Cybersecurity leadership your board can trust — without hiring a CISO.
Clairos gives you governance, a working security program, and a trained team — on demand, for a fraction of a hire. From the book that reframes the boardroom to a dedicated virtual CISO, there's a Clairos offering for wherever you are.
You need security leadership. Hiring a CISO is the hard way to get it.
Regulators, customers, and your own board now expect real cyber governance. The need is rising fast — but the traditional way to meet it has become slow, scarce, expensive, and short-lived.
You don't need the headcount. You need the capability — and that's exactly what Clairos delivers.
One ecosystem. Wherever you are, there's a Clairos offering.
From understanding the duty to running a full program, Clairos meets you at your level — and grows with you.
The Book
- For directors, CEOs, CFOs & counsel
- No jargon, no fear — just the duty
- eBook, paperback & hardcover
Mastery
- The knowledge, the training & the program
- Board- & audit-ready outputs
- Live in days · a fraction of one CISO
Executive
- Dedicated vCISO & account manager
- 24/7 incident-response hotline
- Quarterly board reviews · playbooks · tabletop
Advisory Programs
- Board Oversight & Director Certification
- Effective CISO–Board Communication
- Cyber M&A: Legal & Financial
Three working capabilities. One subscription.
Together they do the job an organization would otherwise build a whole team to do.
Clairos Library
Policies, NIST CSF & control frameworks, the plans library, the tools atlas — expert answers on demand, in plain English.
Clairos Training
Executive & board education, the leadership mega-course, and role-based upskilling — your people, fluent and certified.
GRC Projects
Ready project plans, gap assessments, roadmaps & board-ready outputs — the program, actually built.
Why this beats hiring a CISO
Same outcome a great CISO would deliver — broader, faster, more durable, and a fraction of the cost.
| Hiring a CISO | Clairos | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | $250–450k+ all-in, plus a team | A fraction of one salary |
| Time to value | 6+ months to hire, then ramp | Live in days |
| Breadth | One person's expertise & blind spots | The whole body of knowledge, training & execution |
| Availability | One human, one calendar | On demand, around the clock |
| Continuity | Avg. tenure under ~2 years | No turnover, no burnout |
| Currency | As current as one person stays | Continuously updated frameworks & regs |
| Board-readiness | Depends on the individual | Governance & reporting built in |
| Key-person risk | High — a single point of failure | None — the capability isn't one person |
See how much you save vs. hiring in-house
Choose the Clairos offering you need and your estimated cost of hiring a CISO in-house. We'll show your savings — live.
Clairos figures are illustrative (see Pricing); we confirm your final price. The in-house figure is your estimate. Executive tiers anchor against a CISO plus a team, so real-world savings are often higher.
Outcomes your board, customers, and auditors can see
Not tools to manage — results you can show.
Board-ready governance
Clear ownership, documented decisions, and oversight evidence — in the language your board and regulators expect.
Audit & SOC 2 readiness
Policies, assessments, and roadmaps that produce the evidence customers and auditors ask for.
Incident readiness
Tested playbooks and rehearsed response, so a bad day is execution — not improvisation.
A trained, fluent team
Executives and staff who understand their role in cyber — certified and confident.
Always current
Frameworks and regulations move monthly; Clairos moves with them, so you don't fall behind.
A fraction of the cost
The capability of a security department, as a predictable line item you can budget.
Built for the leaders who own the risk
Founders & CEOs
"A breach or a failed review could sink us — and I can't fund a CISO yet." Get a credible program now, at a price that fits.
CFOs
"Security is an unbounded cost." Replace a quarter-million-dollar hire and a team with a fixed, fractional line item.
COOs
"Customers and auditors demand maturity we can't show." Produce the evidence fast, without standing up a department.
General Counsel
"We have regulatory exposure and no documented governance." Get the board-ready record that protects the company.
Boards & Directors
"Can we prove how we oversee cyber?" Get the oversight, reporting, and certification that demonstrate you did.
PE & portfolio leaders
"Every portfolio company needs this — cost-effectively." Deploy one standardized capability across them all.
Not a promise — a body of work
Clairos isn't asking you to trust a pitch. It's giving you access to a deep, published body of cybersecurity-governance work.
The book
A published governance guide for boards and executives — the foundation of everything Clairos does.
29 GRC project plans
A complete, sequenced library of ready-to-run governance, risk & compliance projects.
NIST CSF 2.0 policy suite
A full, branded policy and governance pack mapped to the framework auditors expect.
A leadership course
A multi-module cybersecurity-leadership course built for executives and boards.
Simple — and a fraction of a hire
A full-time CISO is $250k+ all-in and six months away. Every Clairos offering is anchored well below that.
Mastery
- The Clairos Library, Training & GRC Projects
- Board- & audit-ready outputs
- Live in days, billed annually or quarterly
- Grows with you — upgrade to Executive anytime
Executive
- Everything in Mastery, plus a dedicated vCISO
- 24/7 IR hotline, quarterly board reviews
- Custom playbooks, annual tabletop, unlimited seats
- Tailored to your organization — quoted to scope
The book is available separately on Amazon. Final pricing is confirmed by Clairos based on your needs.
Frequently asked
For most organizations below the largest enterprises, not yet — and often not for years. Clairos delivers the capability a CISO would, immediately and far more affordably. And if you do hire one later, they inherit a running program and are effective on day one.
Mastery is the self-serve platform — the Library, Training, and GRC Projects you use to run your own program. Executive is everything in Mastery plus a dedicated virtual CISO and white-glove service: an IR hotline, quarterly board reviews, custom playbooks, and an annual tabletop.
Neither alone. Clairos is the leadership and program layer — the governance, documentation, training, and execution that decide whether your tools actually add up to a defensible program. That's the work a CISO is hired to own.
Mastery can go live in days — no hire to wait on. We'll show it solving your real problem, then get you running quickly.
Yes — that's the point. Clairos produces board-ready governance and the documented evidence that auditors, customers, and regulators expect, mapped to recognized frameworks like the NIST CSF.
Every offering is anchored well below the $250k+ all-in cost of a full-time CISO. Mastery is a self-serve subscription priced at a fraction of one hire; Executive is a bespoke retainer quoted to your scope. Contact us for exact pricing.
Start anywhere on the ladder: read the book, subscribe to Mastery, or talk to us about Executive. The simplest first step is a short conversation about where your program stands today.
See what Clairos can do for your board.
Tell us where your security program stands today, and we'll show you the fastest path to a defensible one — without the hire.