Industries
Fintech Cybersecurity Advisory
Fintech security has its own playbook — NYDFS Part 500, GLBA, banking-partner reviews, SOC 2 Type II, and the regulatory expectations specific to financial services. Virtual CISO advisory led by the former 15-year Chief Security Officer of Silicon Valley Bank — an SVB-alumni angle that\'s hard to replicate for fintech-focused operators.
Book a 30-minute intro callWhy fintech needs a different security playbook
Fintech operates at the intersection of regulated financial services and high-velocity software development — a combination that creates unique cybersecurity challenges generic vCISO advisory rarely handles well.
Banking partner due diligence
Most fintechs depend on a banking partner (sponsor bank, banking-as-a-service provider). The banking partner conducts cybersecurity due diligence as a condition of the relationship — and their standards are bank-grade. A vCISO with bank operator experience navigates these reviews fluently; one without is learning on the fly.
Regulatory framework stack
Fintech compliance includes NYDFS Part 500 (for any fintech operating in NY, which is most), GLBA, FFIEC guidance where applicable, plus the SaaS standard layer (SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001). The stack grows with the business model — payments add PCI-DSS, lending tech adds CRA / fair-lending data handling, neobanks add full bank-equivalent regulatory expectations.
Sophisticated investor diligence
Fintech investors (Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, Insight, growth-stage and PE) ask deeper cybersecurity questions during diligence than typical tech-stage investors. They expect bank-grade security posture, not startup-grade. Pre-Series B fintechs without a credible CISO answer routinely take valuation discounts on rounds.
Threat actors target fintech specifically
Financial-services targeting is industrialized — nation-state, organized cybercrime, and ransomware operators all prioritize fintech for high-value, high-leverage attacks. Defensive posture has to match the threat profile, not the company stage.
Why vCSO.ai for fintech cybersecurity
vCSO.ai is led by Nick Shevelyov — 15 years as Chief Security Officer at Silicon Valley Bank, the bank to the innovation economy. That fintech operator experience is structurally hard to replicate from outside banking.
- 15 years of bank CSO operator experience. Direct fluency with NYDFS Part 500, GLBA, FFIEC guidance, and the regulatory expectations sponsor banks apply during partner diligence.
- Network across the fintech ecosystem. Direct relationships with sponsor banks, payment platforms, banking-as-a-service providers — and the regulators who oversee them.
- $200B+ in financial assets defended. Including against the People\'s Liberation Army during the SolarWinds-era nation-state campaign — the response was cited by the Federal Reserve as the textbook approach.
- Investor-fluent communication. Direct experience with the diligence questions sophisticated fintech investors ask and the security maturity they expect at each stage.