Ownership, priorities, and delivery cadence are active.
What changes
Know what needs fixing and who owns it.
We help your team find the important issues, make decisions about them, and keep track of the work.
Know what matters
Each important issue has an explanation, an owner, and a next step.
Help engineers act
Engineers get review points and guidance they can use while the work is still underway.
Answer customer questions
Keep the evidence customers and auditors ask for in one place and up to date.
See what changed
Leaders can see which risks were addressed and which decisions still need them.
Core services
How we can help.
Bring us in for a focused test, a problem your engineers are facing, or ongoing product security leadership.
Fractional Product Security vCISO
Senior product security leadership without a full-time executive hire. We set priorities with your team and stay involved as the work gets done.
Explore Product Security vCISO- Program strategy & roadmap
- Executive and board communication
- Risk ownership & governance
- Security team coaching
Application Security Consulting
We review how your team designs, builds, and releases software, then help fix the gaps that keep producing vulnerabilities.
Explore Application Security- AppSec program design & maturity
- Threat modeling & architecture review
- Secure code review & remediation
- CI/CD, tooling & developer enablement
Secure Vibe Coding vCISO
Set rules for what coding tools can see, what agents can change, and how generated code gets reviewed and released.
Explore Secure Vibe Coding vCISO- Tool, model & data use rules
- Repository, secret & access controls
- Risk based review & delivery gates
- Exceptions, metrics & oversight
Penetration Testing
Human-led SaaS web app and API testing, with a clear scope and findings your team can reproduce and fix. Other systems can be included when needed.
Explore Penetration Testing- Web application & API testing
- Mobile, cloud & network testing
- Authentication & business-logic abuse
- Clear reporting & executive brief
Bug Bounty Program & Triage
We help set up the reporting rules and intake process, then check incoming reports for validity, duplicates, and impact.
Explore Bug Bounty Services- Program scope, policy & intake design
- Launch and researcher workflow
- Report validation & deduplication
- Severity context & engineering handoff
AI & Connected Product Security
We assess AI features, devices, and the services around them for security issues that cross system boundaries.
- AI and LLM abuse-case testing
- IoT, embedded & hardware interfaces
- Mobile, backend & ecosystem attack paths
- Product threat and safety analysis
Customer & Compliance Readiness
Gather the product security evidence customers and auditors ask for, and fix the gaps it exposes.
- Customer assurance package
- Control and framework mapping
- Security questionnaire system
- Incident readiness exercises
For ongoing engagements
From first review to day-to-day ownership.
For ongoing security leadership, we work in four stages. A focused test or review uses a shorter plan built around its scope.
Your first 90 days
What the first three months can look like.
This is an example plan for ongoing work. We adjust it to your team and product.
Baseline and decide
Agree on the issues worth addressing first and who will own them.
- Stakeholder and architecture discovery
- Product security maturity baseline
- Top-risk validation and ownership
- Program charter and decision rights
Leadership agrees on the top risks, owners, and funded priorities for the next 90 days.
Build and enable
Add security reviews and controls to the way the team already builds software.
- Launch design and threat-model reviews
- Define security gates and exceptions
- Create remediation service levels
- Coach engineering security champions
Teams know when to ask for a review, who can accept risk, and which patterns they can reuse.
Review and adjust
Check what improved, where evidence is missing, and what comes next.
- Publish the executive scorecard
- Exercise incident decision-making
- Assemble customer assurance evidence
- Reset the next quarterly roadmap
The team has current evidence, a regular review schedule, and a list of priorities for the next quarter.
Ways to engage
Choose the work you need done.
Start with one assessment or ask us to help run the program. We agree on scope and deliverables after a short call.
Foundation Sprint
6-week engagement
A six-week review of your product security program, with priorities your team can use.
- Product security maturity baseline
- Prioritized product risk register
- Program charter and ownership model
- Executive-ready 90-day roadmap
- Final leadership working session
Fractional Product vCISO
Monthly partnership
For teams that need a senior product security lead to set priorities and stay involved as the work gets done.
- Everything in the Foundation Sprint
- Embedded leadership and coaching
- Weekly delivery and monthly executive reviews
- Secure product lifecycle rollout
- Customer and board assurance support
AppSec Accelerator
Project or ongoing support
For engineering teams that need help with a specific security workflow or an AppSec program that is not working well.
- AppSec maturity and workflow review
- Threat-model and design-review process
- Testing and CI/CD strategy
- Secure coding guidance and coaching
- Metrics and operating playbook
Penetration Test
Scoped assessment
A scoped, human-led test of a SaaS product, web app, or API before a release, customer review, or architecture decision.
- Collaborative scoping and threat focus
- Manual testing and attack-path analysis
- Evidence-rich technical findings
- Executive impact briefing
- Remediation guidance and scoped retesting
Bug Bounty Program & Triage
Launch project or ongoing triage
For teams starting a disclosure or bounty program, or sorting through reports they already receive.
- Scope, policy, intake, and escalation design
- Launch readiness and researcher workflow
- Reproduction, duplicate, and scope checks
- Severity context and remediation handoff
- Queue and program health reporting
Secure Vibe Coding vCISO
Focused rollout or monthly oversight
For teams using coding assistants or agents that need sensible rules for data, access, review, and release.
- Tool, model, data, and repository risk baseline
- Approved use and secure coding guardrails
- Secrets, permissions, dependency, and pipeline controls
- Human review and exception workflow
- Leadership metrics and ongoing oversight
Need a different kind of review? Tell us what you are building and what you need to know.
Built-in accountability
Keep the work moving after kickoff.
For ongoing engagements, we set a meeting schedule that fits your team. Each check-in ends with a decision, an owner, or a next step.
Delivery pulse
Check what is stuck, confirm owners, and agree on the next actions.
Product risk review
Decide which product risks need work and which can be accepted.
Executive scorecard
Review open risks, customer commitments, and decisions that need leadership support.
Strategy reset
Review what changed in the product and set priorities for the next quarter.
Why Specters
What you can expect from us.
We test the real attack paths
We look past scanner counts and explain what someone could actually do with a weakness.
We work with your product team
Recommendations account for your architecture, release process, and customer commitments.
We explain the decisions
Leaders get a plain account of the risk, the available options, and who needs to act.
How is a product security vCISO different from a traditional vCISO?
A product security vCISO focuses on the security of what you build and sell: product architecture, software delivery, engineering practices, abuse cases, vulnerability management, and customer assurance. We still connect that work to enterprise risk and executive governance.
Do you replace our internal security or engineering team?
No. We work with your existing teams to set priorities, fill gaps, and help the people who own the work move it forward.
Can we start with a fixed project before an ongoing engagement?
Yes. The Foundation Sprint is designed for that. It produces a baseline, risk register, ownership model, and 90-day roadmap that your team can run independently or continue with us.
Do you help with SOC 2, ISO 27001, or customer questionnaires?
Yes, where those needs intersect with product security. We map existing work to control expectations, close product-related evidence gaps, and build reusable assurance materials. We do not act as your certification auditor.
Does secure vibe coding mean banning AI coding tools?
No. We help your team use coding assistants and agents with clear rules for approved tools, sensitive data, credentials, permissions, code review, testing, dependencies, and release. The goal is faster delivery with accountable controls.
What happens in the first call?
We spend 30 minutes understanding your product, business trigger, team, and desired outcome. If there is a fit, we send a concise recommended scope and first-90-day outline.
Start with clarity
Tell us what you need help with.
A few sentences about your product and timing are enough to start. We will suggest a sensible first scope.
Email directly [email protected] Book a 30-minute callPlease share your scope by form or email before the call. Booking asks for your name and email only.