About the practice
Your IT help desk and cyber insurance readiness partner, based in Gilbert.
Valley CISO · by CyberDefenseDesk LLC
Austin Thompson founded Valley CISO and runs every engagement personally. The credentials below are his.
Valley CISO is the managed IT practice of CyberDefenseDesk LLC, serving Gilbert, Arizona, plus Santa Ynez, Solvang, and Buellton, California, with on-site available through our local technician. The help desk is $200 a month — one place your team sends every computer, email, printer, and Wi-Fi problem. For $250 a month we also keep the security controls your cyber insurance carrier asks about in place, documented, and ready for your renewal.
Small businesses keep getting handed enterprise security advice they cannot afford and cannot act on, then get blindsided at insurance renewal by questions nobody prepared them for. This practice exists to close that gap.
Every engagement is run by the person who does the analysis. There is no account manager, no junior analyst rewriting a scanner export, and no 80-page PDF you will never read. You get findings a working owner can act on, ranked by what actually reduces risk first.
Day-to-day work is remote and scheduled during Arizona business hours, which keeps the price honest. On-site visits are available in Gilbert, Arizona. In Santa Ynez, Solvang, and Buellton, California: on-site available through our local technician.
About the founder
Austin Thompson
Founder, Valley CISO · U.S. Coast Guard veteran
Austin Thompson is the founder of Valley CISO in Gilbert, AZ. A U.S. Coast Guard veteran (2016–2024), he has more than four years of experience in threat hunting and security operations center (SOC) work. Austin holds an M.S. in Cybersecurity and Information Assurance from Western Governors University (WGU, 2025) and a B.S. in Information Technology from the University of Phoenix. His certifications include CompTIA SecurityX (CASP+), CySA+, and PenTest+, and ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity (CC).
Credentials
MS, Cybersecurity & Information Assurance — WGU, 2025
Graduate work in risk management, governance, and secure architecture — the exact vocabulary insurers and auditors use.
BS, Information Technology — University of Phoenix
The infrastructure foundation behind the security work: networks, identity, systems administration.
CompTIA CySA+
Cybersecurity analyst certification covering threat detection, log analysis, and incident response.
CompTIA PenTest+
Offensive testing certification — useful for judging which findings an attacker would actually use.
CompTIA SecurityX (CASP+)
Advanced practitioner certification for enterprise security architecture and risk decisions.
ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity (CC)
Foundational ISC2 certification covering security principles, access control, network security, and security operations.
Want to talk it through?
Twenty minutes, no pitch deck. Bring the questionnaire or the problem you are stuck on.
Book a call