Take Charge of Your Cybersecurity

Before comparing features, it is worth being clear about the cost landscape. The options available to a small advisory firm range from free PDFs to $5,000-per-month managed services.

H2Cyber costs $14.99 per month.

That is not a promotional claim. The adjacent options in the market cost one to two orders of magnitude more. Some of that cost buys things a small firm genuinely needs. Some of it buys things that were built for much larger organizations and do not translate.

The sections below are intended to help you place H2Cyber honestly relative to each alternative.

External surface scanners check what is visible from the internet: open ports, TLS certificate validity, exposed subdomains, and similar technical signals. They are a useful first look.

They cannot see inside your firm. They do not know whether employees use multi-factor authentication on email, whether company devices have endpoint protection software installed, or whether your firm has a written policy for what happens when a device is lost. Those are the controls that regulators and cyber insurers specifically ask about.

H2Cyber covers internal controls through guided self-assessment. It asks about the things an examiner would ask about, not just the things visible from outside.

RIA compliance platforms are built around the breadth of what a registered investment adviser must track: ADV filings, books and records, trading policies, supervision requirements, and much more. They are comprehensive for what they do.

Cybersecurity is one section within a much larger platform. These tools do not produce a scored cybersecurity assessment, do not drill down into the 56 specific controls that cyber insurers and regulators focus on, and do not give you a letter grade or a prioritized remediation list.

If you use one of these platforms, H2Cyber complements it by going deep on the specific cyber piece.

A virtual CISO is a senior security professional engaged part-time, typically at $2,000 to $8,000 per month. The right call for firms that have covered the basics and need strategic guidance, security roadmap development, or board-level reporting.

H2Cyber is the step before you need a vCISO. It covers the 56 controls that define a defensible baseline for a small firm. Once those are addressed and documented, you will know clearly what a vCISO would find when they arrived, and whether the engagement is worth the cost.

This is the most honest description of where most small firms are. They have taken reasonable steps and have not had an incident. The urgency is not obvious.

Three things tend to make it urgent: a regulatory exam notice, a cyber insurance renewal with new questions, or a client incident at another firm that brings the topic up.

The H2Cyber self-assessment is quick, and you can do it at your own pace. The result is a letter grade and a clear list of what to address. If the grade is strong, you have documentation that shows it. If it is not, you know specifically what to fix before the exam notice or the renewal arrives.