The adage ‘it takes a village’ is true in its intention. Great things come from a village’s accumulated intellect, education, and experience. Just as in governing a village, today’s executives are charged with multiple tasks and huge burdens of responsibility. The required inward and outward facing roles within a business are often managed (although sometimes less fluidly than preferred) by single resources attempting to accomplish complex multitasking, while trying to respect a work/life balance.  

This complex multitasking keeps executives busy managing, and administrative staff busy supporting the vast needs of the organization. Due to this, focusing on cyber safety and security is one area of business that is pivotal, though often neglected.  

The Roles in IT Security

Contracting in business creates partnerships where joining forces enables both parties to complete projects, increase expertise, or fill other gaps in departmental resources. Adding diversity through contracting means partnering with a provider who can give you the fast track to their level of certification, share their warehouses and datacenters, and instill continuity by performing the roles they know best.  This allows the company resources to have time to focus on the needs and responsibilities required to support the business. 

Job requirements within the world of cybersecurity are rapidly changing and growing. To employ a viable team of attentive, well-versed professionals that manage IT security adequately and appropriately may prove to be a challenge. 

Some of the roles in today’s cybersecurity world include: 

• Application Security Manager  
• Chief Information Security Officer  
• Cyber Security Analyst  
• Cyber Security Engineer  
• Cyber Security Manager
• Forensics Analyst
• Network Security Engineer 
• Penetration Tester  
• Security Architect 
• Threat Analyst 

While it is possible for one person to manage several roles within the cybersecurity realm, it is important to use resources and staff wisely. Many companies are unable to employ large teams of IT security experts. Putting tools in place to manage a breach, for example, is far easier, smarter, and cheaper than having to find the tools to recover from one. Contracting can provide the adequate coverage needed to monitor, report on, and respond to unwelcome events. 

Choosing a Consultant in a Cyber World

In cybersecurity, or IT organizations as a whole, a constant battle is waged between daily operational control and management, and the many other projects that improve operations and response readiness. Utilizing consultants to supplement operational staffing frees-up experienced personnel for strategy development and project delivery. Consultants providing subject matter expertise on projects or new initiatives is a cost-effective way to accelerate timelines and bring in industry knowledge.  

• Leverage: Consultant experience and expertise can be leveraged to take on daily operational tasks with minimal training and handoff such as helpdesk, daily monitoring, and reporting.  
• Experience: Engaging with industry subject matter experts accelerates and augments project teams capabilities and new product implementations. An excellent contracting approach is engaging consultants on a result-delivered, performance-based contract as compared to a supplemental staffing basis. Utilizing the consultant organization’s experience to accelerate delivery can improve quality, increase capabilities, extend knowledge, and ultimately reduce project or operational cost. 
• Expertise: There is value in the expertise that consultants provide for product evaluations and selection, and business case development. Many consulting organizations specialize in specific security technologies or areas of proficiency that add value, help speed the process of selecting new technologies, or recommend real-life organizational or process changes at a reasonable cost.
• Confirmation: Consulting expertise can help improve executive presentation and reinforce confidence by supporting recommendations and confirming industry knowledge that justifies business cases.

Just as minimizing security risks and being prepared in the event of a cyber breach, having a plan on when and how to utilize consultants to assist with improvements for a security program is essential in today’s fast paced environment. 

Diverse Partnerships

Employing a partner in your cybersecurity arena is a helpful, productive measure in assuring that your business is protected from a breach or attack, rather than having to stress and hustle to recover after it. It affords your current team more focus on the core of their duties, while employing experts to do what they do best. Partnering with a minority-owned cybersecurity team such as Cayuse, however, offers opportunities in many more ways.  

Partnering with a Minority-Owned Business Enterprise (MBE) is indicative of a quality, experienced partner. Before a company can become a diversity provider, or MBE, stringent requirements and reviews are completed. The rigor of achieving the MBE status, however, comes with rewards. Exclusive offers are available to MBEs such as access to networking opportunities, supplier databases, purchasing agents, and connections to nationally recognized organizations. Incentives such as tax breaks and grants are another offering provided through MBE status. 

Employing diversity affords businesses a blending of ideas, education, training, and experience that encompasses and delivers tremendous value to those involved. Cayuse isn’t diverse simply by name or founder. We employ our diversity. As a Native American-owned and operated US-based company, we want to share our vast knowledge and professionalism while offering our founders, board members, and employees the ability to maintain life with their families on their home-base - the reservation. 

A Cayuse - Cyber Relationship

There are multiple options for engaging with a consultant, ranging from the large international firms of Deloitte, PWC, Accenture and others, to independent contractors. Cayuse, as a Native American owned company, provides consulting services to government and commercial clients in the United States.  

Our team comes with large international consulting firm experience. We bring value-driven results to our clients, backed by credentials from past engagements, through our experience and industry knowledge. We may be smaller than the large international firms, however our diversity and talent outweigh their size and international reach.

A Well-Aligned Partner

There are wonderful benefits in combining talent, diversity, and business savvy with a cybersecurity partner like Cayuse. Allowing for IT operational deliverables in conjunction with the ability to focus on managing your business needs and growth is a balance that companies need and deserve. 

Some might use their minority status as a ‘hook’ to lure partners in, representing a misalignment between credentials and the diversity that provided for them. Cayuse is proud of our roots and our talent. We are a small, American company that is big on respecting and valuing partnerships, while sharing knowledge, teamwork, experience, and diversity.