Most small and medium-sized businesses don’t have a Chief Information Security Officer. They can’t justify the $150K-$250K salary for a full-time security executive when they’re a 10 or 50-person company still figuring out basic growth.
But cybersecurity risk doesn’t care about your company’s size.
Ransomware gangs target small businesses specifically because they assume security will be weaker. Data breaches hit companies of all sizes. Regulatory requirements apply whether you have a CISO or not. And cyber insurance is increasingly requiring evidence of security practices regardless of your headcount.
So how do you actually manage cyber risk when you don’t have a dedicated security leader?
Start With Someone Who Owns It
The biggest mistake small businesses make isn’t a lack of expertise, but a lack of ownership.
Security becomes everyone’s responsibility, which means it’s actually no one’s responsibility. Your IT person handles it when they have time (which is never). Your operations manager worries about it occasionally. Your CEO knows it matters, but doesn’t know what to do about it.
Meanwhile, nobody’s actually making security decisions, implementing controls, or ensuring risks are being managed.
The first step is assigning clear ownership. Someone needs to be accountable for cybersecurity, even if it’s not their only job.
This might be:
- Your IT manager or director
- Your operations leader
- Your compliance officer
- An outside fractional CISO or vCISO
Whoever it is, they need explicit authority to make security decisions, a budget to implement controls, and direct access to leadership for escalating risks.
Without ownership, nothing else matters. Security becomes a series of reactive responses to crises rather than proactive risk management.
Know What You’re Actually Protecting
You don’t need a CISO to identify your crown jewels (the data and systems that would cause serious damage if compromised).
Sit down with your leadership team and answer these questions:
What data would be catastrophic to lose? Customer databases? Financial records? Intellectual property? Employee information?
What systems would cripple operations if they went down? Your order management system? Manufacturing controls? Payment processing?
What would cause the most regulatory or legal pain if breached? PHI for healthcare? PII for consumer data? Payment card information?
What would damage your reputation most? Customer trust? Partner relationships? Market position?
Once you know what matters most, you can focus security efforts where they actually count instead of trying to protect everything equally.
Implement the Basics (They’re Not Sexy, But They Work)
You don’t need cutting-edge security tools or sophisticated threat intelligence. Most breaches happen because basic security hygiene is missing.
Focus on fundamentals:
- Multi-factor authentication on everything important. Email, financial systems, admin access, and remote access. If it matters, it needs MFA. This alone stops the majority of credential-based attacks.
- Regular patching and updates. Set up automatic updates where possible. For critical systems, have a process to test and deploy patches within 30 days of release.
- Endpoint protection that actually works. Not just antivirus, but modern endpoint detection and response. It should catch malware, detect unusual behavior, and provide visibility into what’s happening on devices.
- Backup everything critical, and test restores. Ransomware attacks succeed because companies can’t recover their data. Regular backups stored offline or in immutable storage give you options when (not if) something goes wrong.
- Basic access controls. People should only access what they need for their jobs. Admin privileges should be limited. Shared accounts should be eliminated.
- Security awareness training. Your people are both your biggest vulnerability and your best defense. Regular training reduces the chances they’ll click on malicious links or fall for phishing.
None of this requires a CISO. It requires someone with ownership making sure it gets done and stays done.
Use Outside Expertise Strategically
You can’t afford a full-time CISO, but you can afford targeted expertise when you need it.
Fractional or virtual CISOs provide strategic guidance without the full-time cost. They help you build security programs, make risk decisions, and provide leadership by translating technical security into business language. Typical cost: $3K-$8K monthly for ongoing guidance.
Penetration testing reveals what you’re missing. Instead of guessing about vulnerabilities, have professionals actually test your defenses and tell you what needs fixing. Annual testing costs $2K-$10K, depending on the scope, which is far less than the cost of a breach.
Hire security consultants for specific projects. Need to secure your cloud environment? Implement compliance controls? Respond to an incident? Bring in expertise for the specific challenge rather than trying to figure it out yourself.
Managed security service providers (MSSPs) can handle ongoing monitoring, threat detection, and response. You get 24/7 security operations without building an internal team.
The key is being strategic. You don’t need all of these all the time. You need the right expertise at the right moment.
Make Risk Decisions Explicitly
Without a CISO, security decisions often happen by default rather than by design. Something doesn’t get done because nobody had time, not because anyone decided the risk was acceptable.
That’s dangerous.
Instead, make risk decisions explicit:
When you identify a security gap, decide consciously what to do about it:
- Mitigate: Implement controls to reduce the risk
- Accept: Decide the risk is low enough to live with
- Transfer: Use insurance or contracts to shift the risk
- Avoid: Eliminate the activity creating the risk
Document these decisions. “We’re accepting the risk that our legacy system can’t be patched because replacing it would cost $200K and the system only handles low-sensitivity data” is a legitimate business decision.
“We never got around to patching that system” is negligence.
The difference is intentionality. You’re managing risk rather than ignoring it.
Leverage Your Existing Relationships
You probably already work with people who can help with security.
Your IT service provider or MSP likely offers security services or can recommend solutions. They understand your environment and can implement controls as part of their existing work.
Your insurance broker can connect you with companies to help you with risk assessments, security vendors, and resources for improving your security posture. They’re incentivized to help you reduce risk because it makes you more insurable.
Your industry peers face the same challenges. Industry associations, peer groups, and professional networks are valuable sources of practical guidance on what actually works for businesses like yours.
Your technology vendors often provide security resources, best practices, and support to help secure their products. Microsoft, Google, and AWS all offer security guidance to help you use their platforms safely.
You’re not alone in figuring this out. Use the resources and relationships already available to you.
Build Security Into Business Processes
Security doesn’t have to be a separate function. It can be integrated into how you already operate:
- When onboarding new employees: Include security training, set up accounts with proper access levels, and issue security-configured devices.
- When onboarding new vendors: Include security requirements in contracts, verify their security practices, and establish secure data sharing methods.
- When deploying new systems: Include security review in the project plan, configure security settings from the start, and test security controls before going live.
- When making business changes: Consider security implications of new products, services, locations, or partnerships.
Security becomes part of “how we do things” rather than a separate initiative requiring dedicated resources.
Know When You Need to Escalate
You can manage a lot of security risk without a CISO, but you need to recognize when you’re in over your head:
- You’re handling regulated data at scale. If you’re processing thousands of credit cards, managing significant healthcare data, or handling sensitive financial information, you probably need dedicated security leadership.
- You’ve had an incident you couldn’t handle. If a security event overwhelmed your ability to respond, that’s a sign you need more dedicated resources.
- You’re pursuing major clients or contracts. Enterprise customers increasingly require evidence of mature security programs. A CISO (even fractional) provides credibility and expertise to meet those expectations.
- Security is consuming leadership time. If your CEO or COO is spending significant time on security decisions, you’ve probably outgrown the “manage it without a CISO” phase.
- Your industry or regulators are demanding it. Some industries or regulatory frameworks effectively require CISO-level leadership to demonstrate adequate oversight.
There’s no shame in reaching the point where you need dedicated security leadership. It’s a sign of growth, not failure.
The Bottom Line
Managing cyber risk without a CISO isn’t about doing everything a CISO would do. It’s about:
- Assigning clear ownership so someone’s accountable
- Protecting what matters most to your business
- Implementing basic controls that prevent most attacks
- Using outside expertise strategically when you need it
- Making risk decisions explicitly rather than by default
- Integrating security into existing business processes
You don’t need a six-figure executive to do these things. You need intentionality, basic discipline, and willingness to get help when you need it.
Most breaches don’t happen because companies lack a CISO. They happen because nobody was paying attention, basic controls weren’t implemented, or risks weren’t being managed at all.
You can avoid that fate without a CISO on staff. But you can’t avoid it without someone taking ownership and making security a deliberate part of how you operate.
MainNerve: Security Expertise When You Need It
MainNerve works with small and medium-sized businesses that don’t all have full-time security leadership but need real security expertise.
Our penetration testing helps you identify what’s actually at risk in your environment, not theoretical vulnerabilities, but real attack paths that threaten your specific business.
We translate findings into language that makes sense for business decisions, help you prioritize what matters most, and provide practical remediation guidance your team can actually implement.
You don’t need a CISO to get professional security testing. You need someone who understands that small businesses face real threats and deserve real solutions.
Ready to understand your actual cyber risk? Contact MainNerve to discuss penetration testing sized for your business, without the enterprise overhead or assumptions that don’t fit your reality.
Because managing cyber risk isn’t about your org chart, it’s about knowing what you’re protecting and taking deliberate action to protect it.
