Advisory · Consulting · Transformation

Seven practices.
One security program.

Optiv Consulting delivers cybersecurity advisory, consulting, and transformation services across seven practice areas. Roadmapping. Risk management. Compliance. Identity. Cloud. Data. Resilience. Let's build your program.

Every engagement starts by understanding where you are and where you need to go.

Service areas

Explore our practice areas

Focused engagements and programmatic transformation, built on deep practitioner experience across every major discipline in enterprise cybersecurity.

Practice 01
AI Security & Governance
Where AI strategy meets regulatory reality.
  • AI risk framework design (NIST AI RMF, ISO 42001)
  • Model inventory and governance policy
  • Agentic AI deployment reviews
  • Board and executive AI risk briefings
Practice 02
Risk & Compliance
The foundation everything else is built on.
  • Enterprise risk framework design (NIST CSF, ISO 27001, CMMC)
  • Regulatory mapping and gap analysis
  • Control rationalization across overlapping frameworks
  • Third-party and supply chain risk programs
Practice 03
Cloud Security
You can't secure what you can't see.
  • Cloud security architecture and strategy
  • CSPM program design
  • Identity and access governance in cloud environments
  • DevSecOps and security-as-code enablement
Practice 04
Identity & Access Management
Identity is the perimeter. Treat it that way.
  • IAM strategy and roadmap
  • Privileged access management (PAM) program design
  • Zero Trust identity architecture
  • Access certification and entitlement reviews
Practice 05
Security Program Management
Strategy without execution is noise. Execution without strategy is risk.
  • CISO advisory and interim CISO (vCISO) support
  • Security program maturity assessments
  • Security roadmap development and prioritization
  • M&A security due diligence and integration planning
Practice 06
Data Security & Privacy
Data is the asset. Privacy is the obligation.
  • Data classification and governance frameworks
  • Privacy program design (GDPR, CCPA, state law)
  • Data loss prevention (DLP) strategy and architecture
  • Breach readiness and response planning
Practice 07
Cyber Resilience & Incident Response
Resilience isn't about preventing every attack. It's about surviving the ones you can't.
  • Incident response program design and tabletop exercises
  • Business continuity and disaster recovery alignment
  • Cyber resilience maturity assessment
  • Breach coach integration and legal coordination frameworks
800+ Clients served across regulated industries
20+ Years average practitioner experience on our advisory team
1,000+ Thought leadership engagements: panels, keynotes, and published articles
7 Practice areas. One integrated advisory program, scoped to your organization
Practitioner certifications
CISSP CISM CISA CRISC CGEIT C|CISO QSA (PCI) CEH GIAC PMP Six Sigma Black Belt CISSP-ISSEP
Compliance expertise
NIST CSF ISO 27001 PCI DSS HIPAA HITRUST GDPR NYDFS CMMC DFARS GLBA FFIEC SOC 2 MARS-E NIST AI RMF ISO 42001
Practice 01
AI Security & Governance
Where AI strategy meets regulatory reality.
NIST AI RMF ISO 42001 Agentic AI

AI is reshaping the enterprise attack surface. Most organizations are deploying AI capabilities faster than they are governing them. The innovation agenda is outrunning the risk framework. We help CISOs, privacy officers, and board-level risk owners build AI governance programs that are defensible under emerging regulatory standards, without slowing down the business. Whether you're managing a growing model inventory, responding to board-level inquiries, or deploying agentic AI without adequate controls, this is where to start.

Is this right for you?
  • Your AI roadmap is ahead of your AI risk framework
  • You've received board or regulatory questions about AI use and lack structured answers
  • You're deploying agentic AI tools with no model inventory, access controls, or audit trail
  • Your legal and security teams are managing AI risk in separate silos
What we do
  • AI risk framework design (NIST AI RMF, ISO 42001)
  • Model inventory and governance policy
  • AI use case risk classification and control mapping
  • Agentic AI deployment reviews
  • Board and executive AI risk briefings
Practice 02
Risk & Compliance
The foundation everything else is built on.
NIST CSF ISO 27001 CMMC SOC 2 PCI DSS HIPAA

Compliance is not security, but without a structured risk and compliance foundation, security investments fragment and boards lose confidence. Organizations are facing a risk renaissance: digital transformation has made business risk and cyber risk one and the same. Managing them separately no longer works. We help security and compliance leaders build risk frameworks that reflect real exposure, satisfy overlapping regulatory requirements, and translate into board-level language your leadership can act on. From PCI to HIPAA to NYDFS to GDPR, our compliance expertise spans the frameworks that matter to your industry.

Is this right for you?
  • You're managing multiple regulatory frameworks and struggling to integrate them
  • Your risk register does not reflect how your board thinks about risk
  • You've experienced an audit finding, regulatory inquiry, or control failure you don't want repeated
  • Your compliance function operates separately from your security program
What we do
  • Enterprise risk framework design (NIST CSF, ISO 27001, CMMC, SOC 2)
  • Risk register development and board reporting
  • Regulatory mapping and gap analysis (PCI DSS, HIPAA, HITRUST, NYDFS, GDPR)
  • Control rationalization across overlapping frameworks
  • Third-party and supply chain risk programs
  • Risk automation and GRC platform enablement
Practice 03
Cloud Security
You can't secure what you can't see.
AWS Azure GCP CSPM DevSecOps

Cloud adoption outpaces cloud governance in most enterprises. Security architectures designed for on-premises infrastructure do not translate cleanly to hybrid, multi-cloud environments, and the gap grows with every new deployment. Most security teams are governing cloud infrastructure they didn't design and can't fully see. We help organizations build security architectures that match how they actually operate in cloud: pragmatic, controls-oriented, and built to maintain visibility across a growing footprint. Including AI-augmented workloads, which introduce new data exposure and access control challenges most cloud security programs haven't yet addressed.

Is this right for you?
  • You've expanded cloud usage but haven't updated your security architecture to match
  • Your environment spans multiple providers with inconsistent controls
  • You're struggling to maintain visibility across a growing cloud footprint
  • Your security team inherited cloud infrastructure they didn't design
What we do
  • Cloud security architecture and strategy
  • Cloud security posture management (CSPM) program design
  • Identity and access governance in cloud environments
  • Data security and classification in cloud workloads
  • DevSecOps integration and security-as-code enablement
  • Cloud transformation security advisory
Practice 04
Identity & Access Management
Identity is the perimeter. Treat it that way.
PAM IGA Zero Trust DAM

Every major breach of the past decade had an identity component. The right access, to the right resources, at the right time, managed badly, becomes the attack vector. We help organizations build identity programs that treat access as a first-order risk discipline, not an IT helpdesk function. Governance, lifecycle management, privileged access controls, and Zero Trust architecture, built to hold up under audit, under regulatory scrutiny, and under attack. If you're integrating new environments, consolidating post-acquisition, or just closing known gaps in your joiner-mover-leaver process, we've done this before.

Is this right for you?
  • You've experienced a credential-based incident or near-miss
  • Your privileged access is inconsistently managed across environments
  • Your identity lifecycle (joiners, movers, leavers) has known gaps
  • You're integrating new systems and access control is becoming fragmented
What we do
  • Identity and access management strategy and roadmap
  • Privileged access management (PAM) program design
  • Zero Trust identity architecture
  • Identity governance and administration (IGA) program design
  • Digital access management (DAM)
  • Access certification and entitlement reviews
Practice 05
Security Program Management
Strategy without execution is noise. Execution without strategy is risk.
vCISO Board Reporting M&A Security

Most security leaders know what needs to get done. The challenge is building a program that sustains progress across budget cycles, leadership transitions, and a threat landscape that does not pause. We serve as the advisory layer above execution, helping CISOs govern their programs, communicate to boards, and drive coherent security strategy across the enterprise. Cybersecurity strategy is an iterative process. It aligns risk management with organizational objectives and revisits annually, or whenever the threat landscape, regulatory environment, or business objectives shift. How well does your security program map to where your business is going?

Is this right for you?
  • Your CISO is spending too much time on operational issues instead of program strategy
  • You need an independent view of your program's maturity and gaps
  • You're preparing for a board presentation, a leadership transition, or an M&A security review
  • Your security function lacks a documented, multi-year roadmap
What we do
  • CISO advisory and virtual CISO (vCISO) support
  • Security strategy assessment and maturity benchmarking
  • Board and executive security reporting
  • Security roadmap development and prioritization
  • Security policy development and program governance
  • M&A security due diligence and integration planning
Practice 06
Data Security & Privacy
Data is the asset. Privacy is the obligation. Most programs treat them separately.
GDPR CCPA HIPAA DLP

Understanding your data (where it is, why it's important, how it's protected, and who has access) is one of the foundational challenges of modern enterprise security. The regulatory landscape compounds this: GDPR, CCPA, state privacy laws, HIPAA, cross-border data transfer obligations, and sector-specific requirements are creating a compliance environment where security and legal must work from the same framework. We build programs that integrate data security and privacy governance from the start, rather than stitching them together after a breach or regulatory notice.

Is this right for you?
  • You've received a privacy complaint, regulatory inquiry, or data subject request that exposed program gaps
  • Your data security controls were designed before your data classification was current
  • You're expanding into new markets or geographies with different privacy requirements
  • Your security and legal teams are managing data risk in parallel, not in partnership
What we do
  • Data classification and governance frameworks
  • Privacy program design (GDPR, CCPA, state law compliance)
  • Data loss prevention (DLP) strategy and architecture
  • Data security architecture review
  • Insider risk management program design
  • Breach readiness and response planning
Practice 07
Cyber Resilience & Incident Response
Resilience isn't about preventing every attack. It's about surviving the ones you can't.
SEC DORA NIS2 Tabletop BCP/DR

Cyber incidents are not a matter of if. They are a matter of when, and how prepared you are when they arrive. The best time to build your response capability is before you need it. We help organizations develop preparedness, response capabilities, and recovery architecture that minimize the blast radius of an incident and satisfy post-incident scrutiny from regulators, counsel, and the board. Enterprise resilience isn't just about taking a punch. It's about getting up stronger, with an incident response program tested under realistic conditions, not just documented on a shelf.

Is this right for you?
  • You've experienced an incident and your response was slower or less structured than it needed to be
  • Your incident response plan exists on paper but has never been tested under realistic conditions
  • Your board is asking about resilience and business continuity and you don't have a clear answer
  • You have regulatory obligations around incident response and reporting (SEC, DORA, NIS2, HIPAA)
What we do
  • Incident response program design and tabletop exercises
  • Business continuity and disaster recovery program alignment
  • Cyber resilience maturity assessment
  • Ransomware preparedness and recovery planning
  • Breach coach integration and legal coordination frameworks
  • Post-incident review and lessons learned facilitation

Talk to our team.

Optiv Consulting engages with organizations ready to have a substantive conversation about their security program, their risk posture, or a specific challenge they are working to solve.