About CampusCISO
CampusCISO is a higher education cybersecurity advisory practice built on a simple belief: information security strategy doesn’t have to be as hard as we sometimes make it.
We help institutions cut through the busywork to focus on the few actions that genuinely strengthen their cyber resilience. That approach comes from decades of higher education experience, which shaped our methods and led us to develop the frameworks and benchmarking data that support security planning for education technology leaders.
Why we exist
Cybersecurity planning in higher education has become far harder than it needs to be. Over time, institutions accumulate checklists, audits, and generic industry frameworks retrofitted to the sector. Busywork crowds out the work that matters. Meanwhile the structured analysis and peer evidence that would let a team confidently focus has been missing, so busywork feels safer than simplification.
We treat cybersecurity as a portfolio, not a checklist.
The Three Lenses of Cyber Resilience
Every cybersecurity program depends on the answers to three questions: Do you have the capabilities you need? Do you have the right policies in place? Can your team execute when it matters? Each is a distinct lens on your posture, and each lens is served by a CampusCISO product family. The real value comes from answering all three with evidence and connecting the findings: a capability gap may reflect a governance gap, and a preparedness failure may reflect both. That connected picture is what we mean by cyber resilience.
Explore the Three Lenses →Capabilities, governance, and preparedness aren't independent compliance domains to be audited in isolation. They're connected investments that have to be evaluated together: a weakness in one propagates into the others, and an investment in one often depends on capacity in another. That worldview is what makes our Three Lenses model a portfolio analysis framework rather than three more checklists.
So our mission is simple: to equip higher education to aggressively simplify cybersecurity planning, cutting through the busywork to focus on the few things that move institutions from compliance to resilience. The simplification is credible, not glib, because the cuts are guided by evidence from hundreds of peer institutions, not guesswork.
How we organize the work
We organize advisory services around the three questions boards, auditors, and insurers keep asking. Each lens is answered by a product family you can engage at the level you need, ranging from a free framework to a board-ready roadmap.
Cyber Readiness
Do you have the capabilities you need?
Cyber Heat Map®
Governance Maturity
Do you have the right policies in place?
IT Policy
Response Preparedness
Can your team execute when it matters?
TTX Coaching
Most institutions can answer one of these questions with confidence. Many can answer two. We help you answer all three, then connect the evidence so you can see the dependencies and gaps that no single assessment reveals.
What makes the practice different
CampusCISO is designed specifically for the needs of colleges and universities, so our frameworks and methodologies reflect how the sector actually operates, not generic industry checklists retrofitted to it.
Every recommendation is backed by a growing benchmarking dataset derived from 200+ capability assessments and 400+ analyzed IT policy libraries. This provides unique peer comparison data higher education leaders can trust.
Engagements are fixed-scope, fixed-price deliverables you can take straight into a leadership meeting, not open-ended billable hours.
Work is delivered by the founder, not handed to junior analysts, so you get decades of experience without traditional consulting overhead costs.
We cut through checklist bloat to help you find the handful of tasks that genuinely strengthen cyber resilience rather than adding more processes and busywork.
Deliverables recommend which gaps to address, never specific tools or vendors, so you receive planning input rather than a sales pitch.
Expert higher education cybersecurity guidance has long been priced for large institutions. We’re designed to support schools of any size and budget with the same structured analysis, not a watered-down version.
How we create value over time
Cybersecurity planning is never “done.” Our methodologies produce prioritized recommendations and feed a peer benchmarking dataset; the dataset, in turn, grounds future recommendations and tracks your progress year over year.
That's why we say our methods compound. An institution that engages annually can show leadership year-over-year evidence of progress, not just individual engagement results. Recommendations come from the methodologies; the peer data grounds them, defends them, and measures the rate at which you're improving.
130+
Institutions served since 2021
200+
Capability assessments
400+
IT policy libraries analyzed
5+ yrs
Of structured assessment data
Practice footprint and research footprint, measured separately
Who we serve
We work with colleges and universities of every size and budget, and a small number of partner firms that serve them. The work is built to support the institutional leaders responsible for information security decisions, each from a different seat.
The CIO
Balancing cybersecurity against every other IT priority, who needs portfolio-level clarity and defensible evidence for board conversations.
The CISO
Running a capable program, who needs external validation and peer evidence to back their plans and secure funding.
The solo security lead
Wearing every hat at a smaller institution, who needs a prioritized plan and a strategic sounding board that doesn't exist on campus.
The executive and board
Accountable for institutional risk, who need assurance the program is managed efficiently and can be defended.
The person behind it
Nearly three decades in higher education technology and security, in both campus and vendor leadership roles. Work is delivered by the founder, not junior analysts.
How we operate
Our three structural commitments: how we use AI in client work, how we handle your data, and how we make the methodology transparent and public.
Start with a $399 Diagnostic for a scored read on one lens, or talk with Chris about where your institution should begin.