Kayne McGladrey, CISSP – Cybersecurity Advisor, Author of the GRC Maturity Model, Virtual CISO

I’m Kayne McGladrey, and I help Fortune 500 and Global 1000 organizations turn cybersecurity risk into business advantage. Through the GRC Maturity Model, executive‑level advisory, and targeted regulatory guidance, I enable leaders to make confident, risk‑aware decisions. I also deliver keynote talks and am a regular podcast guest.

Virtual CISO Services for SMBs and Mid-Market Firms

Bridging Cybersecurity and Business Risk

For growing companies, cybersecurity isn’t just an IT issue, it’s a business enabler. I help SMBs and mid-market firms translate technical risks into clear business outcomes, enabling founders and boards to make confident, risk-aware decisions. By aligning security strategies with growth objectives, we turn compliance into a competitive advantage that attracts investors and enterprise customers.

Navigating the Challenges of Compliance

Compliance shouldn’t stall your momentum. I guide startups and scaling firms through the complexities of SOC 2, ISO 27001, and other regulations without the overhead of a full-time team. Using my GRC Maturity Model, we build pragmatic frameworks that satisfy auditors and secure deals, turning regulatory hurdles into a streamlined path for market expansion.

Preparing for the Future of Regulation

The regulatory landscape is shifting fast, especially with AI and data privacy laws. I help forward-thinking organizations stay ahead of the curve with horizon scanning and practical adaptation strategies. Whether it’s the EU AI Act or the risks of shadow AI, we ensure your security posture is resilient and ready for tomorrow’s requirements, protecting your reputation and your bottom line.

Cybersecurity Strategy for Growing Enterprises

Photo of Kayne McGladrey speaking at a cybersecurity conference

I’m Kayne McGladrey, CISSP‑certified cybersecurity advisor, author of the GRC Maturity Model, and senior IEEE member. Over nearly three decades I’ve helped Fortune 500 and Global 1000 firms align governance, risk, and compliance with business strategy, reduce incident‑response times by up to 45%, and avoid $10 M+ in potential losses.

My work focuses on:

  • Helping CISOs, internal‑audit teams, and executives to translate technical risk into clear business outcomes.
  • Designing GRC frameworks that turn compliance into a competitive advantage.
  • Guiding organizations through emerging regulations such as the EU AI Act, SEC disclosure rules, and DORA.

I offer Virtual CISO services to help companies align their cybersecurity stance with actionable business risks. I’m also open to paid interviews, sponsored articles, and webinars for brands in cybersecurity and AI governance. If you’re looking for expert content that’s human-written and backed by 250+ media features, check out my Partnerships page for rates and details.

Award: Master Expert in AI Governance
Award: Elite Expert in Risk Management
Award: Elite Expert in Cybersecurity
CISSP Professional Credential for Kayne McGladrey
Chart showing 94% of attendees say Kayne McGladrey's talks are relevant and engaging
Chart showing 100% of attendees say Kayne McGladrey's sessions are valuable
Chart showing 97% of attendees are interested in attending future talks

AI Regulation & Compliance Advisory

Below are selected external pieces where I discuss emerging threats, regulatory shifts, and practical GRC guidance. These illustrate the kinds of insight I bring to client engagements and public forums.

Post Types

Running Claude Code or Claude in Chrome? Here’s the audit matrix for every blind spot your security stack misses
VentureBeat

Running Claude Code or Claude in Chrome? Here’s the audit matrix for every blind spot your security stack misses

Kayne McGladrey, an IEEE senior member who advises enterprises on identity risk, described the same dynamic independently in an interview with VentureBeat. Enterprises are cloning human permission sets onto agentic systems, McGladrey said. The agent does whatever it needs to do to get its job done, and sometimes that means using far more permissions than a human would.
AI agents are running hospital records and factory inspections. Enterprise IAM was never built for them.
VentureBeat

AI agents are running hospital records and factory inspections. Enterprise IAM was never built for them.

Kayne McGladrey, an IEEE senior member, told VentureBeat that organizations are defaulting to cloning human user profiles for agents, and permission sprawl starts on day one. Carter Rees, VP of AI at Reputation, identified the structural reason. "A significant vulnerability in enterprise AI is broken access control, where the flat authorization plane of an LLM fails to respect user permissions," Rees told VentureBeat.
An AI agent rewrote a Fortune 50 security policy. Here’s how to govern AI agents before one does the same.
VentureBeat

An AI agent rewrote a Fortune 50 security policy. Here’s how to govern AI agents before one does the same.

McGladrey's practitioner experience confirms the gap. The Cloud Security Alliance published an NIST AI RMF Agentic Profile in April 2026, proposing autonomy-tier classification and runtime behavioral metrics. But SOC 2, ISO 27001, and PCI DSS have not operationalized agent identities. The compliance frameworks McGladrey works with inside enterprises were written for humans. Agent identities do not appear in any control catalog he has encountered. The gap is a lagging indicator; the risk is not.

More news and podcasts

Latest Articles

Frequently Asked Questions

Kayne McGladrey has written the “Weekly News Context” newsletter since 2020. Subscribers to the newsletter receive human-written cybersecurity, law, AI governance, and regulatory analysis. Subscribing is free.

The GRC Maturity Model is a framework Kayne McGladrey developed to help organizations assess and advance their Governance, Risk, and Compliance programs. It moves beyond checklist compliance to align security strategies with business objectives, enabling leaders to measure progress and reduce risk effectively.

A Virtual CISO provides executive-level cybersecurity leadership without the cost of a full-time hire. Kayne McGladrey advises B2B companies from startups to Fortune 500 and Global 1000 firms on translating technical risks into business outcomes, streamlining compliance efforts such as SOC 2 and ISO 27001, and building resilient security strategies that support growth.

Kayne McGladrey works with B2B organizations across diverse sectors, with specialized expertise in manufacturing, the defense industrial base, healthcare, finance, and technology. My focus is on helping regulated industries navigate complex frameworks like the EU AI Act, NIST, and DORA while maintaining operational agility.

Yes. Kayne McGladrey delivers keynote speeches, lead webinars, and produce sponsored blog content on topics including AI risk management, bridging cybersecurity with business strategy, and modernizing GRC programs. These engagements are tailored for executive audiences, boards, and technical teams. Visit my media partnership opportunities page for details.

Glossary

A framework for measuring how well an organization’s Governance, Risk, and Compliance programs support its business goals, written by Kayne McGladrey. Rather than treating compliance as a checkbox exercise, the model helps leaders identify where they are today and chart a practical path toward more mature, effective risk management.

An experienced cybersecurity leader who provides strategic security guidance to organizations on a flexible, part-time basis. A vCISO delivers the same executive-level direction as a full-time CISO, including risk assessment, compliance oversight, and incident response planning, without the overhead of a permanent hire.

A European Union regulation that requires financial institutions and their technology providers to ensure they can withstand and recover from digital disruptions. DORA covers areas such as ICT risk management, incident reporting, third-party oversight, and operational resilience testing.

A globally recognized cybersecurity certification awarded by ISC2. It validates deep expertise across eight security domains, including risk management, security architecture, and software development security, and requires ongoing professional education to maintain.

A security compliance framework developed by the AICPA that evaluates how well an organization protects customer data across five trust criteria: security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. Achieving SOC 2 compliance is often a prerequisite for selling to enterprise customers.

An international standard that specifies the requirements for establishing, implementing, and continuously improving an Information Security Management System (ISMS). Organizations certified to ISO 27001 demonstrate a systematic approach to managing sensitive data and reducing information security risks.

A European Union law that establishes rules for the development, deployment, and use of artificial intelligence systems. It classifies AI applications by risk level, from minimal to unacceptable, and imposes increasing compliance obligations on organizations as the risk level rises.

Testimonials