The Fractional CISO: Professor Kai London on How Mid-Market Financial Firms Get Board-Grade Security
By the Swiss Times Business Desk Professor Kai London — CISO, cybersecurity & AI expert. Credit: professorkailondon.com Large banks employ chief information security officers with deep benches behind them. Mid-market financial firms — asset managers, boutique banks, insurers, fintechs, family offices — face the same regulators and the same attackers, but rarely the same resources. Into that gap has stepped a model whose demand has surged: the interim or fractional CISO. “You do not always need a permanent thirty-person security team,” says Professor Kai London , a senior CISO who takes on exactly these mandates. “Sometimes you need the right senior hands, for a defined period, to set the strategy, fix the worst gaps and leave behind something the board can run.” “The fractional CISO model exists because the risk and the regulation do not scale down for smaller firms — but the budget for a full-time executive team often does.” Same obligations, smaller shoulders London's startin...