Pragmatic Assessments
The first step in addressing your cybersecurity concerns is evaluating the overall health of your organization’s security and compliance measures.
Taking a Closer Look at Your Technology Risks
Just as a doctor or financial advisor assesses the health of your body or finances, we evaluate your company’s cybersecurity health. With our Pragmatic Assessments, we identify what you’re doing right, highlight areas of vulnerability and provide a clear, actionable roadmap to address any concerns.
Our assessments are comprehensive yet understandable, and our approach is pragmatic in that we focus on the measures that will have the greatest impact on reducing your risk. Our goal is to provide you with the knowledge you need to make informed decisions so you can protect your business effectively and efficiently, without unnecessary expenditure or complexity.
Vizius Viewpoint
We don’t just tell you what you could be doing; we focus on what you should be doing to get the maximum amount of security for your investment.
FAQ
WHAT is an Assessment and WHY should I consider getting one?
For many people, cybersecurity sounds both complex and expensive, so it’s difficult to know where to start and how to ensure you’re not wasting money on things you don’t need.
However, if you have ever gone to a doctor, financial advisor or coach, they probably wanted to get some idea of your current health, financial or athletic abilities. This seems intuitive, as you don’t want to spend a lot of money covering ground you don’t need to cover but would rather focus directly on the things that matter most.
Cybersecurity requires a similar step. Chances are, your company is already doing things that are protecting certain areas of your business well. An assessment will highlight your blind spots and, more importantly, help you understand and prioritize addressing them.
Our assessments put all of the facts into your hands. We tell you where the issues are, how important they are and exactly how to make them go away. When we are finished, your team will have all of the information you need to fix things on your own with no artificial tie-backs to us. We can help, but only if you want us to.
Why "Pragmatic"?
We hear business owners tell us that “you can spend an infinite amount of money on cybersecurity and still never be 100% secure!” Actually, that’s not true – you can disconnect your Internet connection for free and that will fix the problem!
However, if your business depends on the Internet to generate revenue, then your only options are (a) hope that nothing bad happens to you or (b) spend money to reduce your risk. If you are already spending money to reduce your risk, then the question that a Pragmatic
Assessment addresses is: “what is my actual level of risk?” That is where a Pragmatic Assessment will help.
A Pragmatic Assessment doesn’t tell you all of the things you could be spending money on, it focuses on the 80/20 rule: 20% of things you can do will lower your risk by 80%.
How do I know the difference between "would be nice" and "have to have"?
There are two ways:
We assess your company against a pragmatic standard. The CIS Top 18 is a standard of 18 basic cybersecurity controls that uses tens of thousands of actual compromises as source data. The Center for Internet Security looks at all of this data and derives the 18 basic control categories that would have stopped these attacks from being successful. We compare your company against these controls and prioritize what you need to work on based on these statistics.
You hire us to actually “hack” your company. We find that there are times when another “assessment” isn’t a welcome topic. Some folks want us to prove exactly where the holes in their environment are and how to fix them.
Penetration Testing
Our penetration testing services are like a friendly fire drill for your cybersecurity with our team of ethical hackers simulating real-world cyber attacks to identify vulnerabilities. This allows us to uncover potential weaknesses before they can be exploited, ensuring your investment in cybersecurity is targeted and effective.
Penetration testing, also known as pen testing, is a systematic evaluation of your organization’s cyber defenses. Our team of highly skilled ethical hackers simulates real-world attacks to identify vulnerabilities and potential threats in your system. This process provides you with valuable insights into the effectiveness of your security measures and helps you prioritize improvements.
Our pen testing services are designed to be pragmatic, focusing on the most impactful weaknesses and offering cost-effective solutions to mitigate risks. We believe in providing the “most bang for the buck” impacts and vulnerabilities, ensuring that you get the best value for your investment.
By engaging in our penetration testing services, you’ll gain a better understanding of the potential risks your organization faces and have the opportunity to address them before they are exploited by malicious actors. This proactive approach to cybersecurity helps you stay ahead of the curve and safeguard your critical assets.
Compliance Assessments
Our Compliance Assessments right-size control frameworks like SOC 2 and PCI DSS to match the unique needs of growing SMBs. We tailor compliant environments that enable business success, not encumber it, by smartly interpreting standards to implement efficient, scaled-down controls that still meet audit rigor.
When it comes to compliance, one size does not fit all. Our Compliance Assessments are tailored to match the unique needs and risk tolerance of small and medium-sized businesses. We understand that overly complex and expensive compliance programs can divert focus and resources away from your core operations. Our consultants take a pragmatic approach, right-sizing control frameworks like SOC 2, PCI DSS, and NIST 800-171 to your organizational requirements. With our guidance, you can achieve compliance certification without over-engineering processes or breaking the bank. We interpret standards smartly, identifying where flexibility exists to implement efficient, scaled-down controls that still meet audit rigor. This balanced approach allows you to check the compliance box while staying lean and competitive. Our Compliance Assessments empower growing companies to build compliant environments that enable, rather than encumber, business success.
How Do I Get Started?
1
Schedule
Arrange a free consultation with one of our Principal Engineers (PEs). Our PEs have decades of experience speaking to business leaders about technology risk. We will take the time to understand your business before we do anything else. Once we see what your needs are, we’ll create a clear and simple assessment proposal for you to consider.
2
Assess
Our assessment process is thorough but painless. We will conduct short, high-level interviews with various business stakeholders, conduct deep-dives with members of the technology team and run several technical discovery tools.
3
Report
Our reports present a prioritized list of findings and recommendations. We start with an executive summary that addresses the key takeaways in a “bumper sticker” format. Each assessment also has a detailed findings and recommendation document that maps to the CIS standard, notes the risk associated with it and includes detailed instructions on how to fix the problem.
4
Roadmap
Finally, each assessment contains a roadmap for implementation. The roadmap provides a prioritized list of projects, grouped by subject area, that will serve as a remediation plan for the next 12-18 months. We can help, but only if you want us to.
Request a Call
Imagine if you could talk with one of our Principal Engineers (PEs) about the risks you’re facing – without worrying about getting spammed or being added to a never-ending sales cycle. You can. Just complete the form, and we’ll reach out to arrange a time that’s good for you.