What is cyber security consulting?

Cyber security consulting is independent expert advice on how to protect an organisation from cyber risk: assessing the threats you face, deciding what to do about them, and proving to boards, auditors and insurers that it is being handled. A cyber security consultant identifies your real exposures, prioritises them in business terms, and sets the strategy and controls to reduce them, without you having to hire a full security team.

It covers strategy and risk, not just tools. A good consultant tells you what to protect, to what standard, and in what order, then holds the plan together while your internal team or your suppliers do the implementation. The output is not a tool recommendation. It is a clear, prioritised picture of your risk and a costed plan to reduce it.

It suits mid-market companies, private-equity-backed businesses and not-for-profit organisations that have real cyber exposure but no senior person who owns it. If you handle data or systems that matter, face customer or regulatory pressure, and have nobody whose job is security at a strategic level, this is the gap consulting fills.

When do you need a cyber security consultant?

The need usually announces itself. The common triggers:

• A customer or insurer is asking. Larger clients now demand evidence of controls before they sign, and cyber insurers ask the same at renewal and price the gap.
• A standard is in scope. You are pursuing Cyber Essentials or ISO 27001, or you fall inside NIS2, DORA or UK GDPR obligations and need to show you comply.
• The board wants assurance. A peer has been breached, or a director has asked who owns cyber risk and the answer is unclear.
• Something has happened. A breach, a near miss or a failed audit has made the gap impossible to ignore.
• A deal is in play. An investor or acquirer expects security to be assessed and evidenced.

If none of these is pressing, you may not need a consultant yet, and an honest one will say so. The test is simple: if you were breached next week, is there one person accountable for how you prepared and how you respond?

What cyber security consulting covers

The work is the same handful of things done well:

• Risk assessment. A current, prioritised view of your real risks, mapped to a recognised framework such as NIST CSF or ISO 27001, in business terms rather than technical severity.
• Security strategy and roadmap. A costed plan that closes the gaps that matter first, aligned to the business, not a shopping list of products.
• Compliance and certification. Direction and evidence for Cyber Essentials, ISO 27001, SOC 2, NIS2, DORA and UK GDPR, so audits and questionnaires stop being fire drills.
• Incident readiness. A tested incident response plan and the rehearsal to go with it, so the first time you use it is not during a live incident.
• Third-party and supply-chain risk. A grip on the vendors who can hurt you and the contract terms that hold them to a standard.
• Board reporting. A plain-language read the board can act on: where you stand, what sits outside appetite, and the decisions being asked of them.

Independent practitioner, big firm, or managed service?

The market splits three ways, and the difference matters:

• Big consultancies bring depth and a brand, but you buy a project team, partner rates, and a deliverable that lands and leaves. Often the right call for the largest, most complex programmes.
• Managed security services watch your systems and sell the tools, which is valuable, but they have a commercial interest in what they recommend and rarely own strategy or board reporting.
• An independent senior practitioner gives you one accountable person, vendor-neutral advice, and continuity. The person who assesses your risk is the person who reports to your board, and they are not selling you a product.

For mid-market and PE-backed organisations, the third option usually fits best. When the work needs formal assurance, look for consultancies certified under the NCSC’s assured scheme; when it needs ongoing leadership, the CISO as a service and virtual CISO models carry it forward.

What cyber security consulting costs

Consulting is bought by the day or on a retainer, so you pay for the seniority and time you need rather than a fixed salary. That is the advantage over hiring: a full-time security leader is a major fixed cost, while consulting flexes to the work. Day rates and retainer ranges are on the pricing page, and where the need is continuous, a fractional CIO and CISO arrangement is usually the most cost-effective shape.

Why cyber is a board accountability

Cyber security is now a board responsibility, and the cost of getting it wrong is a board-level number. The global average cost of a data breach reached USD 4.44 million in 2025, according to IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report. In the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office fined British Airways £20 million in 2020 after a breach exposed the data of more than 400,000 customers, and Interserve £4.4 million in 2022 after a phishing attack, criticising the company for failing to act on an earlier alert. Good consulting is how a board turns that exposure into decisions it can defend.

Why Starkhorn

Starkhorn is led by Daniel J. Jacobs, who has spent over 20 years in technology and security, 15 of them in leadership roles. He has owned the combined technology and security remit at scale: Interim Group Technology Director at VetPartners, the BC Partners-backed veterinary group, and CIO and CISO at Jardine Motors Group. He is the author of The Strategy Bridge and holds PRINCE2, ITIL Foundation and full membership of the Institute of Interim Management.

What that means for you: independent advice from someone who has carried the accountability, understands the commercial pressures of a mid-market or PE-backed business, and treats security and technology as one remit. One senior practitioner, no vendor agenda, no rotating bench.

Frequently asked questions