be and holds everyone, including the IT provider, to it. We work alongside your existing IT team or MSP, and if nicwerks® already manages your IT, the vCISO role layers on top of that relationship.
Compliance is one output, not the goal. The same roadmap, policies, and vendor reviews that satisfy the FTC Safeguards Rule, HIPAA, SOC 2 readiness, or a client's outside-counsel guidelines are what keep your firm out of the incident in the first place.
Your vCISO is your first call. We run the response, coordinate with your cyber insurer and outside counsel, and handle the technical investigation and recovery. Our incident response page covers the first hour in detail.
Thirty minutes with a real security leader, a plain-English read on where your firm stands, and a clear next step. No obligation.
