Cybersecurity News. PHOTO: Cybercrime Magazine.
14 May The Missing Cybersecurity Leader In Small Business
Posted at 08:46h in Blogs by Taylor Fox
This week in cybersecurity from the editors at Cybercrime Magazine
__ Sausalito, Calif. – May. 14, 2026
CyberScoop reports that the average cyberattack costs for a small- or medium-size business is more than $250,000. The salary for a chief information security officer (CISO) is about the same, pulling in between $250,000 and $400,000, according to the annual 2026 CISO Report from Sophos and Cybersecurity Ventures.
Small- and medium-size businesses (SMBs) know they cannot afford a CISO’s salary, so they roll the dice, hoping they will not be attacked. This is a dangerous gamble that these businesses, which make up the backbone of the American economy, should not have to take. A virtual (vCISO) or fractional CISO (fCISO) can provide a practical solution.
As the American economy goes digital, SMBs now rely on the same building blocks as big enterprises — cloud services, payment systems, remote access, customer data, and other third-party vendors. But without senior cyber leadership, cybersecurity often becomes a patchwork of tools, checklists, insurance paperwork, and whatever guidance a vendor offers. That may get these companies through a questionnaire; it will not build real resilience.
Nearly half, all reported cyber incidents, which Cybersecurity Ventures projects to cost the global economy $12.2 trillion annually by 2031, involve smaller firms.
A Virtual CISO provides remote, on-demand cybersecurity leadership and advice, typically supporting several organizations at the same time. A fractional CISO is a dedicated, part-time executive who is more deeply integrated into one organization’s governance, security planning, and day-to-day operations. Both models give smaller organizations access to senior-level cybersecurity expertise in a flexible, more affordable way than hiring a full-time CISO.