Ongoing GRC Support
Without Another Full-Time Hire
Ongoing GRC support and fractional GRC services from Forward Security Labs give small and midsize organizations a working governance, risk, and compliance function on a monthly basis, without the salary, recruiting timeline, or overhead of a full-time hire.
Most organizations do not have a governance gap because nobody cares. They have one because the work sits between IT, leadership, sales, finance, and outside auditors, and none of them actually own it. Forward Security Labs provides a dedicated owner for that work.
- Governance
- Risk Register
- Policies and SOPs
- Vendor Risk
- Security Questionnaires
- Evidence Readiness
- Business Continuity
- Incident Response Documentation
Not sure what fractional GRC actually means? Read our practical guide to fractional GRC →
Work performed by Michael Messina, a U.S. Army combat veteran, paramedic and EMS supervisor with 20+ years in emergency healthcare, and holder of a B.S. in Cybersecurity, Cum Laude. Forward Career Labs LLC d/b/a Forward Security Labs. · SBA Certified SDVOSB · Connecticut Veteran-Owned Micro Business Certified · SAM.gov Registered · CAGE: 1AFL4 · UEI: XLRANAT2ULJ9
The work that falls between everyone
Your IT team or MSP keeps systems running. Your leadership sets direction. Your auditor tells you what is missing after the fact. None of that is governance. Governance is the ongoing job of deciding what matters, writing it down, proving it, and keeping it current.
What usually happens
- The risk register was built once for an audit and never touched again
- Policies were downloaded from a template site and never adapted to how the company actually operates
- Security questionnaires land on whoever is least busy that week
- Evidence lives in five inboxes, two drives, and one person’s head
- Continuity and incident response plans exist but have not been read in two years
- Every customer security review turns into a fire drill
What ongoing GRC support covers
- A risk register that is maintained, reviewed, and actually used
- Policies and procedures written for your operations and kept current
- Vendor risk reviews handled on a defined cadence
- Security questionnaires and customer due diligence answered consistently
- Evidence organized before an auditor or customer asks for it
- Continuity and incident response documentation that stays maintained
- A single accountable owner for governance work
GRC Rescue Sprint
$1,500 to $3,500For complex or urgent projects requiring concentrated GRC support. Smaller standalone security questionnaires may be priced separately. This is the easiest way to start working with Forward Security Labs and determine whether ongoing support makes sense for your organization.
Enterprise security questionnaire
A large customer or prospect sent a questionnaire your team does not have time to answer well.
Vendor due diligence response
A partner or client is running diligence on you and expects complete, defensible answers.
Policy and documentation gap
Required policies are missing, outdated, or written for a company that does not resemble yours.
Audit or assessment evidence cleanup
Your auditor or assessor is asking for evidence and it is scattered, stale, or unfindable.
Risk register cleanup
The register exists but it is not usable, not current, and not tied to anything you actually do.
Readiness triage
A customer or framework requirement is coming and you need an honest picture of where you stand.
Each sprint is scoped after a short intake conversation. You receive a written scope, deliverables, and confirmed project price before work begins. Final scope is confirmed in writing before kickoff.
Monthly GRC Support and Fractional GRC Services
Three levels of ongoing GRC support and compliance consulting, priced by the amount of professional capacity reserved for you each month. Every plan is founder-led with direct accountability throughout the engagement.
GRC Core
For smaller organizations that need consistent governance support.
Up to 12 hours per month- Risk register maintenance
- Policy and SOP updates
- Security questionnaire and vendor-risk support within monthly capacity
- Evidence and document organization
- One monthly governance review
- Email support during normal business hours
- Monthly activity summary
GRC Plus
For organizations facing recurring customer, compliance, vendor, or audit demands.
Up to 25 hours per month- Everything in GRC Core
- Control mapping against relevant frameworks such as NIST CSF, NIST SP 800-171, CIS Controls, SOC 2 criteria, or customer requirements where applicable
- Policy and procedure development
- Vendor-risk reviews
- Questionnaire response support
- POA&M and remediation tracking
- Evidence-readiness organization
- Business continuity and incident response documentation maintenance
- Two working sessions per month
- Management-ready monthly status reporting
Fractional GRC & Resilience
For organizations that need an ongoing GRC program owner without hiring a full-time employee.
Up to 45 hours per month- Everything in GRC Plus
- Ongoing GRC program management
- Risk and compliance roadmap management
- Recurring control and evidence reviews
- Vendor-risk program support
- Policy lifecycle management
- Business continuity and incident response program maintenance
- Quarterly tabletop exercise support
- Leadership reporting
- Coordination with MSPs, MSSPs, auditors, consultants, or assessment organizations
- Priority scheduling
Common reasons clients call us
If any of these describe your week, the problem is usually ownership, not effort.
How Ongoing GRC Support Works
Ongoing GRC support follows the same four-step operating cycle whether you start with a sprint or a monthly plan: assess, prioritize, fix, and maintain. The difference is how far past step three we go together.
Assess
Establish what you have, what is required of you, what is missing, and what is actually exposing the business.
Prioritize
Rank the gaps by real risk and by what is blocking revenue, customers, contracts, or renewals right now.
Fix
Do the work. Write the policies, build the register, organize the evidence, answer the questionnaires, close the gaps.
Maintain
Keep it current on a defined cadence so the next audit, customer review, or incident does not restart the whole cycle.
How engagements work
Clear terms up front, so there are no surprises on either side.
Engagement terms
- Monthly engagements carry a three-month minimum unless otherwise stated in writing
- The first month is due before kickoff
- Monthly capacity does not roll over from month to month
- Work materially outside the included capacity or scope is quoted separately before it begins
- Final scope is confirmed in writing before kickoff
- Plans can be changed at renewal as your requirements change
Not included
- Travel and on-site work
- Penetration testing
- Managed SOC or monitoring services
- Legal advice
- Certification assessments
- Major implementation projects
Any of these can be scoped separately or coordinated with a qualified provider.
Authoritative framework resources
Organizations evaluating cybersecurity governance and compliance requirements can review the official NIST Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 and NIST SP 800-171 Rev. 3. Forward Security Labs uses applicable framework requirements as references for client readiness, documentation, risk, and control-mapping work.
Forward Security Labs is an independent consulting firm providing governance, risk, compliance, and readiness support. Forward Security Labs does not perform certification assessments, does not act as a CMMC Third Party Assessment Organization, and does not provide legal advice. Framework references describe the standards client work is aligned to and do not imply certification, accreditation, or endorsement by any framework owner or regulatory body.
Ongoing GRC Support: Common Questions
Straight answers about fractional GRC services, compliance support, audit readiness, risk management, and how Forward Security Labs works with growing organizations.
What is ongoing GRC support?
Ongoing GRC support provides recurring governance, risk, and compliance assistance without requiring a full-time internal hire. Depending on scope, Forward Security Labs can help maintain risk registers, policies and procedures, vendor-risk reviews, security questionnaires, compliance evidence, remediation tracking, business continuity documentation, and incident response documentation.
What does a fractional GRC consultant do?
A fractional GRC consultant provides part-time governance, risk, and compliance capacity to organizations that need consistent ownership but may not need or be ready for a full-time GRC employee. The work can include program coordination, risk management, policy lifecycle management, control mapping, evidence readiness, vendor risk, customer security reviews, and leadership reporting.
What is the difference between fractional GRC support and a vCISO?
Fractional GRC support is centered on the operational governance, risk, compliance, documentation, evidence, and readiness work that keeps a program moving. A vCISO engagement typically emphasizes broader executive security leadership and security strategy. Forward Security Labs focuses on practical GRC and operational resilience work and can coordinate with your existing security leadership, MSP, MSSP, auditor, or other providers.
How much does ongoing GRC support cost?
Forward Security Labs currently offers GRC Core at $2,500 per month for up to 12 hours, GRC Plus at $5,000 per month for up to 25 hours, and Fractional GRC & Resilience at $9,000 per month for up to 45 hours. Organizations can also begin with a GRC Rescue Sprint, typically $1,500 to $3,500 depending on scope and urgency.
Can you help with SOC 2, NIST CSF, NIST SP 800-171, or CMMC readiness?
Yes, where applicable to the engagement. Support can include control mapping, documentation, evidence organization, gap tracking, POA&M and remediation tracking, and readiness work aligned to frameworks or customer requirements such as NIST CSF, NIST SP 800-171, CIS Controls, SOC 2 criteria, and CMMC-related requirements. Forward Security Labs does not perform certification assessments and does not act as a CMMC Third Party Assessment Organization.
Can you manage our cybersecurity risk register and policies?
Yes. Risk register maintenance, policy and SOP updates, policy development, and policy lifecycle management are included within the applicable monthly support plans. The goal is to keep those documents connected to how the organization actually operates rather than treating them as one-time audit artifacts.
Can you help with customer security questionnaires and vendor due diligence?
Yes. Forward Security Labs provides security questionnaire and vendor-risk support within the scope and capacity of the selected engagement. This can include organizing supporting evidence, developing consistent responses, identifying documentation gaps, and helping reduce the recurring fire drills that customer security reviews can create.
Can Forward Security Labs work with our MSP, MSSP, auditor, or IT team?
Yes. Ongoing GRC work often sits between technical providers, internal leadership, sales, operations, and external assessors. Forward Security Labs can coordinate with those parties so governance and compliance work has a clear owner while technical responsibilities remain with the appropriate provider.
Do we need a full-time GRC employee?
Not necessarily. Smaller and midsize organizations often need consistent GRC ownership before they have enough workload to justify another full-time hire. Fractional GRC support provides defined monthly capacity and can scale as customer, contractual, audit, or compliance demands increase.
Can we start with a one-time GRC project?
Yes. The GRC Rescue Sprint is designed for organizations that need a defined project first, such as a security questionnaire, vendor due diligence response, policy gap, evidence cleanup, risk register cleanup, or readiness triage. After the sprint, you can decide whether ongoing monthly GRC support makes sense.
Need one specific thing instead?
Ongoing compliance support is not always the right starting point. These are the individual GRC, cybersecurity readiness, and operational resilience engagements clients most often begin with.
Need one defined policy or evidence work package instead of monthly support? See cybersecurity documentation services.
Stop letting governance wait
for someone to have time.
Start with a GRC Rescue Sprint from $1,500, or go straight to ongoing support from $2,500 per month. Either way, scope, included capacity, pricing, and deliverables are confirmed in writing before work begins.
Questions? michael@forwardsecuritylabs.com
SBA Certified SDVOSB · Connecticut Veteran-Owned Micro Business Certified · SAM.gov Registered · CAGE: 1AFL4 · UEI: XLRANAT2ULJ9